Tag Archives: code
The Tell-Tale Signs That Your Computer May Have Become Infected With A Virus
November 27th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
These days most people use their computers on a fairly regular basis. I would even go as so far to say that most people may be on their computers for at least up to an hour a day. That figure would be people that are using the computer strictly for recreational purposes only. We would have to add to that figure if we included people who are using their computer for work and play. It has become the center of our entertainment and work place universe, so most people get to know their machines very intimately. When you use any kind of tool on a regular basis you start to get a feel when something is wrong with it. You may not be able to tell what is exactly wrong but you may have a gut feeling that things are not right. Viral Infection When it comes to using your computer there are signs that it may be infected by a virus without running a virus scanner. Lets go over a couple of those signs. Keep in mind that this is not a surefire list that will reveal a virus on your system. Some viruses are sneaky and do their best to make sure that you do not know that they are on your system. They want to be able to collect data or use your computer resources without you knowing about it. That is why it is still a good ideal to run an antivirus scanner on a regular basis, with or without signs of foul play. Others times some of these signs that I am about to mention may show up but there is no infection on the computer. There may be a program running that you do not know about or a problem with the hardware. Signs Of An Infection Either way the signs that we are going to discuss are just that, signs. They in no way mean that you definitely have a virus. It means that you should do a quick scan with an antivirus program because there is a possibility that you may have a bug in your system. The first sign that you may have a virus or other infection in your system is that you might have a lot of activity going on in your Internet connection. Your computer connects to the Internet and your home network a lot in the process of everyday computing. Most of the time it is connecting for things that you do not know about but they are of a legit purpose. It may connect to the ISP to update its status or it may be even talking to your router to pull information from it. So just because you are not actively browsing the web and you see the light become active does not mean something is automatically wrong. The time to be worried that something is wrong is if the Internet light that you have on your router is going crazy all day long. If there is a constant sending of data packets out your computer and your browser is not open, now it may be time to be concerned. Slow Responses Another sign that you may have an infection on your system is when at certain times your computer may slow to a crawl while you are using it. This is especially noticeable after you start up the computer and only have certain programs open and you are not actively using them. If there is nothing running on your computer, and yet it is still moving very slowly, then there may be a good chance that there is an infection somewhere on your computer. You can click cntrl-alt-del and call up the task manager to see if you can pinpoint the problem. If there is a task taking up a lot of the CPU time and you or Google do not recognize the name then it is definitely time to run an antivirus check. Pop Up Plague Another sign that is not so discreet is the emergence of pop ups on your system when you are not connected to the Internet. This is most likely the sign of malware that has been planted on your computer and not necessarily a virus. You will still want to run an antivirus check to make sure that there is no infection. After the antivirus scan, make sure that you run a spyware analysis program on your computer as well. I have shown you several signs that may indicate that you have a virus or other infection on your computer. If you are a frequent computer user then keeping a look out on any kind of abnormal computer behavior can be the first step in not becoming a victim of the bad guys.
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The Tell-Tale Signs That Your Computer May Have Become Infected With A Virus
The Threat Of Cloud Computing To Your Company’s Infrastructure
November 26th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
The ideal of Cloud computing has been around for several decades. Only recently has the technology allowed for it to become a reality for practical use. Everyday more and more companies are bringing their sensitive data onto the cloud. This has proven to be a good strategy for corporations to use because of the flexibility that it provides. The ability to be able to quickly update their web resources while at the same time having automated back up capabilities is just the thing that the doctor ordered. But there is a flaw in this type of web hosting that researchers are just now discovering. Cloud Computing Management The first flaw that occurs is more of a management flaw and less of a technical one. If you are business that has their operation hosted on the cloud your hardware will not be hosted in house or in a facility that you control. It will be in the hands of another company that is in a remote location. This leaves you as the customer still responsible for what happens to your data. You must keep a sharp eye out on your cloud provider to make sure that they are keeping your company’s data safe and secure. If you have customers of your own and their data is compromised, blaming your provider will only go so far in their eyes. Technical Flaws There are also several technical flaws that can happen when you host your data on the cloud. Researchers have recently discovered a serious bug that could prove to be a big problem. The problem is that when you have cloud computers on a multi cored server running virtual machines the lack of privacy through the cache on the system is great. When you have a multi cored system the data is transacted back and forth between the cores. This is how the computer processes the data simultaneously so that it can do multiple task at the same time. This is why it is so hard for programmers to adapt to parallel computing. You have to be able to create software without the program running into what is known as a dead lock. When the computer is running the process the data is stored in temporary memory, also known as a cache. Attackers and researchers have figured out ways that they can use this information to able to poison a virtual machine running on the same physical server. Since all of the cores share data that is coming through the cache, poisoned data can be sent to another virtual machine this way. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video You can also spy on another company’s virtual machine in this same manner. If this knowledge is made into a workable tool, the possibility for abuse is endless. Even though Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular the technology behind it still has some flaws that it needs to address. When it comes to cloud computing privacy was not the first thing on the mind of the people who implemented it. There are tools that are being released to help alleviate this problem but as of right now the possibility of a serious security breach still exist.
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The Threat Of Cloud Computing To Your Company’s Infrastructure
How Do I Secure Windows 7?
November 23rd, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
All computer users should aspire to work in a safe environment. Regardless of what your profession is, and the purpose behind using your computer, you should always be aware of the dangers and be on the lookout for the means to keep the data stored in your computer secure from all possible external dangers. Since Microsoft have recently released their latest operating system,Windows 7, you may be wondering how you can make your new operating system more secure and safer. Microsoft was mentioning the robust security related features of Windows 7 long before its launch. So, if you can make the best of the features and options offered by Windows 7, you can make your computer much more secure. Below are some of the ways that would enhance the security levels of your computer powered by Windows 7 – Shield your computer with an updated and robust Antivirus program (most preferably Internet Security Package) protection system. This is the first and foremost thing to do while you are trying to keep your computer safe from all the cyber threats regardless of the operating system you are working on. Since the biggest threat for any computer is viruses, malware, Trojans, and other malicious program, you need to be smart while making a choice. Windows 7 offers an amazing data protection scheme namely BitLocker Drive Encryption. Using the BitLocker scheme offered by Win 7, you can either choose to protect the data on the partition of where the operating system is installed or all the partitions. BitLocker will not allow anybody to access the files until and unless they enter the correct password. It is just like protecting your money in a safe protected by a number lock system. Use User Account Control (UAC) as Microsoft have made huge improvements in the system. Depending on the type of the user (Administrator or Normal user) UAC pre-sets the security features of the operating system. If you have logged in as a normal user, then you will be served with the most secured settings whereas the Administrator has the right to tweak the security settings as per his requirements. Windows 7 offers Internet Explorer 8 as the default web browser. So, if you are using IE 8 make sure that you enable the SmartScreen Filter option. SmartScreen is directly connected to Microsoft and their local database which educates and warns you about malicious web sites which could harm you computer. Like any other natural calamity, computer crashes can be unexpected and also destructive in many aspects. So, the wise thing is to be prepared for the worst. Navigate to “Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore” to back up the data on your computer . Always enable the Automatic Updates from Microsoft. This will not only enhance your operating system’s performance but also updates it against all the latest threats and loopholes. The increasing popularity of the internet has led to a larger number of crimes being committed on the web. Only by being proactive about your own security can you minimise the risks of you becoming the next victim.
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How Do I Secure Windows 7?
Being Proactive About WLAN Security
November 21st, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
Perhaps the most important defense is to be proactive in securing your WLAN . Don’t wait for threats to emerge before taking action. Now that you know the threats to your WLAN and some ways to deal with them, you can take what you know and put it to work. Each vendor maintains patches and updates on its Web site. You could go to every Web site and search for all the vulnerabilities that affect your devices. You may even find most of what you’re looking for after quite a while. The best place to start is the Security Focus Web site. Security Focus maintains an exhaustive list of vulnerabilities for hardware and software from every vendor. If it’s vulnerable, it’s listed on their site. Often vulnerabilities are listed on Security Focus even before the developers of an application or device know about the problem. In those rare cases when a company refuses to acknowledge an issue, this Web site may be the only place where you’ll find it listed. Make it a habit to check the site regularly for new threats. Many vendors will send you an email warning you of vulnerabilities if you took the time to register your product (and lets face it, most of us don’t). For the 90 percent of users that use a Microsoft operating system, the Windows Update feature will help you keep the operating system patched and save you from becoming a casualty when the next worm surfaces. Most cracker tools exploit holes that have not been patched. If you don’t maintain your systems, you are remaining vulnerable when you should be safe. Taking the time to patch software and update the firmware on devices will minimize your risk and reduce your headaches.
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Being Proactive About WLAN Security
Using Software To Recover Your Data
November 20th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
Data recovery can be a really hard process if you don’t understand or know what it is that you are doing. When a person is having to perform data recovery that means that either their folder or file has become encrypted. After your file or folders are encrypted, it can cause damage to your computer and you must take certain steps to get the data back that was lost. There are lots of ways that you can recover data from your computer. Some people download freeware that walks them step by step on how to recover their data while others do it straight from their computer. If you decide to do it yourself you will find that the method of data recovery will vary depending on what kind of computer that you’re using. Mac, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are all a bit different when it comes to this process. That’s another reason why people decide to use a free program to recover their data. For beginners, the best way to go about getting your data back is using the free software program. Most of the programs require you to download the software. Before you begin, they usually ask for your email address. Once you provide them with your email address you can review the directions that they give. When you have problems, you can contact customer service and they will be there to help. That is another reason why downloading and using software to recover data is a really good thing when you are new. If you decide to do this by yourself, you won’t be able to have any help. In order to make sure that you have a really good program, do some research on it first before you decide to download the software and see what people are saying about it. After you have downloaded and finished the data recovery, make sure that you back things up. You can back them up with buying a flash drive or floppy disk. If you haven’t backed up your files and pictures, you should do it soon. Mistakes can happen at anytime and they are called mistakes because we didn’t plan on them happening. Another word of advice is to make sure that your computer is password protected and that you have your firewall on plus virus protection turned on too.
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Using Software To Recover Your Data
Cyber Security: Why Is So Important?
