So have you bought a new computer at home for yourself and for your kids? Your computer is sure going to be useful to you and your family. You can now use your computer to store important data, work on reports and much much more. Your children can now surf the internet, play games and learn new tools and software programs. By purchasing a computer you open the world to the big bad world of the internet. Why is the internet a big bad world? The internet can prove to be a big bad world for you if you don’t take care to protect your computer from internet threats. In fact the internet is the most comprehensive source of information available at the click of the button today. You can search for diverse topics. You can use the internet to access your bank accounts, to join newsgroups, to entertain yourselves, listen to music and even watch movies. You can even use the internet to speak to people at low costs through VOIP (Voice over Transmission Protocol) all over the world. There are very few boundaries associated with the internet.

But, you should be wary of all the threats that the internet can invite to your computer. First of all let’s talk a little about computer viruses. A computer virus is a software program written by a person which can prove to be a threat to the security of your computer. It gains access to your computer through programs downloaded from the internet and even from seemingly harmless emails. It can delete all your important files after it loads itself on the system or it can just make your hard disk unusable. It can disable your important device drivers and can do hundreds of other damaging things to your computer. The software program (or computer virus) spreads rapidly through the internet and can invade thousands of computers a minute.

The best solution against virus invasion is the installation of good antivirus software. Norton Antivirus by Symantec proves to be one of the better paid antivirus solutions. It provides tight security in comparison to some of the other antivirus softwares and also updates itself regularly. The other important software you can use to protect your computer is installing a firewall. A firewall restricts unauthorized access to your computer by people on the internet who are constantly on the lookout for open ports on computers. In addition, if you use the internet to make purchases with your credit card, make sure you are using a trusted and secure site. Secured sites conduct financial transactions using secure software like Verisign so that your private information cannot be viewed by unauthorized people.

When using services or programs that use passwords, always use passwords that are difficult to guess by others. Do not ever open unauthorized emails as they might be harmful to your computer. Unauthorized or unsolicited mails are the most common path to spreads a virus through the internet.

When you visit some sites, a spyware program maybe installed on your computer automatically by those sites. A spyware program is a program that collects all information on your computer including private information that can then be made known to unauthorized people. Using an anti-spyware program like Spyware Blocker or Ad-Aware comes in handy. These programs work to prevent spyware from automatically installing on your computer in the first place. You must also delete your cookies regularly. A cookie is a small file that is automatically installed on your computer and it accesses the information on your computer including the web sites that you have visited and sends all information back to people who need access to that information.

If you use a little care, you can provide some protection to you and your computer. However, the only way to completely eliminate any threats is not to go online in the first place. I don’t think that is a viable option in today’s world. Good luck!

Identity theft is a problem that has grown in intensity over the past couple of years. Indeed, large credit card companies and banks have had their systems invaded and millions of people have been put at risk. The thing that you should really keep in mind is that if companies are vulnerable to hackers, then why isn’t your computer? After all, the best hackers invade the best systems.

But there is a lot of money to be made attacking computers just like yours and stealing all of your financial and personal information and it is happening to people like you and I every single day.
Have you thought about computer security at all? Most likely not. Many unsuspecting individuals believe that computer hackers only hack into corporations and rich people. This is far from the truth.

Spyware roots around your hard drive and absorbs any personal information. Spyware tends to bog down your system and put your personal information up for anyone to take advantage of. You can purchase anti-spyware of download it for free from browers and software providers. It is great idea to add anti-spyware software to your computer security plan. Anti virus programs are available in many different types and prices as well, so make sure that you first do your homework to determine which type would be best for you.

So beware. Computer security does not involve just warding off bad hackers. Every day your computer is susceptible to threats regarding your computer system and the information you store on your computer. Don’t care about identity theft? Why not? What about the amount of time and money you have put into your computer? If your computer has a virus it can destroy your memory and hard drive causing you to lose all your information.

Your computer will be an simple target if you dont’ have a security system. Your unprotected computer will eventually fall prey to a computer virus. A computer virus can be catastrophic. To avoid the hassels and crippling effects of a computer virus, you need to set up a security system on your computer. Make sure that you have a firewall installed.

A firewall can screen information from the Internet and check to make sure it is not harmful to your computer. If the firewall determines that the information is harmful then it will block it. A firewall should be the first component of your computer security plan. The next thing to do is to set up anti-virus software on your computer system. The Internet is home to dishonest people that will rob you of your information and use it for their own gain. Protect yourself against these hackers and conartists by having an effective, robust computer security system. Do it now.

