PC Security
Behavior to Stay Safer Online
By
Sako Karalekian
1. Importance of a Virus Scanner:
A Antivirus program can help to prevent
you from becoming infected with a Virus
or Trojan. It is extremely important to
make sure this program is updated at least
once a week, and all drives are scanned.
Viruses usually are used to destroy your
Data or Hardware. Where as Trojans are used
to gain remote access into your system.
Always scan any new files you receive as
well, even if they are off a friend, you
don't know where those files originated
from. ALWAYS use a little common sense when
on the Internet as well. Don't accept files
from an entrusted source. Don't go to web
sites you have received spam for, they can
be infected with viruses or asking you to
download files that are infected. Always
go only to official sites (i.e... If you
ask for a web address for Norton and someone
says ww.nortfix.com, that is obviously not
an official site). Keep in mind that an
Antivirus will only detect known viruses.
It is possible that someone can create a
new virus or manipulate an existing Virus
or Trojan to the point it will no longer
be detected by an Antivirus. As each unknown
virus is discovered it is then added into
the Antivirus database. Always create rescue
disks for your Antivirus program, these
will enable you to access your computer
through MS-DOS if you are unable to access
it through windows. If you do not have an
Antivirus program try the HouseCall free
online virus scan the link if on the top
right side of this page. Also never run
2 different Antivirus . By using two different
Antivirus software, sometimes the rule sets
can cause conflicts in each other.. or think
the other is a virus.. which can also give
false positives (meaning it detects a file
as a Virus or Trojan, when it isn't one)..
or not detect viruses as it should. Always
delete files you do not remember downloading.
2. Importance of a Trojan scanner:
A Trojan scanner is exclusively designed
to guard against Trojan horses. A Trojan
is a method of intrusion into a system.
It is a malicious, security breaking program
that is disguised as something harmless.
A Trojan can grant complete access to your
system to unknown parties, allowing them
to commit criminal offenses with your Internet
connection. If those offenses are investigated
the trail will lead right to you. It also
possible for them to get personal or business
data and some passwords memorized within
your computer. The Cleaner is a good Trojan
scanner located on www.moosoft.com. Never
open any file or download a file off an
entrusted source, spammed web sites being
one of them. It is very common for someone
to set up a web site, then spam that web
site saying you are infected with some virus
or Trojan download this fix, or saying they
have some great password cracking program,
etc. Then you fall for it and your infected.
Never use any war tools that require you
to install something that brings up a warning
on your Antivirus, why not to do this will
be explained more on the IRC Newbie page.
Always delete files you do not remember
downloading.
3. Importance of running a Firewall:
A Firewall is one of your best defenses
of being hacked. That is if your using a
good Firewall and have it configured right.
ZoneAlarm free download is a decent Firewall.
Although I would recommend ZoneAlarm Pro,
which blocks a lot of commonly used hacking
attempts. Another one I would not recommend
is BlackIce, if you see that one run like
there is no tomorrow (gives a lot of false
positives). Ultimately though I would recommend
running at least one Firewall, even if your
computer is connected behind a gateway/router.
When looking into firewalls it is a good
idea to check what features it has. While
one may block a number of hacking attempts,
it may not block ads or cookies. Make sure
to get all the details before deciding on
a Firewall to purchase.
Also if you on Windows XP you can configure
the Firewall they have built into it, go
to start menu ... control panel ..... click
network connections ..... double click local
area connections ..go to properties ...
then select the advanced tab. There you
will find the XP Firewall and can enable
it. You can also click on the link they
provide to learn more about it. Never run
2 firewalls unless one is a software and
the other a hardware. Security threats such
as those dealing on the application level
(your Operating System).. software Firewall
can analyze that data better. Whereas hardware
better analyzes incoming data from the Internet
(snifters, etc.). If you have your own server..
good idea to choose a good one of each (hardware
and software). If I am not running a Firewall
but would like to see what connections my
computer has open how do I do that? Simply
go to your start menu under programs or
programs/accessories you will find the MS-DOS
prompt/Command prompt once you have that
open type the command "netstat -an"
without the quotations. There is will list
the protocol of the connection TCP/UDP,
the local address and foreign address, as
well as the state which will show either
as listening or established. Keep in mind
that any connection to the Internet will
show up there.
4. Importance of Windows Updates:
It is extremely important to update windows.
If you are not sure how to, just go to your
start menu, then to programs you will see
Windows Update there. Windows critical updates
are related to security issues within Windows
itself. These security issues can be exploited
by hackers, these issues can also cause
you to get infected easier with a virus
if you are a Outlook Express user. As vulnerabilities
are detected in Windows critical updates
are released for them.
Always be sure
to update Windows on a regular basis.