November 19th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Do we actually need cyber security? I strongly believe that we do. Everybody has their own thoughts on cyber security, some of which are valid facts, and some of which are misconceptions. The Internet is a dynamic technology and you can never predict the changes that are constantly occurring. Furthermore, every change can lead to more dangerous threats that had not been previously imagined. That is why there have been number of incidents in the past where the Internet has been used as the medium for some serious crimes which are named as ‘Cyber Crimes’. If proper means are not used to tackle this problem then the rate of cyber crime will just continue to increase. Below are some of the reasons behind the need for cyber security – 1.) Who are hackers and what do they do? We all are aware of hackers . But do you actually know how they operate? A hacker could be anyone. He might be your business rival, your friend or any other person who is trying to hijack your computer’s resources. They somehow enter into your computer with the help of many malicious programs and scripts, all of which can be found on the internet or easily coded by someone with a little know how. Once he succeeds in hijacking your computer, then he can misuse your confidential information such as e-mail accounts, bank accounts, credit cards and any other useful information he finds stored on your system. 2.) Online fraud and identity theft. Cyber criminals follow a number of techniques in order to acquire e-mail Ids, credit card numbers, bank account numbers and passwords which are then misused by them. These kinds of scams are known as ‘ phishing ‘. These criminals cheat people by pretending to be spokespeople of big organisations or deceased millionaires and sending emails to their victims which will try to trick them into revealing confidential information. 3.) Cyber thefts are increasing daily. Conventional thefts can be compensated by insurance cover but once you lose your confidential data from your computer, no-one can help you. These kinds of incidents are not only restricted to individuals but huge companies and institutions are falling prey to cyber theft too. 4.) Computer viruses can really mess up your system. Viruses can not only slow your system down, they can make it crash too. There are number of ways in which viruses can enter your computer. One of them is through accessing insecure web sites and downloading infected files. Its not only household computers that can be infected as even big business can be affected too. For example, in 1999 the Melissa virus lead to the termination of many services in Microsoft and other huge companies. 5.) Spyware keeps tabs on your activity. Spyware is a form of malware that can enter your computer and install itself automatically. It is not only meant to spy on you but also steal information from your computer. The dangerous part is that people do not even realize its presence on their computers. Some reports suggest that about 92% of computers are infected by spyware and that users are unaware of it! 6.) Adware is annoying. The main purpose of adware is to pop up unwanted ads as you are surfing the Internet. This can quickly become extremely annoying and frustrating. Nowadays adware is often integrated with spyware in order to exploit your computer to great heights. These are just some of the different ways cyber criminals steal your resources and information. They are always a step ahead and the security industry is forever trying to keep up with their new plans and codes. Therefore, it is very necessary to protect your system for all the threats caused by cyber criminals. Wouldn’t you agree?
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Cyber Security: Why Is So Important?
How Do I Configure Windows 7’s Firewall?
November 17th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
Since the addition of a Firewall in Windows XP, Microsoft has been working to improve it with each new version of their operating systems. Windows 7 is expected to the best operating system designed by Microsoft so far. Windows 7 comes with a robust firewall included and this can be tweaked by the user according to their needs and computer resources.. Firewall plays a huge role in protecting your computer from external malicious programs. So until and unless you grant permission, external programs will not be able to use the resources of your computer. Like Windows Vista, the fundamental (basic) settings of the Windows 7 firewall can be configured from Control Panel. But unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 allows you to tweak the advanced settings of it’s firewall directly from your Control Panel, instead of accessing empty MMC. Manually Configure Your Windows 7 Firewall Below is the procedure to manually configure the firewall Settings of Windows 7 – Step 1: Click on the START button and then click on the CONTROL PANEL option. Step 2: Now, in the Control Panel window, locate System and Security and then click on it. Step 3: Once you open the System and Security window from the Control Panel, you can see a direct link to Windows Firewall. Click on it. Step 4: Now, you will be able to access the Windows Firewall window. There, you can see number of options like Turn Windows Firewall on or off, Change notification settings, Restore defaults and Advanced settings on the left side of the panel. And on the right side of the panel you can alter the type of network associated with the firewall settings of your computer which are Home or Work (Private) networks and Public networks. And the Firewall will be ON / ACTIVE for both the networks, which is a default setting. Step 5: Now, you can see the Change Notification settings link on the left side of the panel. Click on it. You can use this option to Turn OFF the firewall settings of your operating system by simply clicking on Turn off Windows Firewall button. Step 6: If you are unhappy with any settings you have selected you can retrieve the default settings by clicking on the option labeled as Use recommended settings which can be located on the right side of the panel or by clicking on the Restore Default link on the left panel. You need to confirm your choice once you click on the Restore Default button. Step 7: You can also alter the Advanced Setting of the Local Computers by clicking on the Advanced Settings button visible on the left panel. Step 8: If you want to tweak the inbound rules, you can click on the link labeled as Inbound Rules on the left side of the panel. If you click on Disable Rule, it will disable the selected rule and if you click on Enable Rule, you can choose the actions you want from the list displayed in Actions Pane. Step 9: You can even keep an eye on the things like Logging settings, General Settings, Firewall State, Active Networks by clicking on the Monitoring option on the left side of the panel. I hope this guide has given you a basic idea of how to set up your firewall in Windows 7.
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How Do I Configure Windows 7’s Firewall?
What Is Disability Fraud?
November 15th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Its a sad thing to say but it seems that earning money illegally is becoming easy these days. One such method I’ve noticed, and it really upsets me, is disability fraud. Personally I think it is right that we, as a society, look after those who are unfortunate to be disabled. However, there are many individuals who feel that it is ok to play the system and claim benefits for disabilities they do not have . In both legal and medical terms disability does not mean that a person is physically handicapped. Just because a person is able to do all the things that a normal man can do it does not really imply that the person is not disabled. There are a number of medical conditions which are not physically visible but they are still termed as disabilities. Invisible Disabilities Such disabilities are known as “invisible disabilities”. This is the area in which criminals are taking advantage of the system and literally cashing in. Below are some of the common types of invisible disabilities – Chronic Dizziness: This kind of disability is related to an improper functioning of the inner ear. Such a problem would cause problems to a person whilst performing some of the basic tasks like walking, sleeping or working. Chronic Fatigue: If a person does not feel like working and always feels totally tired, then he might be suffering from Chronic Fatigue. This can have a very negative impact on the person’s daily life routine. Mental Illness: Some forms of this disability can make a person mentally so vulnerable that they find basic and common daily tasks very had to perform. Disabilities like agoraphobia, depression, lack of concentration and schizophrenia are categorized under mental illness. Chronic Pain: Some bone or physical injuries and back problems can lead to chronic pain. This kind of pain or disability might not be visible to everybody but people linked with the medical fraternity will easily detect such disability. Of course there are a great many people with invisible disabilities such as those above who are perfectly genuine and who are suffering. Unfortunately, however, there are also many people who fake such conditions for financial gain. Types Of Disability Fraud Below are some of most common types of disability fraud – Doing legitimate work despite claiming to be suffering from disability: It has been found that people suffering from various invisible disabilities are working in jobs they claim they cannot do while enjoying the benefits offered for the disabled. Pretending to be suffering from any kind of Injury: People do pretend to be suffering from some kinds of illness and even doctors can’t prove that wrong. So they intentionally pretend to be disabled, in order to enjoy the benefits offered to them by various agencies. Continuing to claim benefits even after recovering from disability: Not all disabilities are permanent and people are cured every day. Some, however, continue to claim benefits for many years afterwards regardless though. Tackling Disability Fraud Disability fraud is extremely hard to prove and prosecute. Many governments have already initiated various methods to tackle disability fraud but cynics, such as myself, wonder if they are doing enough, especially when recategorising such people as being merely unemployed could prove detrimental to their boasts of keeping jobless figures to a minimum. Doctors cannot always detect whether a claim of disability is genuine or not and the politically correct society we live in now means you really ought to be very careful about questioning whether benefits claimants are legitimate or not. Having said that, here in the UK we are encouraged to grass on our neighbours (another ploy designed to destroy society no doubt) but could you tell whether the disabled person living next door to you was faking it? Probably not. I don’t know what the answer is but I do know that we need to cut out disability fraud. I’m of the opinion that far too many people claim benefits for fake disabilities in order to avoid working and we really ought to get them off their lazy backsides and into work so that they can contribute to society, allowing us to divert the money saved to those who really need it.
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What Is Disability Fraud?
What Should I Do If My Website Has Been Hacked?
November 13th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
If you paid attention to yesterday’s post about website security then you should have already minimised the chances of having your own site hacked . But what if it has already happened? How Would I Know That My Site Has Been Hacked? You may have had your web site hacked if one or more of the following is true – The search engines now says you run an attack site You’ve noticed spam email being sent from your account When you search for your own site (yes, we all do it!) your antivirus program suggests it may be being used for phishing You now have some political statement or graffiti all over your pages Of course there may be other signs but the above are the main ones that I can think of. What now? Change Them There Passwords Do it. Do it now. Assuming you still have any kind of access to your website then you need to change all of your passwords – cPanel, email, admin passwords, etc. Remove Old Scripts Next, go through your hosting space and remove every old script installation that you find. Also, update or remove old plugins too because they are also at risk of being hacked. Check Your Error Logs By checking the Error Logs in cPanel you may be able to discover suspicious requests. Typically, a hacker will give themselves access to your website by adding code or files so look for such within your public_html folder. If you find any code or files then take a note of the details, such as date and time that the file was uploaded, the file name, folder it was in, etc and then inform your web host as they may then be able to offer some assistance. Of course it goes without saying that you should then also delete said codes or files. Minimising Risk Web sites are hacked all the time and all you can do is ensure that you have made it as hard a task as possible and then hope that the hacker moves on to an easier target. By keeping your files up-to-date and secure you will have increased the workload for a potential hacker . You then just need to cross your fingers and hope that encourages them to pass you by.
I’m Worried My Web Site Might Get Hacked – What Can I Do?
November 12th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
If you run your own web site then security is something you really ought to be paying attention to. Hackers are targeting websites on a daily basis and for many different reasons. It used to be the case that hackers would merely look to plaster graffiti on your home page to bring attention to themselves (or some cause) but nowadays they also have far more sinister motives. Criminal hackers are now part of large and well organised cyber gangs who see the internet as a huge source of potential profits and they may see your website as a tool that can help them make money, either by stealing your personal information or that of your visitors. Often this can be through the use of Trojans and other types of malware. Here, then, are some tips on securing your website against such attacks – Always Remove Or Update Old Scripts You need to be aware that that old installations are vulnerable. If you run a blog on WordPress then you will know that the platform is regularly updated and that one of the main reasons for that is to patch security holes as and when they are discovered. So, if you have an old installation then you should either update it now or remove it completely if you aren’t using it. Otherwise, a competent hacker could be into your blog in a matter of seconds. Ensure Strong Password Security You should never use easy to guess passwords , or the same password more than once, anywhere on the internet. Think about it – if a hacker finds a password of yours then they may well try to use it everywhere in order to gain access not only to your web site but also to other sensitive areas such as your online banking account. In terms of website security, how would you feel if someone else had access to your cPanel or email account? Cloak Your Folders Another good tip is to keep a blank index.html file in all of the folders inside your public_html folder. This will make sure that the contents cannot easily be viewed on the internet. CPanel offers such a function – check out ‘Index Manager’. It is always a good idea to keep your files and folders as secret as possible. Password Protect Your Admin Folder You should always password protect the admin folder of any scripts you are using as this provides an extra layer of security. Such action is highly recommended and you can do this in cPanel by clicking the ‘Directory Protection’ link.