Anti-virus software provides tools that will thwart anything that accidently passed your firewall. Hackers have been known to break into the computers and use them as a clone computer. Don’t let this happen to you or your friends.
It is imperative that you have a secure computer, especially in this highly technical computer age.

Now that most people use the internet these days, it is a very good idea to make sure that you have good quality computer security software installed and protecting your computer. Anti virus software, anti spyware software and having a hardware or software firewall are now essential for everyone using a computer and here is an explanation why this is so.

Anti Virus software protects your computer from virus threats that can contaminate your computer and can slow down your computer, damage your files or even damage your computers hard drive requiring you to reformat your hard drive and needing to reinstall your operating system in order to get things back to normal. So as you can see anti virus software is an essential thing to have if you want to keep your computer healthy and free from viruses.

It is not enough just to install the anti virus software however, you will also need to keep it up to date in order to protect your computer from new anti virus threats, fortunately this is easy to do as most anti virus software programs let you update their anti virus files over the internet.

So what is anti spyware software exactly? Well anti spyware software is another kind of security program which protects your computer against all kinds of undesirables, such as spyware, keystroke loggers, malware, tracking cookies, dialers, trojans and unwanted commercial software. All of these things should be removed from your computer so that your computer security is not compromised. A good quality antispyware software program will protect your identity from unscrupulous people, hackers and fraudsters so that you can have peace of mind.

A computer firewall is either a software program or a hardware device which only allows authorised users to access your computer system and stops all unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the internet or a network. So a firewall stops malicious users from accessing your system and this is absolutely essential if you use the internet, especially if you have an always on broadband connection on your computer. So which is better to have a software firewall or a hardware firewall? Well a software firewall will give you good firewall protection, but the absolute best firewall to have is a hardware one because this is even harder to get past for a malicious user.

So in summary, if you do not already have an antivirus program, an anti spyware program and a firewall, then you really should look into getting these things as they will save you a lot of hassle and worry in the future.

Tips and recommendations for protecting your PC…

Most of us don’t make a real difference between worm, virus and Trajan Horse or refer to a worm or Trajan Horse as a virus.

All of us know all are malicious programs that can cause very serious damage to PC. Exist differences among the three, and knowing those differences can help you to better protect your computer from their often damaging effects.

A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Some viruses cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files. Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. A virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going. People continue the spread of a computer virus, mostly unknowingly, by sharing infecting files or sending e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail.

A worm is a program or algorithm that replicates itself. A worm has the capability to travel without any help from a person from PC to PC and have ability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect.

A Trojan Horse is a destructive program that “working” as a benign application ( (like changing your desktop, adding silly active desktop icons) or can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system. Trojans are also known to create a back door on your computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

Added into the mix, we also have what is called a blended threat. Blended threats combine the characteristics of viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, and malicious code with server and Internet vulnerabilities. By using multiple methods and techniques, blended threats can rapidly spread and cause widespread damage. Characteristics of blended threats include: causes harm, propagates by multiple methods, attacks from multiple points, and exploits vulnerabilities. This combination of method and techniques means blended threats can spread quickly and cause widespread damage. Characteristics of blended threats include: causes harm, propagates by multiple methods, attacks from multiple points and exploits vulnerabilities. They are considered to be the worst risk to security since the inception of viruses, as most blended threats require no human intervention to propagate.

Therefore is very important to protect your PC with a good anti-virus software installed on your system with the latest fixes for new viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.

Additionally, you want to make sure your anti-virus program has the ability to scan e-mail and files as they are downloaded from the Internet. This will help prevent malicious programs from even reaching your computer. You should also install a a system that prevents unauthorized use and access to your computer (firewall as well). A good software firewall will protect your computer from outside attempts to control or gain access your computer, and usually provides additional protection against the most common Trojan programs or e-mail worms.

Computer Viruses are one of the biggest “bogeyman” of the Internet, and with attacks by Melissa, ILoveYou, Nimda, and Michelangelo, there are damage estimates and virus warnings all over the Internet. But what are they really?

A virus is a program that spreads to other computers. Like all forms of malware, it both runs without the user’s knowledge or permission and it can interfere with other programs that are trying to run on the same computer. Some viruses also carry a payload, like ticking time bombs. On a given date, or after a certain time after the computer is infected, the virus will “trigger.” This trigger can damage files, erase drives, or attack other systems over the Internet.

Viruses have two major goals. First, they need to be run and installed on the infected computer, and two, they need to spread to other computers. And they need to meet these two goals without alerting the owner of the computer.