5. Safer Passwords: Never have
Windows remember your passwords. If you
ever do get an intruder on your system passwords
saved in Windows can be retrieved. Instead
what I recommend is saving all your passwords
to notepad then saving them on a floppy
disk. A simple copy and paste to use your
passwords for any sites you visit, or accounts
you may have online. Never use simple passwords
such as names of places, things or people.
Also do not use passwords that consist of
either all letters or all numbers. The best
passwords to have should have a combination
of letters and numbers(e.g. g74npw2m5),
when possible, use symbols (e.g. #^&%!).
If the password is case sensitive, then
use upper and lower case . Also make sure
that the letters and numbers you use are
not in clusters on your keyboard (within
same general area on keyboard). Make your
passwords longer then you may normally make
them. Doing this will make any passwords
you have harder for an outside party to
crack. Apply this to anything you do on
the Internet that requires a password. This
one I speak from experience on, my last
website on a free host, the password was
cracked and the content of those pages changed.
For many things available on the Internet
you require Username and a password, if
someone knows your Username or can figure
it out, that is half their battle. So make
the other half of their battle as difficult
as possible. On Irc including characters
in your passwords such as ¤, å, ¥, § ,etc...
will help even more, to make your passwords
harder to crack. Never use any of the following
for your passwords (in whole or part): your
name or a pet's name, girlfriend, boyfriend.
Anything relating to any hobbies you have.
Numbers dealing with you, relatives, friends,
family, etc. (birthdays ,Social Insurance
Number, significant dates, etc.). All of
this can and WILL come back to haunt you.
6. What is Spyware?: Software
that is installed on your computer/or a
virus, which gathers information about you
without your consent or knowledge of it.
This information can end up in the hands
of advertisers, spam e-mail lists, and other
interested parties. It can gather information
from cookies on your computer. Cookies can
store information about websites you have
visited, to develop a general idea of your
online activity. Cookies generally store
information such as preferences from websites,
and they are stored on the hard drive of
your computer. If your not comfortable with
the idea of someone getting any information
about your online activities, as most people
are. There are programs out there that can
be used for either removing cookies from
sites you have visited as well as programs
that will detect and remove known spyware
programs. Lavasoft Ad-aware is a good program
for removing spyware programs. Window Washer
is an excellent program for removing a lot
of your online history (cookies/temp Internet
files... etc...). For people who use Kazaa,
don't be surprised if that shows up on an
Ad-aware scan, It will. Once you remove
the spyware detected, Kazaa will fail to
work without it. A suggestion for future
use, switch to Kazaa Lite.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Spy Scanners – Don’t Compromise your
Privacy
By Gina Capatar
Spies, spyware, internet parasites are
among what they are usually called. These
are scouts that monitor your web activities.
The work undercover to check on your surfing
patterns, spending habits, items bought,
they extract email addresses, hijack browsers,
steal credit card information. These are
just some of the things a spyware is capable
of.
A spyware is mainly an information hungry
parasite determined to gather data from
a user or surfer without him knowing it.
The information gathered by these parasites
are then sent to the originator without
the users consent. Most often, the information
gathered by the spyware are used to generate
ads and pop-ups on the user’s PC.
Spywares and Adwares aside from being
a nuisance and an invasion of privacy can
also jeopardize the optimal performance
of your PC. They can eat up unused disk
spaces and position themselves in an inconspicuous
location in your hard drive. They can also
eat the bandwidth, crash your system and
oftentimes inflict themselves in the Registry
or in the memory of your computer.
Spyware and Adwares have become very
rampant nowadays. Prevent yourself from
being a victim of these by:
* Being careful of Freeware and Shareware
Downloads
- Some of these downloads are tagged
with spywares which may be unknown to the
user. Refrain from downloading sharewares
and freewares from unknown sources.
* Installing a good spyware/adware scanner
and removal software
- There are a number of spyware scanner
and/or removal softwares in the market today.
A good spyware scanner can effectively locate
all spywares installed on your PC and a
good spyware removal tool can effectively
remove all the spywares detected.
Spy Scanners are programs designed to
detect spies in your PC. A good spy scanner
can effectively search through the most
unnoticeable embedded files that spy on
you.
Most Spy scanners include a spyware removal
function. Other spy scanners do not entail
spyware removal features but display the
logs of the spyware detected in your PC.
The information in the logs contains the
location and nature of the spywares.
For spy scanners with no built-in spyware
removal functions, a manual deletion of
the spyware files could also be done since
the location and the file type is specified
in the logs. Some Spy scanner products on
the market today have spyware scan available
for non-paying users and the removal tool
available only for paying users.
Spy Scanners when installed can be chosen
to run on demand or periodically.
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Gina Marie Capatar is a Technical Writer
by profession and writes articles for www.isnare.com,
also accepts freelance writing jobs. feel
free to drop by www.isnare.com or email
her at gcapatar@gmail.com
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Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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