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I’m Worried My Web Site Might Get Hacked – What Can I Do?
Protecting Data With Encryption Or Lockout Software
November 11th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Most people have introduced encryption as a way to secure communications on your WLAN. You can also use encryption to secure at-rest data or data that is located on a hard drive or similar storage medium (CD, DVD, and tape). There are several software solutions available to encrypt your data, whether you choose to encrypt the entire contents of your hard drive or just specific folders. Note: An easy-to-use’ effective utility for encrypting your files and folders is File Warden , available for download from the utilities section of the PC Magazine Web site: www.pcmag.com One thing to consider before using encryption is that it takes a lot of CPU horsepower. If you encrypt your entire hard drive you may notice significant slowing when you use your computer. You might consider only encrypting the contents of a couple of folders and storing all sensitive files in those. Smaller devices like PDAs and smart phones lack the horsepower to use significant encryption. There is effective security software for locking a PDA after it’s turned off or after it spends a certain amount of time idle. This software locks all unauthorized persons out of the device and prevents wireless connections, synchronizing, or beaming of information. Whichever device you use, install either encryption or security software to lock down your data if your computer ever falls into the wrong hands. Always set up your device so that it asks for a password and use a security screen saver with a strong password to make it harder for criminals to get to your data.
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Protecting Data With Encryption Or Lockout Software
I’ve Been Infected But My Antivirus Program Isn’t Working – What Do I Do Now?
November 10th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
You are up late at night, finishing your latest presentation for the boss. You then decide that you need more information to go with what you already have, so you decide to do a little surfing on the Internet through Google. A site pops up on Google that shows some promise, so you decide to click on it. The next thing that you know, your computer is going crazy and there is a load of pop ups that are now appearing on your pc. Your worst fears have now been realized, you have been infected with a new virus on your system. You try to run your resident antivirus program that is installed on your computer but it is not working. So what do you do? This is what I hope to answer here. Scareware There are certain types of viruses or malware out there that will take control of your computer and not release it until you perform a certain action that they request. It is a scam to make you buy a fake antivirus product or get your credit card number. Most of the time they will not even release your computer even if you do go through with it. The best thing to do at this point is to bypass the system. You can do this with either a live CD or hooking your hard drive to another computer. I will go over both solutions – Use Linux When you use a live CD of what is normally a Linux distro, this allows you to be able to boot up your computer and run an operating system on top of it. (Usually through your CD/DVD player or the USB port of your computer). This operating system, usually Linux, can see your hard drive and other hardware that you may have on your system but the operating system itself is not connected to it. You will have to run a Linux command called ‘mount’ to have access to your hard drive to be able to scan it. Once you mount the disk, there are several antivirus programs that will run on Linux, and will see a virus on a Windows partitions as well. Run this antivirus and disinfect all of the viruses that it sees. There are ways to be able to update and save the antivirus database so that it sees newer viruses but you will have to look that up. It is different in each live CD distro that you may use. This solution is the best solution when you are dealing with a nasty virus on your laptop. Connect Your Hard Drive To Another Computer If you are dealing with a nasty virus that is on your desktop that will not let you access your antivirus program, a good solution is take out the hard drive and connect it to another computer. You can look up several places online that will give you a walk through on how to disconnect your hard drive and then connect it to another computer. Once you have connected this second drive to the other computer you can now look at the files and folders just like you would do on any other drive. You will have to be careful while this second drive is connected to your computer – you do not want to click on any files and infect this second computer! So as soon as you get the second drive working on the computer make sure that you scan it right away. Once all infections have been found and removed you can reconnect the hard drive back to the original computer. Hopefully these tips will help you solve your virus problem on your computer. A nasty bug can ruin your day, especially when it will not let you do anything on your computer and scareware is an altogether different type of annoyance.
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I’ve Been Infected But My Antivirus Program Isn’t Working – What Do I Do Now?
I’ve Been Infected But My Antivirus Program Isn’t Working – What Do I Do Now?
November 10th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
You are up late at night, finishing your latest presentation for the boss. You then decide that you need more information to go with what you already have, so you decide to do a little surfing on the Internet through Google. A site pops up on Google that shows some promise, so you decide to click on it. The next thing that you know, your computer is going crazy and there is a load of pop ups that are now appearing on your pc. Your worst fears have now been realized, you have been infected with a new virus on your system. You try to run your resident antivirus program that is installed on your computer but it is not working. So what do you do? This is what I hope to answer here. Scareware There are certain types of viruses or malware out there that will take control of your computer and not release it until you perform a certain action that they request. It is a scam to make you buy a fake antivirus product or get your credit card number. Most of the time they will not even release your computer even if you do go through with it. The best thing to do at this point is to bypass the system. You can do this with either a live CD or hooking your hard drive to another computer. I will go over both solutions – Use Linux When you use a live CD of what is normally a Linux distro, this allows you to be able to boot up your computer and run an operating system on top of it. (Usually through your CD/DVD player or the USB port of your computer). This operating system, usually Linux, can see your hard drive and other hardware that you may have on your system but the operating system itself is not connected to it. You will have to run a Linux command called ‘mount’ to have access to your hard drive to be able to scan it. Once you mount the disk, there are several antivirus programs that will run on Linux, and will see a virus on a Windows partitions as well. Run this antivirus and disinfect all of the viruses that it sees. There are ways to be able to update and save the antivirus database so that it sees newer viruses but you will have to look that up. It is different in each live CD distro that you may use. This solution is the best solution when you are dealing with a nasty virus on your laptop. Connect Your Hard Drive To Another Computer If you are dealing with a nasty virus that is on your desktop that will not let you access your antivirus program, a good solution is take out the hard drive and connect it to another computer. You can look up several places online that will give you a walk through on how to disconnect your hard drive and then connect it to another computer. Once you have connected this second drive to the other computer you can now look at the files and folders just like you would do on any other drive. You will have to be careful while this second drive is connected to your computer – you do not want to click on any files and infect this second computer! So as soon as you get the second drive working on the computer make sure that you scan it right away. Once all infections have been found and removed you can reconnect the hard drive back to the original computer. Hopefully these tips will help you solve your virus problem on your computer. A nasty bug can ruin your day, especially when it will not let you do anything on your computer and scareware is an altogether different type of annoyance.
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I’ve Been Infected But My Antivirus Program Isn’t Working – What Do I Do Now?
The Top Reasons For Hardware Failure And Data Loss
November 9th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
Aside from impact damage and electrical spikes, there are sources of hardware failure that can arise from lack of maintenance or through improper maintenance. Different sources rank these threats differently, at some point touting each of them as the number-one threat or cause of hardware failure. I haven’t ranked them in any particular order, preferring that you consider each and protect yourself from all of them. Electrostatic discharge Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can destroy components within your computer. A common way for ESD damage to occur is when you open your computer case to install new hardware (drives, RAM, and so on). If you don’t properly ground yourself, any electrical charge that your body carries will jump from your fingers to conductors in the computer, such as chips. The same thing happens when you rub your feet on a carpet, generating an electrostatic charge. When you reach out to touch another person or a metal object, sparks fly. Unfortunately, when the sparks fly from your fingers to a computer component, you may destroy the component. You may not think there’s enough power to do any damage, but there is. A static discharge from your hand can be quite powerful at times – maybe even in the kilowatt range! The best way to prevent ESD from occurring is to use a grounding wrist strap or stand on a grounding mat if you have to open the computer’s case. You can also make sure that you are at “zero potential” by constantly touching a bare metal surface. Damage from ESD only occurs if you are working inside a computer or handling a component like a RAM chip or video board, not when you are touching the case. Dust Accumulation of dust can damage some components and cause your computer to overheat. It doesn’t take a thick layer; even a thin layer that you can barely see can raise the temperature in your computer a few percent. That small raise in temperature is enough to shorten the life of your components. Heavy dust buildup can also short out components and damage hard drives. Heat Overheating damages many computers. Excessive heat increases resistance in semiconductor materials, which in turn produces more heat. This heat buildup and increase in resistance causes logic circuits to behave erratically and ultimately fail to function. Heat can also destroy data on hard drives by causing the metallic layer to expand, potentially putting data tracks out of alignment. Repeated heating and cooling can compound the problem until the drive fails completely. It doesn’t take a lot of heat to do this, either. The CPU of your computer is especially susceptible to heat damage. Because of the number of circuits on the CPU, it generates a lot of heat. CPUs have a heat sink that helps radiate heat away from the CPU, and most computers have one or more fans that cool the CPU and other components. Bad Hard Disk Sectors Occasionally, sectors on a hard disk fail due to physical problems on the disk. These problems can result from dust infiltration, heat, or degradation over time. Your computer cannot write or read data from a sector that has failed, and any data already written to that sector is lost. Through proper maintenance, however, you can prevent hard disk damage and detect failing sectors before they fail completely.
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The Top Reasons For Hardware Failure And Data Loss
The Top 5 Antivirus Programs For Windows 7
November 6th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
The most important and challenging thing for computer users is protect their computers against all threats like viruses, worms, and other malware. There is an old saying that ‘prevention is better than cure’ so protect your computer with the best antivirus you can get now . Many viruses, worms, and other types of malware are released every day and most target machines that run Microsoft Windows operating systems. As you are probably aware, Microsoft has just released the newest version of their operating system – Windows 7. As ever, it promises to be more secure than previous versions but which are the best antivirus programs you can use with Windows 7? AVAST! Windows 7 Anti Virus: Avast! antivirus is one of the top antivirus programs that is known to be compatible with Windows 7. Avast! is offering full desktop security including a resident shield. Besides good performance it also offers the following – It is very easy to use and doesn’t take up too much system resource. Comes with changeable skins so you can customise a look you feel happy with. Anti-spyware protection is included. All Avast! products are available to download for a free 60-day trial period. Trend Micro Antivirus for Windows 7: Trend Micro Antivirus is one of the top 5 antivirus programs which is compatible with windows 7. Trend Micro is an antivirus company based in Japan ant they offer some exciting features – Trend Micro provides security for your computer against computer viruses, worms, Trojan horse programs, and related security threats. It blocks virus infections that arrive via emails. It provides excellent protection for your PC. This groovy antivirus program protects your files from being sent without authorization. Trend Micro Antivirus does not interrupt playing games or watching videos while scanning. Take 10% Off Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2010. Coupon Code: trendtav AVG Antivirus for Windows 7: The most familiar antivirus program for many computer users is AVG, a product from AVG technologies. AVG is compatible with Windows 7. Many people use AVG because of its excellent features such as – Having a good user interface that is simple to understand. Having a quick installation time that doesn’t require your system to be rebooted. AVG has come up with three new components called Web Shield, Link Scanner and AVG Toolbar. Link checker is from Exploit Prevention Labs – the main advantage of this technology is to block dubious content in websites. Kaspersky Antivirus: Kaspersky, the Russian security specialist, offer an antivirus program with the following benefits – The new Kaspersky is attuned for Windows 7. Kaspersky provides real time scanning of files, web pages and e-messages. It scans and protects your PC against all viruses, spyware, phishing attacks and identity theft. Has an excellent look, very ease to use and has a good user-friendly interface. The newest feature is Kaspersky Toolbar for Internet browsers to warn you about infected or unsafe websites. Check out the Kaspersky Lab Online Store for more information. AVIRA Antivirus Software: Another windows 7 compatible antivirus is Avira antivirus. This program offers the following features – Avira is provided with a free version option. Good user-friendly interface.. Virus database is automatically updated. Automatically blocks websites which may harm your PC. Overall the new Avira is compatible with windows 7 without any problems. Which is your favourite antivirus program for Windows 7?