There are a wide variety of ways for a virus to infect a system. Many early viruses used the “boot sector” of a floppy disk as their infection point. If the user powered on the computer with an infected floppy disk in the drive, the computer would try to boot from the floppy. The virus would infect the system, but make it look like the computer had tried to boot from a blank floppy disk. The virus met both goals at the same time, because every time a new disk was inserted into the drive, the virus would put another copy of itself into the boot sector. Today, floppy disks are far less common, and boot sector viruses have all but disappeared.

One of the most common infection routes today is by email attachment. Many viruses today will even search the address book and send out emails without the owner’s knowledge.

On April 26, 1999, systems around the world began dying. Something was both damaging information on hard drives and damaging their BIOS chips. Investigation turned up the CIH Virus, later known as Chernobyl because it was released on the anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor explosion.

The CIH virus somehow found it’s way onto a set of IBM Aptiva PC’s sold to Activision in March of 1999. Every copy of their latest game, SIN, came bundled with a bonus copy of the CIH virus.

When it infects a system, the virus actually squeezes into empty spaces in operating system files. CIH was sometimes known as the Spacefiller virus for this ability.

When the virus triggered, the first thing it did was to overwrite the first megabyte of the hard drive with zeroes. That area of the hard drive is critical, because that’s where the partition information is usually stored.

Once the hard drive was hit, the virus would then turn to the BIOS chip.

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. The BIOS chip is the ROM, or Read Only Memory, of the computer. Without the BIOS, the computer would forget how to “talk” to the other hardware in the computer, like the keyboard and hard drives.

Normally, the BIOS is read-only. But by 1999, BIOS manufacturers had switched to chips that could be “flashed,” or reprogrammed. The CIH virus tried to use this ability to erase the BIOS.

In effect, the virus would try to kill the computer, first by making the hard drive unreadable, and then by making sure the system wouldn’t boot without a new BIOS chip. Fortunately, due to a bug, the program only knew how to erase one brand of chips.

CIH was still damaging computers in Asia a year after it first triggered, and several viruses have been released that try to infect systems with newer versions of CIH.

The motivation behind hackers has actually developed visibly over the last number of years. Establishing harmful viruses is less concerning “boasting rights” or satisfying the designer’s vanity and also is ending up being increasingly more about creating earnings or commercial return.

The destruction of data on your computer or corruption of programs you utilize is a typical side impact as well as what people have typically related to a computer infection. The reformatting of your computer “c: drive”, especially at work, and the loss of important data used to be an unbelievably agonizing experience.

The extensive deployment of information back up remedies within firms to adhere to regulations as well as other variables suggests much less and less useful information is currently saved on your computer’s neighborhood hard disk drive. Much more importantly for the infection writer this strike does not create much substantial revenue so there is not much inspiration to establish extra innovative programs to counter enhanced anti infection applications and also company network security.

Nonetheless, there is profit for the virus writer consequently your computer right into a spam distribution equipment. “Spam” is e-mail sent out without the consent of the individual receiving the message. Cyberpunks acquire control of your computer via a Trojan Steed which gives them the very same access rights as the user. Once your computer system is regulated by the hacker it ends up being recognized as a “Zombie.” A group of zombie makers is called a “botnet.”.

By regulating a botnet a hacker can produce earnings in a number of methods. The botnet can be used to exhort a ransom money from a business by intimidating launch a destructive “Distributed Denial of Solution” (DDoS) assault versus its internet website. The botnet can additionally be employed out to other cyberpunks.

One of the most typical way of making money from a botnet is to use it to send out spam e-mail. According to the protection software business Sophos over 50% of all spam email currently originates from botnets. Cyberpunks utilize spam email to drive web traffic to pay per click advertising sites or distribute infection programs further. Making use of a zombie computer assists cover their tracks.

The drive for generating earnings is clearly evident in a new form of infection referred to as “Ransomware” by safety experts which began to appear in 2005. Ransomware, as the name suggests, holds information on your computer system “hostage.” Data on your hard disk are encrypted with a password. The user is after that gotten in touch with and asked to pay a ransom money to release the data.

Here are some basic pointers and also techniques to aid stop your computer system developing into a “Zombie.”.

– Keep your computer system as much as date with the current software program patches for Windows as well as various other Microsoft programs. The majority of infections as well as various other malware exploit susceptabilities in commonly previously owned programs.
– Set up a credible anti virus program. Maintain the meanings approximately date and check your computer system consistently.
– Set up a personal firewall or purchase a router with a hardware firewall software. Preferably you need a firewall program option which filters both inbound and also outgoing traffic from your computer to the internet.
– Never open spam e-mail or linked email add-ons which is often utilized to distribute infection programs. Make use of a spam filter to assist decrease the quantity of spam you obtain.