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The Top 5 Antivirus Programs For Windows 7
Cyber Security For Families
November 5th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Hopefully you strive to keep your family safe and protected in every possible way. Sometimes there are risks on the Internet that are greater than those you may come across in the real world. For that reason you need to be vigilant and cautious at all times and that means becoming wise in the ways of cyber security. Cyber security not only allows your family to protect itself from the dangers involved on the Internet but also ensures that your computer is safe from your family. Just by altering the ways in which you use your computer you will enable yourself to stay safe and secure from online dangers. Kids are usually inquisitive and curious about all the things that they find new and interesting. So, as a parent, it is your responsibility to ensure that your kids are able to learn about new technology but at the same time you also need to take care of their safety. You need to balance things out for them by trying to keep your kids away from the things that you think might be misused whilst not blocking them from the Internet or computer completely. Your kids could be using the Internet to work on their homework or project or for playing online games which are all valuable pursuits in their own ways. However their lack of knowledge, or other peoples’ devious ways, could cause them to find themselves on malicious sites that could install malware on your computer, or porn sites which you simply wouldn’t want your children to view. Of course if that were to happen then your children might not tell you about the incident, fearing punishment and so you would have a hard job ensuring that it didn’t happen again. Malware and porn aren’t the only threats though – the Internet has become a huge platform for people who look to cheat and swindle others. There is a certain level of anonymity on the Internet still and this fact encourages cyber criminals to deceive people on the Internet in order to take as much money as possible from them. Even well educated adults fall prey to such online predators. Below are some of the ways which will help you to protect your family from cyber dangers – Stay With Your Kids While They Spend Time On The Internet Make sure that you stay with your children while they are using Internet. It might not be possible for all parents to get involved with their kids while they are on Internet because we all have busy lifestyles nowadays but you can certainly keep a casual eye on what they are doing at the very least. You can view their browsing history to check the web sites they have visited. You can also ensure that your kids do not get involved in activities such as sending emails to, and chatting with, strangers. Educate Your Children About Online Dangers It is necessary to educate your kids about all the risks and dangers involved with the Internet. Once they get to know such facts, they will be more vigilant and careful. Make them clear of the sites they should visit and the types of sites which are not meant for them. Do not frighten them but set limits to their Internet usage so that you can keep things under control. Create Separate User Accounts To Keep Your Data Safe Recent operating systems, such as Windows 7, allow you to create individual accounts for all the users of the computer onto which they are installed. You can opt to create separate accounts for your kids. This is one of the ways to keep your files and data protected from the mischievous activities of your children! If you do not prefer to create separate accounts then it is advisable not to use add-ons which are meant to remember passwords and other important information (which can be accidentally used) leading to serious loss. There is a wise saying that “Prevention is always better than cure.” So make sure that you use updated antivirus programs featuring utilities such as firewalls to ensure the safety of the data stored in your computer. You can use kid browsers which ensure the safety of your files while your kids are accessing Internet or you can edit the options of your default browser to ban the web sites which you feel would be harmful to your child. Here is how – Tools> Internet Options> Content> Click on ENABLE under Content Advisor. The powers that be have understood the need for cyber security and so they have come forward to offer their services to ensure your kids’ protection whilst they are using the Internet by blocking the sites that are not meant or suited for them. Open Communication Is Key If possible, set up your computer in a place where you can easily keep an eye on who is using it and what they are doing with it. This will surely make your children think before they do anything wrong on the computer. Having a flexible relationship with your family members is beneficial in all aspects of life – such a relationship will make your children come to you and tell about the things they have seen and done on the Internet. This kind of relationship not only enhances the cyber security of your family but also develops a strong bond amongst yourselves, helping you grow and stay safe and happy as a family.
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Cyber Security For Families
How Do I Restore A File That I Accidentally Deleted?
November 4th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
Recovering a file that you deleted from your flash drive can be really difficult if you don’t know how to do it nor have it saved anywhere else. This is another reason why it’s vital for you to back up all of your information and you should do it on a regular basis. There is a simple way that you can track your deleted files that a lot of people don’t know about. There are a lot of free programs that can restore any file on your computer. These programs don’t take up much space either. A recommended program is called REST2514. Its very easy to install on your computer. This program is designed to recover any file that was deleted on your computer. It guides you step by step on how to find that file and even lets you pick the drive that you want to search. This program allows you to restore any of the files by simply clicking on one and highlighting it when it comes up. You can find it on any search engine or you can look up restoration freeware programs. Whilst it’s very easy getting a file restored on your computer, it’s still recommended that you backup your information on a USB flash drive. You should update your flash drive once a week if you do a lot of work on your computer but if you forget, you now know how to restore a file so you won’t need to panic if it happens.
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How Do I Restore A File That I Accidentally Deleted?
Assessing The Security Risks To Your WLAN
November 3rd, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
The first step toward safe wireless networking is assessing the situation and determining just how vulnerable you are. I’m not just talking about your Wi-Fi hardware. You have to consider and examine all the elements of your network . That includes client computers, software, network hardware, and even users. Risk analysis is always a good place to start. After all, you can’t defend yourself against something if you don’t even know that it’s threatened. WLAN Risk Analysis A simplified risk analysis for a small network consists of the following steps – 1. Identify hardware and software assets. 2. Determine the value of each asset and cost of replacement. 3. Identify the threats to each asset. 4. Determine the vulnerability to threats. Note : Remember to keep this analysis simple. The goal is simply to get a handle on where you actually stand with regards to WLAN security. For your first task, you need to identify all the assets on the WLAN. Make a list of your hardware, operating systems, and software. The hardware should include computers, access points, routers, wireless NICs, and anything else that connects to your WLAN. Note the manufacturer and model for your entire hardware and firmware version (if known) along with a rough cost estimate for each asset. Next, make a list of software. This might include operating systems, personal firewalls, and antivirus software . For your purposes, you don’t need to check every application on all your computers even though it is good to keep your software patched and up-to-date. You just need to know the operating system and any network software you might be running, along with the approximate cost of each piece. You will learn about the threats that are particular to a WLAN. With this information, you will be able to determine your vulnerability to those threats. Once you have a realistic picture of how vulnerable you are, I’ll show you how to take the information you have compiled about your hardware and software and use it to secure your network.
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Assessing The Security Risks To Your WLAN
The Security Risks Of Facebook Applications
November 3rd, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
I think we all know by now what the most popular social networking site on the Internet is. Twitter is quickly making it’s way to the top of the heap but for now Facebook is still king of the mountain. One of the more popular features that Facebook has added in the past couple of years is the ability to create an application for the people logged into Facebook to use. There have been many companies that made a lot of money off of this feature. Unfortunately there has also been a lot of nefarious characters that have exploited this feature as well. They too are making lots of money from it. I will go over some of the risks of Facebook applications and how to keep yourself safe – Keep Private Information Private One thing that Facebook pulls out of people is their private information. On any other site people would never give the amount of information that they seem give on the Facebook platform. Through most people’s profiles you can find out their first, last and maiden names. You can also find out where they live, where they went to school, and even worse most people will offer up the information of where they lived in the past. A lot of these answers are the answers to questions that you will fill out any kind of credit check online. This is perfect for anybody looking to exploit your credit history or steal your identity. Facebook applications, if you allow them, have access to this information as well. Once you give them permission they can get all of the information that is about you from your Facebook profile. If a person that has evil intentions makes a Facebook app, they can now target all of the people who have allowed the application in their Facebook ecosystem and target them for identity theft . Make sure that before you give an application access to all of your information that you check on the company who has made the app. It is best to Google them to see if they are legitimate or not. Facebook Hackers Facebook applications, for the most part, run in a sandbox that is provided by Facebook themselves. A sandbox is when you have the ability to use a language but certain features of the language that might cause security problems are stripped away. The sandbox that Facebook gives developers to make applications is pretty secure but there have been holes found. So not only can the hackers use an application that was built for malicious use intentionally, they can also find holes in preexisting applications and exploit them too. If you install an application and it is doing anything weird be very suspicious and uninstall it. In the world of the Internet being paranoid is a good thing! So I have gone over a couple of ways that Facebook applications can be used to exploit the average user. I do not want you to get the wrong idea, Facebook applications for the most part are safe. Just like anything else on the internet they can be exploited so it pays to be careful.
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The Security Risks Of Facebook Applications
Internet Explorer 8 Privacy Features
November 2nd, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
Microsoft used to have a stranglehold in the Internet Browser market place. Just as much, or maybe even more, than they did the personal computer market. Now this is not as true anymore. They still have a dominance in the browser market place but the competition has quickly caught up. With newer offerings such as Firefox, Opera, and the new Google Chrome browser stepping up as quality alternatives, Microsoft has seen their browser percentage fall off dramatically. (There have also been issues in Europe that have led to Microsoft no longer bundling IE with new versions of Windows 7). This has arguably led to Microsoft increasing the quality of their internet browser offerings. One of the things that has greatly improved are the privacy features that the browser offers. Now I will take you through the enhancements of these features and why you should use them – Added Privacy Features The first thing that Microsoft has done to protect your privacy is to add a feature in Internet explorer 8 that will block out advertisements that are directed towards you. Ads are not necessarily a bad thing but sometimes they can become overwhelming and start to decrease your Internet surfing experience. On some sites, ad blocking technology can be just what the doctor ordered if the owner of the site has made the user experience miserable. Ad blocking counts as a privacy feature because a lot of these ads now have tracking technology behind them that can monitor your surfing habits. The ad blocking feature can reduce their functionality. To turn on the ad blocking feature, all you have to do is click the ‘Safety’ button that is on your browser. Once you do that, click on ‘InPrivate browsing’, and your ad blocker is now turned on. You also have a feature that is included in Internet explorer 8 that is called ‘InPrivate Filter’. This feature will do explicitly what I talked about earlier; stopping your private information from going to other sites. This feature goes a little bit further than just stopping the advertiser from sharing your information with other sites though. It will also stop web applications, analysis tools, and other such features that you may find on a web page from collecting information about you. If you do not want any web site to be able to gather information about you without first visiting that site, then this the feature is the one that you will want to go with. To turn it on just do the same as I mentioned above – Hit the ‘Safet’y button but instead of clicking ‘InPrivate Browsing’, click on ‘InPrivate Filter’. I have gone over the two main options that Internet Explorer has on keeping your web sessions private. If you are worried about all of the monitoring that goes on through web pages these days then these are great features to use.
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Internet Explorer 8 Privacy Features
Just How Secure Are PDF Files?
November 2nd, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
One of the great things about computers and the Internet is how easy it is to create document files and then share them between machines and users. There are several formats that you can use to create files, the two most popular being word documents and PDF files. Hacker Manipulation Over the past couple of years, however, hackers have found that they can manipulate these types of files. They are now able to hide exploits within these files that can compromise your computer. They also use the knowledge that since these files are so popular, they can disguise a harmful .exe file as a pdf file and people will not question whether it is safe or not. We will hopefully show you that for the most part PDF’s are safe but you still need to be careful with them. These types of files have turned into another attack vector for hackers. In the last 12 months Adobe has released patch after patch trying to protect new vulnerabilities found in pdf files. Buffer Overflow There was the vulnerability that was found that let hackers send an attack to your computer through the use of a buffer overflow created when the PDF file was opened. There was also an attack found a month after that that if you were looking at a PDF file in windows explorer, that was all that was needed for it to attack your computer. You didn’t even have to click on it to activate the attack. This is why you have to be careful with opening all types of files on your computer. Most people, even tech savvy people, have never heard that a PDF can be exploited. So people will download them from strange sites and never ever bother to run an antivirus check on them to see if they are secured. Hackers are using your trustful nature against you in this case. Exploited .exe Files Since people are more trustful with opening a strange PDF file more than .exe file there is an older attack that will exploit the trust factor that I talked about above. This is an old trick of hiding your exploited .exe files as PDF files. They shape the name of the file so that it shows up with an PDF icon on the file. This is an easy attack to spot if you have “show file extensions” turned on in your operating system. Just go into your control panel and then go into the file manager. You will then see the option to turn this feature on. Also you can avoid being trapped by this attack by running a virus scan on the file. Any file that you get over the Internet you should run an antivirus scan on anyway, just to be on the safe side. So I have gone over how a PDF file can be dangerous to your system. Now that you know that there is a risk, hopefully you will not take any file lightly.
Protecting Your Computer With Backups And Antivirus Programs Is Essential
October 30th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Backing up data is really important and not enough people do it. It’s really easy to back up your data. If you don’t back up your data, you could get into major trouble later. The reason why you must back things up is because it will help protect your data, including those pictures you love and all those mp3s you play. Backing Up Data Should Be A Habit Many people make the mistake of only backing up their data once. After they back it up, they think that they won’t need to do it ever again. You should at least back up your data once a week or more. Whenever you save a lot of pictures or files, back it up right away. It’s not very expensive to back up your data. All that is required is for you to get a USB drive, floppy disk, CD or DVD. After you have one of those items, put it in your computer and then you can drag and drop the files you wish to keep onto the media you have inserted. Saving your files on the computer is not the only way that you can back up data and protect it. There are a few other things that you can do in order to protect it so hopefully nothing won’t happen. Protect Your Data By Having An Antivirus Program Installed One thing that is very important is that you must have antivirus virus protection on your computer. If you don’t have money for a virus protection you will find that there are many who offer a free edition, such as the ones in my list of the best free antivirus solutions . If your antivirus program detects a virus it will show you how to remove it from your system. If you see that you are having problems and a virus scan does not help, try doing a SpyWare and MalWare scan. There are free programs for these too that work great and you should do a scan at least every other day. The other way you can protect your data is by having your files and documents password protected. If you have more then one person on your computer then it’s vital that you do this if you want to save your documents. Make sure that you choose an effective password that you can remember. Writing passwords down in a private notebook is one way to help you remember them. When you are having problems with your computer, don’t put off fixing it. Some people think that the problems might go away in time only to then find out the next day that their computer is ruined.
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Protecting Your Computer With Backups And Antivirus Programs Is Essential
So… You Think Santa Is A Hoax Do You?
October 29th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
You think Santa Claus is a fake? You reckon Father Christmas is a fraud ? Bah. Humbug! What do you really know anyway? There are 3 main arguments that narrow-minded people use when they try to convince others that Santa Claus doesn’t really exist – There Is No Documented Evidence Of Father Christmas’ Existence Ok, so its true that there are no documents in existence, that we know of, that prove Santa Claus was a real person. So what? Does that make him a hoax? I’ve seen him and I know your kids have too. You haven’t – and I feel terribly sorry for you. What you need is faith and then perhaps you will believe in this amazing old guy with the white beard too. It Is Impossible For Santa To Deliver Presents To Every Child In The World In Just One Night So you think Father Christmas is a fraud because he cannot possibly deliver presents to every child in the world in just one night. Are you a fool? Think back to last Christmas and what happened – he delivered didn’t he, and on time, just like every year in the past. Thats a fact and cannot be ignored. Besides, he has many helpers anyway – pixies, reindeer, elves and UPS are all rumoured to be his associates. Parents Put Presents Under The Christmas Tree, Not Santa You should be ashamed of yourself if you peddle this vicious rumour – its one that can break kids’ hearts. Whats worse is the fact that you are suggesting that parents deliberately deceive their own children each and every year. Thats just far too shocking to even contemplate. Christmas Thought I hope I have given you something to think about today and helped dispel the notion that Santa is in some way a fraud. If you still believe that the guy with the white beard is one big hoax – because of the lack of evidence to prove he is real – then do me a favour… Answer me this : Do you love your parents? If so, prove it!
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So… You Think Santa Is A Hoax Do You?
Protect Your Kids With PikLuk
October 29th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
More and more people are connecting to the worldwide web every day. The internet provides us with many opportunities including education, entertainment, jobs, banking, shopping, paying bills and much, much more. Unfortunately, however, the internet also has it’s fair share of problems too. There are many unsafe, unauthorized and adult websites and predators, too, who are looking to connect with your children. Therefore, every parent needs to be wary and look out for their kids’ safety. One way in which you can do this is through using or installing a special web browser that has been designed with kids in mind . One such browser, the one I am looking at today, is PikLuk which allows your kids to learn, laugh and grow. How do I get started with PikLuk?? There are three simple steps to be followed – 1. Sign up for a PikLuk account: Here you can directly log on to the PikLuk website and sign up for free. The Dashboard is very user friendly and it enables you to configure your children’s online experience. 2. Add children to your account: You can add your kids to your account using the dashboard and configure their web sites and email contacts. 3. Download and install the PikLuk Browser: Now download the PikLuk browser from the website and then install it. This PikLuk browser will allow your kids to access the website and email contacts that you added in your dashboard. Features of PikLuk: • Safe web browsing for your kids: Parents can choose and list safe and healthy websites on the dashboard. Your children then only have access to those particular websites and all others are blocked. • Safe email; no unwanted messages: Do you want your child to be able to email you and your family but not strangers? If so, PikLuk will provide you with such a feature that allows your kid to email only those people whom you have chosen to add through the dashboard. • Keep your computer safe: PikLuk will provide you with an additional feature which prevents your child from accessing the other files and folders of your computer while they are using the browser. This allows you to keep your computer system safe whilst your kid learns. • Provides an excellent user interface: PikLuk provides an excellent and colourful graphical interface for your child to use. Your son or daughter will be able to use it very easily as it also has an inbuilt audio command. When your kid rolls the cursor over anything the browser will tell them what it is. In some respects Pikluk is much like a cartoon channel. • Drawing: PikLuk provides a drawing tool for your kids, where your kids can bring out their creativity. This tool is very simple to use and your kid can draw anything and can save their pictures onto the computer. • PikLuk Multimedia: PikLuk will allow your kid to access Games, Movies, Music, Ask Earl, Sports, Ecards , Horoscopes, Study Zone, etc. All these things are comprehensively designed for kids and are 100 % safe. This package will feed your child with all his or her entertainment needs besides learning. When your children are using PiKLuk you can sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that they are laughing, learning and growing in a safe, healthy environment.
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Protect Your Kids With PikLuk
Dancing Skeletons And Other Things That Go Bump At Halloween
October 28th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Malware is an ever-present concern to users of the internet. Or at least it should be. On any given day there are thousands of threats lurking all around the web, just waiting to get onto or into your computer. Special occasions and notable dates tend to bring more ghouls and goblins out of their closets though and Halloween is no exception. I don’t yet know what the biggest threats will be this year but here are some from the past that may be recycled again this Halloween – The Dancing Skeleton Do you think that dancing skeletons are cute or funny? They may be, but then again, it depends on where you get them from. An application that runs an image of a dancing skeleton may be appealing at first glance until you realise that it may just give you more than you bargained for. The application goes by many Halloween themed names but all have the same effect – installation of the Storm Trojan – which gives your computer free entrance to a botnet. Halloween Bargains That Can Leave You Feeling Like A Pumpkin Everyone likes a good deal and retailers don’t need much in the way of reasons to offer them right now. Halloween specials are available on more than just pumpkins but beware of deals that come via email. Identity thieves can spoof emails to appear as though they come from major brand leaders and all you have to do is click the link and pay by credit card in order to save huge amounts of $$$s. Of course you don’t need me to tell you that clicking links in emails and then handing out financial details is stupid. Do you? Halloween e-Cards Yeah, I know, whatever next huh? I only give out cards for birthdays and Christmas but some people give them out just because. If you get a Halloween e-card then make sure you know the sender and the e-card website before clicking on the link to view said card. Otherwise, well, you should know by now. Party On Dude Are you sociable? Wanna go to a Halloween party? Cool… just make sure its with friends and not the stranger who invited you via email – he doesn’t really like you, he just wants you to R.S.V.P. via the malicious link he put in that invite. If you survive all of those then you are halfway home, though you will still have to contend with the great Halloween scam ….
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Dancing Skeletons And Other Things That Go Bump At Halloween
How To Avoid Viruses That Come In The Mail
October 27th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
There are dozens of attack vectors that people must look out for when they are surfing the Internet. One of the oldest but still effective vectors of attack that you must look out for is the use of email. People still tend to treat email very casually and are not on their guard when they use it. I will show you how email can be used against you and what you can do to keep from getting infected. Beware Of Email Attachments There are many things that you must look out for when you open your email but the number one thing that can get you in trouble is by opening up your attachments. Email attachments are files that are sent to you when you receive an email. They may be in the form of a music file, a pdf, a word document, or a funny little video. All of these types of files can be classified under the term of “attachments”. These files while overall harmless can also be used to send a virus to your computer. Some of these files such as a pdf or a flash file have known exploits that can be taken advantage of to infect your computer. Other files can be disguised to look like one type of file such as a mp3 music file but in actuality be an executable file. This is known as a Trojan. An executable file is a file that runs an actual program on your computer. This program can be the virus or a Trojan itself and you will never know that it is running. Also an email can be used to send a link to someone to direct them towards going to another web page. This can also be used as an attack vector against an unwitting victim. Most links that you will be sent in an email are harmless, but some are not, so it pays to always be prepared. Once the person clicks the link in the email, they will be sent to a web page which can either load a virus onto their computer or ask them vital personal details in a technique called phishing . This is a very popular attack vector and one of the most easiest to implement. You can avoid getting a virus onto your computer several different ways. Some techniques include common sense, others include outside program that will help keep you safe. The first step is to make sure that you only open attachments and visit links sent by people that you know. This is not a hundred percent effective method of avoiding getting infected but it does help slim down the chances. Strange emails that send attachments and links are always a sure sign that someone is up to no good. Avoid clicking these types of emails whenever possible. If you receive a link from a friend, email them back first to verify that they did indeed send a link and their email is not being spoofed. Once that is verified it should be pretty safe to go to that link. Some email programs such yahoo and gmail come with virus scanners already attached but it helps if you have your own anti virus already going on your computer. This is the most effective way to avoid getting attacked. When someone that you know sends you an attachment in your email, just download it onto your computer, and scan it with your antivirus program before you click on it to run it. Always Keep Your Antivirus Program Updated An updated virus scanner is a great way to beat the scammers at their own game. An updated anti virus program is the number one protection. Hopefully we made you more familiar on how people will try to attack your computer through email and have given you the means on how to defeat such an attack. Remember that an updated anti virus program is your best bet. An updated antivirus and the use of your own common sense is the best way to go.
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How To Avoid Viruses That Come In The Mail
Web-based Email Solutions Offer Backup For Cell Phone Contacts
October 26th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Because most mobile devices have at least a WAP browser, one alternative to the e-mail service provided by your cell carrier is to use a Web-based e-mail client. You can access your e-mail, and many Web-based e-mail services will send alerts to your mobile phone to let you know when you have new e-mail. Both Yahoo! mail and MSN Hotmail support mobile devices. A Web-based e-mail service also solves another problem for many mobile users: storing contact information for a large number of people. While some devices, a PDA for instance, can store a large number of contacts in great detail, the average cell phone is limited in the amount of contact information it can store. Some cell phones don’t store e-mail contacts at all. A Web-based e-mail client usually enables you to store and manage your contacts on the Web site and to access your address book from your mobile device when you are composing e-mail. Some of the e-mail accounts provided by cell carriers also have a Web-based interface where you can manage your e-mail and address book. Storing and managing your contacts via a Web site is also safer. If your mobile device is lost or stolen, your contact information isn’t on it. Your information will be safe and sound on a server, and you won’t lose a thing. This also is more convenient when you are switching to a new phone; you don’t have to re-enter all of your contacts on a new device. Just use the new device to access your online address book.
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Web-based Email Solutions Offer Backup For Cell Phone Contacts
Windows 7 Has Improved Security Features Built In
October 22nd, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Microsoft has brought a new entrant into the operating system wars and it’s name is Windows 7 . After Windows Vista has pretty much turned out to be a dud, even though the security in the system proved to be much improved over previous version of Windows, Microsoft seems to have found a winner in Windows 7 and especially in their expanded security front. The tools are now easier to use and the capabilities of the security that are built in has been expanded as well. I will go over with you, the built in tools that you should be utilizing to keep Windows 7 a fun experience. User Account Control (UAC) The first thing that the people over at Microsoft have done to make the dealing with security of Windows a better experience is to make the UAC (User Account Control) a more pleasurable item to work with. The UAC now allows less software events to make it create a pop up. This will cause more users to not want to turn it off so they will have a sane computing experience! The main problem in Windows Vista was the fact that this pop up would go off an insane amount of times, causing many of the complaints that Vista received. The new UAC also has four levels of security warnings, ranging from “always notify” to “never notify”. “Never notify” is a better option than to turn it off completely. Even though you do not see the pop up warnings, UAC is still working in the background, allowing you to still be protected. BitLocker Encryption An innovation that Microsoft introduced in Vista was the BitLocker feature. This allowed you to encrypt and protect your hard drive. This feature was limited in Vista to protecting your main partition and other drives surrounding it. Now you are able to encrypt and protect portable media as well. This is a big improvement and will allow you to feel safe if you ever lose your thumb drive while walking around your city or neighborhood. Also Microsoft has allowed BitLocker to be used without the TPM chip being built onto the computer motherboard. This allows everyone to have the option of having their drives protected. It is not the default choice and you will have to activate the ability to use Bitlocker without the chip. Additional Security Features Microsoft has many more new and improved security features that have been built into Windows 7. This list includes the new Direct Access, which allows workers to seamlessly connect to their work network automatically and securely, as well as Applocker, which prevents unauthorized scripts and programs from running on the machine. These are mostly security features that will interest IT administrators so I will not go into detail about them here. Overall Microsoft has done well in improving their security features in Windows 7. Being built upon a decent security scheme, such as Vista, and making it more user friendly as well has created a better overall experience. It has really brought them into the world of having a grade A security system.
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Windows 7 Has Improved Security Features Built In
Avoiding Spyware With Windows 7
October 22nd, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
You should, by now, be aware that Microsoft is introducing a brand new operating system into its Windows line of OS. The new operating system is called Windows 7 and from running it, it seems to be a more stable and more secured operating system. This is very good news for people that may have had security issues with Microsoft products in the past. Unfortunately some security issues still remain that will not be helped by simply upgrading your operating system. Spyware still remains a constant annoyance when you are using a computer. I will try to walk you down the way of avoiding spyware on your system by using common sense and new upgraded technology from Windows and other third party software vendors. Microsoft has spent years trying to help their third party software creators come up with a solution to the spyware problem. Windows Defender Finally a couple of years ago they threw their hat into the ring and introduced a new product called Windows Defender. This product was shipped with Windows Vista and was available as a free download to Windows XP users. Now it is again being shipped with Windows 7 and has been much improved. This system was put down by professional security people in the past but this new updated edition has been getting good reviews for the most part. Microsoft have taken what they have learned and improved this product a great deal. Third Party Anti-Spyware Vendors You will also have third party software vendors that are coming to the party, trying to protect your computer from devious spyware offenders. Most of the major spyware software manufacturers have been upgraded to include protection for Windows 7 systems. A lot of these software companies have had to use beta Windows 7 software to test their product so they might be a step behind the companies that Microsoft has closely worked with. With the release of the new operating system though this will not be an issue much longer. Once they get their hands on the final OS version, they will be able to keep up with anyone. The software products Ad-Aware or Malwarebytes still seem to be the best of the breed when it comes to software solutions. It doesn’t matter if you have the best software on your computer if you do not keep it updated on a regular basis though. Internet Security Begins And Ends With YOU! All of the increase technology that comes with installing a new operating system version will not mean anything if you are not using common sense while surfing the Internet. New technology works a lot better if the person operating the new technology does not work against it. I do not mean to be harsh but a lot of the problems that people get involved in can usually be avoided with a little common sense. Most of the time people realize this themselves when they sit and think about it, after they have made the blunder. So the first thing is that you do not want to go to any strange web sites while surfing the Internet. If you are not sure about a web site, Google it first to see if anybody has complained about it. Most web sites that will compromise your system have already been ran across and someone has complained about them. Also do not download any software or files from people you do not know that you may receive through email or Instant Messenger systems. This is rarely legitimate and I would even suggest that files that you receive from friends you double check. Email them first and ask if they sent their files and where did they get the file from. We have given you both software and common sense solutions that may help you avoid getting spyware or something worse into your system. It is up to you to maintain vigilance and keep your system safe.
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Avoiding Spyware With Windows 7
Taking Screen Shots Can Help With Data Recovery
October 21st, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Losing your computer is something that no-one wants to happen. You have lots of valuable information on your computer, and maybe music and pictures too, that might not be stored anywhere else. Thats why you should always back up your files, programs and pictures. There are a lot of methods you can use to backup this valuable information. One of those is taking snapshots which is a great way to save aggravation when things go wrong. Whenever you have downloaded a new program get into the habit of taking a snapshot. You can download free programs such as Gimp, or you can purchase one like paint shop pro, that will allow you to take screen shots. When you take the screen shots, get a USB flash drive and store it up in your drive. Recording and taking screen shots of whatever you’re doing will help you no end when an error comes up on your computer. If you have never backed up any information before you should get at least two USB flash drives to ensure that you will be able to back up everything. If you have used up almost all of your spare storage space, you might even consider buying three of them. Always clean out your cookies everyday or every couple of days. It varies on every computer where you can clean out your cookies but they also have free cookie programs that perform a deep clean on your computer. Cleaning out your cookies is vital because it will help with making sure things don’t go wrong on your computer.
Securing Your Brand New Windows 7 System
October 21st, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
The age of Windows 7 is upon us as the new operating system from Microsoft will be released in the next few hours. As usual there will be the normal people who update as soon as the new system is available on shelves or is ready to legitimately be downloaded. There are also others who will update when they get a new computer over time. Windows 7 Security Whatever type of person you are, it will pay to know how to secure your new operating system from all of the dangers that the Internet can contain. With the releases of this new operating system a lot of the old exploits will be made null and void. But, as with any expansive piece of new software being released, new exploits will be found and taken advantage of. It will pay for you to be prepared in the long run. Securing Windows 7 is not too much different than securing Windows Vista or Windows XP. Again it will take a combination of the latest software and the (much needed) common sense on your part to keep your operating system secured. Antivirus The first thing that you will want to do is to make sure that you have the latest version of antivirus that you use on your computer. Microsoft has been working with all of the biggest vendors that provide antivirus solutions , so that they could keep their software updated for the new OS. Now might be a good time to think about switching to one of these vendors for a short time while the other companies race to catch up. You do not want to use an outdated and incomplete antivirus system on your new operating system. Firewall Microsoft has also upgraded the choices that you now have with their integrated firewall that comes built into the system. It is now easier than ever to allow certain pieces of software to talk to an outside network with your permission. The outbound and inbound network traffic analyzer has been much improved. The whole program has been made more flexible, which was a major complaint in the past. As I said with the antivirus if you use a third party firewall , then you might want to go with one of the major companies until the smaller companies have had a chance to catch up. Until they catch up the built-in Firewall that Windows 7 provides is a decent solution. Spyware Spyware will still end up being a problem with your new system, even though they have taken steps to try to eliminate the problem. Their solution to the problem, Windows Defender, has been upgraded and has been receiving major kudos this time around from the security community. For a short amount of time they will have the inside track as being one of the better spyware solutions until the others have caught up. One of the best in the business, Ad-Aware, I did not see on the list of companies that Microsoft has been working with. This will give them a temporary disadvantage but not much of one since beta copies of Windows 7 have been released all through the development cycle. So I hope this article gives you a good understanding on what’s available and how to secure your brand new Windows 7 system. Not too much has changed but the security has been raised to a new level.
What Exactly Is Scareware?
October 19th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
The term ‘Scareware’ is often applied to software that is in some way deceptive. (Scareware can also be known as fraudware and includes rogue scanners) A future article will look at how scareware has evolved into ‘ransomware’. What Is The Point Of Scareware? The aim of scareware is quite simply to frighten people into buying something that they otherwise wouldn’t want. In many respects scareware acts like a Trojan, deceiving recipients into installing an unwanted program. Whilst scareware can refer to many different types of products it is typically associated with antivirus scams in which the tactic is to suggest that your computer is either at risk or already infected. Naturally, the scareware then offers the solution – a highly overpriced piece of software which offers to right all the wrongs that have been identified on your system. In fact, only today, I read an interesting article on the BBC website which claims up to 40 million people have fallen victim to such scams in the last year! Its no surprise then that scareware scams are a growth industry – too many internet users have insufficient knowledge to protect themselves and are easily duped by such schemes, spending their money on fake antivirus products that either do not work or, in some cases, actually install Trojans and viruses themselves. How Does Scareware Work? There are 3 main ways in which scareware will trick you somehow – Getting you to pay up – You buy the fake antivirus product, which is bad enough, but then the scammers take your credit card details too! Zombie time – Many scareware programs will ensnare the victim machines into a botnet which can then be used for sending spam or engaging in DDoS attacks. Identity theft – Scareware can install keystroke loggers and Trojans which will record what you do online and search your files for anything containing your private or financial information. How Do I Protect Myself Against Scareware? Avoiding scams isn’t so hard – common sense and inquisitiveness go a long way. If a popup window appears on your computer then you should question it and never, ever buy online unless you yourself have taken your browser to the page you wish to buy from. Here are 3 more tips for avoiding scareware and fake antivirus scams – Only use antivirus programs that have come from a legitimate security vendor – here are the best 10 free ones . Always read your email in plain text – this looks horrible but will display links as they really are, rather than disguised by fancy pictures. Be wary of email attachments – unless you completely trust the sender then do not open them and never be tempted by email offers of free antivirus programs from companies you’ve never heard of. Once again, only buy or download security software from trusted sources – here are 10 more that I trust – and stay safe!
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What Exactly Is Scareware?
Let Your Children Access The Net Safely With KidRocket
October 18th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
A couple of months ago I wrote about some child-safe browsers I came across. Here is one of them in more detail : KidRocket . Just as the name suggests, KidRocket is a computer application developed for Kids. KidRocket is actually a wonderful web browser which allows your kids to learn more about computers in an interactive manner. At the same time KidRocket keeps your desktop safe from those same jubilant, curious and sometimes naughty children! I would say that KidRocket is aimed at younger children, much as I concluded with Kido’z . The best thing about KidRocket is that its a standalone application. You do not have to install this application on your computer to make use of it. KidRocket is completely different from other conventional kid browsers. Instead of limiting access to the Internet, or filtering unauthorized content, KidRocket completely blocks the Internet and allows your children to use trusted web sites only. What exactly can this innovative kids Internet browser provide your kids with though? You cannot keep your kids in the dark about computers these days – they are here to stay and your children will have to use them as they get older. KidRocket allows you to completely lock your desktop and provides a completely different environment for your kids, where they can learn, play and have fun. Below are some of the amazing features of KidRocket – ART Here, your children can show their artistic ideas with different colors. Your child can either choose Doodle or StarBrite to put their decorated and colorful ideas onto the desktop. MATH This web browser is not all about fun though, it is in fact meant for learning too. By chosing the MATH option, your kids can brush up their fundamental mathematical concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This feature provides questions to your kids in the form of flash cards, which makes it an intuitive and fun learning tool. EMAIL Your children can get used to using email here in a manner that is totally safe. Using KidRocket, your kids can send emails to their grandparents, friends and relatives. Your kids can even take prints of their emails. You also have the option of blocking this email feature if you should consider it to be an unsafe option. ADMIN Here you get to access the timer which can control how much access time your kids are allowed to have. Once the alloted amount of time is over the application is closed automatically. I would imagine that most parents would love this feature! LAUNCH Launch is perhaps the most interesting feature offered by KidRocket. This feature allows your kids to use some of the kid safe web sites which can both educate and interest them whilst guaranteeing their safety at the same time. You can just relax while your children browse, learn and play on the safest web sites present on the world wide web. With KidRocket installed on your computer, you can allow your kids to use a computer in the safest possible way. You don’t need to worry about the important files on your computer and you don’t need to be apprehensive about the web sites your kids are viewing. Get your computer equipped with KidRocket , and allow your kids learn and play on their computer in the safest possible environment.
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Let Your Children Access The Net Safely With KidRocket
What Are Trojan Horses And Worms?
October 16th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
What Is Meant By ‘Trojan’ And ‘Worm’? Trojans and Worms are small unwanted programs which hamper the performance of your computer to a great extent. But what do Trojans and worms actually do? These are designed to retrieve your confidential information from your computer which includes your passwords, bank account numbers, credit card information etc. Trojans do no spread whereas worms replicate vigorously and capture all the information available on your system. People who are new to the Internet, and sometimes even experienced users, download some strange and dangerous files which then turn out to be Trojans and Worms. The Klez, I LOVE YOU and SirCam viruses are few such examples. Trojans can also be carriers for different viruses so they can be termed as WRAPPERS too. On the other hand, Worms are small programs designed by programmers to capture the email IDs of those they ensnare which they then usually sell to advertisers for the purpose of marketing their products, so they replicate very quickly. Once you think you have found any Trojan or Worm on your computer, I strongly advise you to use a good antivirus program to scan you computer in order to terminate their activities. You must also make sure that the antivirus program used by you is updated on a regular basis. Prevention Measures To Keep Your Computer Clean From Trojans And Worms Trojan.IrcBounce, IRC/FinalBot, WinHelp.a, VBS.Stages, love-letter-for you.txt.vbs, MyPicture.bmp.vbs are some of the most dangerous Trojans and Worms. But by staying alert and by following preventive measures you can keep your computer system safe from harm. Below are some tips that will allow you to avoid Trojans and worms: Most importantly, always use a good antivirus program which would let you know whenever a Trojan or Worm enters into your computer and then ensure it’s removal. Always scan any email attachments you receive before downloading or opening them, even if they are sent by your friend. This is the reason that all email services provide in-built antivirus scanners . Only use reliable and trustworthy sources for downloading files. You need to be careful while you are downloading the files such as .EXE, .COM, .VBS, .BAT, .HLP and .DLL. Always use a strong and healthy Firewall. Many Operating Systems do provide their own Firewalls but using an external Firewall typically ensures better security and safety. It enables you to keep a check on the applications using your computer resources. Completely avoid using insecure Peer to Peer networks. Always delete your Temporary Internet Files, Cache and Cookies whenever you finish browsing. Play Safe To Stay Safe!
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What Are Trojan Horses And Worms?
Getting Started With Data Protection – Using A USB Flash Drive For Backups
October 15th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
One inexpensive purchase that you can make that will help you with backing up your data and avoiding losing everything is a flash card or a USB memory flash drive. Most people tend to go for flash drives. A great thing about getting a flash drive is that they can read and write data at a much greater speed, and they last longer, than a floppy disk. They also don’t suffer from scratches and other forms of damage in the way that CDs and DVDs do. Some people confuse USB Flash Drives with USB Hard Drives when they are not in fact the same thing. USB hard drives tend to be much larger in capacity and are suited to backing up entire systems or at least larger files. A flash drive is tends to have a lower capacity, at a lower cost of course, and is better suited to backing up smaller files, such as your photo albums. For instance, a 32 GB flash drive is relatively cheap these days and would probably be sufficient for storing all the pictures on your computer, and much more besides. Flash Drives Are Easy To Install It’s very easy to install a flash drive, though I would recommend learning a little about security first so that you can avoid transporting malware, such as the dreaded Conficker virus . Every modern computer has ports that are shaped like a rectangle – they tend to be small ports located on the top, back or front of your PC. Turn on your computer and insert the flash drive into one of these ports. It doesn’t matter which one you use. A menu should then appear on your screen confirming that the device you just plugged in is ready for use. From then on you should be able to use your flash drive like a regular drive – just drag and drop, or copy and paste, the files you wish to backup onto it.
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Getting Started With Data Protection – Using A USB Flash Drive For Backups
Conficker – How To Kill DLL Files And Delete Registry Keys And Values
October 14th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
The Conficker virus is now known by many names, including – W32/Conficker.worm Win32/Conficker.A W32.Downadup Downadup Kido Confiker but it doesn’t really matter what you call it – it is a total and far-reaching menace that has spread far and wide across the internet. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video Exploiting flaws found in Windows MS08-067 vulnerability , Conficker continues to infect machines worldwide and may now be installed on as many as 15 million computers across the globe. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video If you are unfortunate enough to become infected with Conficker then you will probably quickly discover that you cannot access security websites and that services such as Windows Security Center, Windows Error Reporting and Windows Defender have been disabled. Not only that but Conficker has the ability to spread itself to other vulnerable computers via many means, including networks and external drives. So, if one computer in a network is infected, then all the others are likely to become infected too. Microsoft has released a patch to fix the Windows vulnerability and here is how you can manually remove Conficker from your system – Killing off the Conficker DLL files This is a fairly simple task, as detailed below – 1. Right-click the Explorer.exe process and choose the option “Properties”. 2. Click on the “Threads” Tab, locate and highlight the Conficker DLL files listed below. 3. To kill Conficker DLL files, click the “Kill” button. 4. Kill the following Conficker DLL files: %All Users Application Data%[RANDOM FILE NAME].dll %Program Files%Movie Maker[RANDOM FILE NAME].dll %Program Files%Internet Explorer[RANDOM FILE NAME].dll [RANDOM FILE NAME].dll vhoinp.dll [RANDOM FILE NAME].dll Deleting Conficker Registry Keys and Values 1. Right-click on your Desktop > select “New” option > select “Text Document” (.txt file) option. 2. Rename the .txt file as a .reg file and call it “Delete_Registry_Conficker_Entities.reg”. This renamed .reg file is a command that creates a shortcut to your Windows registry and allows you to easily delete registry values. 3. Right-click and select the “Edit” option. 4. Copy and paste the Conficker keys listed below – [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSNTCURRENTVERSIONWINDOWSAPPINIT_DLLSvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWS NTCURRENTVERSIONWINLOGONNOTIFYvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstallvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerSharedTaskSchedulervhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerURLSearchHooksvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONPOLICIESEXPLORERRUNvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerToolbarvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerExplorer Barsvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerExtensionsvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONRUNvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONRUNONCEvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONRUNONCEEXvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerSharedTaskSchedulervhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerURLSearchHooksvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONPOLICIESEXPLORERRUNvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerToolbarvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerExplorer Barsvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerExtensionsvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONRUNvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONRUNONCEvhoinp.dll] [-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSIONRUNONCEEXvhoinp.dll] 5. In the menu bar, go to “File” > select “Save” > then click the “X” button to close the file. 6. Double-click on the .reg file. 7. When the message box appears saying “Are you sure you want to add the information in C:DOCUME~1DesktopDELETE~1.REG to the registry?”, click the “Yes” button. 8. When the message box appears saying “Information in C:DOCUME~1DesktopDELETE~1.REG has been successfully entered into the registry.”, click the “OK” button. 9. The Conficker registry keys have now been deleted from your registry. Hopefully that should do the trick for you and you can continue surfing without being bothered by Conficker again – just remember to keep your operating system fully patched and updated!
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Conficker – How To Kill DLL Files And Delete Registry Keys And Values
What Is Spam, What Are It’s Effects And How Do You Prevent It?
October 14th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Over time the internet has become huge and it continues to grow at an amazing rate. Almost every person who uses the internet has their own email address, or perhaps even several. Therefore I would be shocked if you are unfamiliar with the term’ spam’ , though you may be unaware of it’s actual effects and the measures you can take to prevent it. On technical terms Spam is actually an Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) which refers to an email message sent to a person without his/her prior request. Spam costs virtually nothing to send and the costs are paid by the recipient (time lost in dealing with it) and the carriers (bandwidth used) rather than by the sender. This is the reason why advertisers use Spam to market their unauthorized products. Below are the different types of Spam that you should be cautious of: Phishing spam – a popular and heinous type of scam Foreign bank spam Get rich easily and quickly spam Illicitly pirated software News group and forum spam The effects of spam Individuals, or a group of users, are easily targeted by email spam. Spam usually arises as a result of giving out your email address on an unauthorized or unscupulous website. Here are some of the effects of Spam: Fills your Inbox with number of ridiculous emails. Degrades your Internet speed to a great extent. Steals useful information like your details on you Contact list. Alters your search results on any search engine. Spam is a huge waste of everybody’s time and can quickly become very frustrating if you receive large amounts of it like I do. Preventing spam There are some effective measures that you can employ to stop spam entering your inbox: Always use an updated and trustworthy antivirus program. Never share your email address and personal information like credit card details with an unreliable source. Avoid responding to any emails that you never asked for. If you receive such email then delete it immediately. Try to avoid emails with the subject “need assistance or some funds “, or any other catchy titles. And never, ever forward such emails since they could be targeted to obtain as many number of mails email addresses as possible. Whenever you need to forward an email to a group of people make use of BCC field which enables you to of hide the email addresses from each of the other recipients. Never mention your email address in newsletters or instant messenger chats. Switch off the reading pane in email clients such as Outlook. It can be done by View –> Reading Pane – Off. Hopefully the above will minimise the amount of spam you receive. If you still get too much junk mail then I would recommend getting a good email filter/blocker such as Spam Bully .
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What Is Spam, What Are It’s Effects And How Do You Prevent It?
The Perfect Illustration Of What Koobface Can Do To Your Computer
October 10th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15708236@N07/2846915408/ If you wake up one morning to find your computer smiling back at you with a face like the one above then you’re well and truly screwed – you’ve been infected by the mischievous Koobface Virus !
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The Perfect Illustration Of What Koobface Can Do To Your Computer
How Do I Remove Conficker After It Disables My Antivirus?
October 9th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
The Conficker virus differs from other viruses online because it is one of the few malicious worms that have already learned how to protect themselves from deletion. One of the first steps that all of the different variants of the virus take is to disable all anti-virus software and updates that you may have on your operating system. This ensures that the hole it entered through stays open so that it can continue to host and download files on your computer without any interference. Additionally, once you have the Conficker virus, it pays close attention to your browsing habits, disabling your entry to any websites such as Microsoft or anti-virus websites that could help you rid your system of it. So, if the virus itself prevents you from reaching any type of aid, how do you get rid of it once you have it? Well, there is no set way to remove the Conficker virus from your computer since there are different variants that attack in different manners but there are a few basic tips that may help you remove it on your own before it destroys your operating system. Many people have found a way around its limited browsing stipulations by having a friend email them an anti-virus download or the Conficker security patch. While you may no longer be able to access a downloadable removal service for the virus from your computer, you are still able to access software in your email, so this may be an effective way to attack the virus. You may also consider taking your computer to a computer repair technician if you are suspicious you have the Conficker virus because the longer you allow it to feed on your system the more irreparable the damage it is likely to cause. If all else fails, reformatting is always effective, but be careful when transferring files to an external storage space because variant B of the Conficker virus will ride along on your storage card to make sure it can re-infect your computer when you reload your files.
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How Do I Remove Conficker After It Disables My Antivirus?
What Makes A Hacker Hack And A Cracker Crack?
October 8th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
There are as many reasons for hacking as there are hackers . Personality traits of a hacker It’s hard to pin down just a few personality traits that define a hacker. A typical hacker profile is a male, age 14 to 40, with above-average intelligence, obsessively inquisitive with regards to technology, non-conformist, introverted, and with broad intellectual interests. A hacker is driven to learn everything he can about any subject that interests him. In fact, most hackers that excel with technology also have proficiency in no technological hobbies or interests. Hackers tend to devour information, hoarding it away for some future time when a random bit of technical trivia may help them solve an intriguing problem. Hackers seem especially fond of complex intellectual challenges and will move on to a new project once the challenge and novelty wears off. Personality traits of a cracker Contrast this with the following cracker/script kiddy profile and you start to get an idea of why hackers resent being lumped in with crackers. The average cracker or script kiddy (in the United States) is a 14- to 28-year old white male, usually intelligent but academically underachieving, who lives in his parents’ basement and collects comic books (OK, I added those last two). Cultural and behavioral distinctions between groups can help identify a cracker because they often leave clues when they deface a Web site or break into a computer. Crackers and script kiddies differ from ethical hackers. They often lack social skills, are loners (most hackers I know love company), and show poor judgment and impulse control. Where a hacker may work for days or weeks to solve a particularly difficult problem, a script kiddy lacks the discipline to even begin to become a competent programmer and so depends on code written by real hackers. Financial gain motivates some crackers. Credit card and bank fraud present opportunities to use cracking to increase personal wealth. Cracker/script kiddy culture sees stealing from large corporations as a kind of Robin Hood game. While major financial crimes involving crackers are not commonplace, there have been instances of theft on a grand scale by the more talented among them. In 1994, a Russian computer programmer stole millions of dollars from Citibank accounts. The cracker, Vladimir Levin, was part of a group that created a complicated scheme of wire transfers and pickup all over the world.
In What Ways Can A WLAN Be Attacked?
October 8th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
Just as there are many ways to attack a wired network, there are numerous ways to attack a WLAN . If a WLAN isn’t secured properly, an attacker may be simply able to connect to the network without having to make any sort of elaborate effort and without using any specific exploit. When the situation warrants, crackers have a number of techniques for cracking a WLAN. A basic understanding of these attacks will give you a better idea of the threats you face and how you should deal with them. Crackers are continually locating new avenues for intrusion and updating their tools to take advantage of them. Many types of exploits are very technical and require significant knowledge of networking to understand. Man-in-the-Middle Attack A man-in-the-middle-attack involves an attacker intercepting and monitoring network traffic or client authorization information and using it to authenticate with a server. In the first attack, an attacker intercepts authentication data from a legitimate user’s computer by configuring his computer to pose as an access point and then uses that data to authenticate his own computer with the network server. The attacker can then gain access to additional network resources. The attacker listens for a reply to the ARP request and then either “spoofs” the MAC address by posing as a legitimate computer or sends an unsolicited ARP reply by transmitting his own MAC address to the WLAN. Computers on the network receive the unsolicited ARP reply and update their list (cache) of MAC addresses with the attacker’s MAC address. Legitimate computers may then associate the attacker’s MAC address with that of a legitimate one by routing traffic to the attacker’s machine. In the second method, an attacker listens for and intercepts an address resolution protocol (ARP) request sent from one legitimate user’s computer to another. ARP is a network protocol used to determine a computer’s physical network address, which is also known as the media access control layer address (MAC address). Every NIC and access point has a unique MAC address assigned at the factory where it is manufactured. MAC Address Spoofing Attack An attacker monitoring traffic on a WLAN can listen for replies to ARP requests and intercept MAC addresses of legitimate computers on a network. The attacker then configures his computer to transmit and receive data on the network using a stolen MAC address to gain access to network resources and information. Internet Protocol Address Spoofing Attack To gain access to a WLAN, an attacker can acquire an Internet protocol address. Using a sniffer, the attacker monitors the WLAN to see what IP addresses the WLAN uses (this range of addresses is called the subnet). After the attacker determines the IP subnet, he assigns himself an unused address and connects to the WLAN. If a network uses the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), it’s even simpler. DHCP software automatically assigns IP addresses to computers logging onto the network. If an attacker knows the service set identifier (SSID) for the network (which can also be sniffed), he can connect, and the access point or router with DHCP software will assign him an IP address. Manufacturers have included DHCP service in most routers and access points. Denial of Service Attack An attacker doesn’t use a denial of service (DoS) attack to gain access to a WLAN. Instead, DoS attacks are used to deny legitimate users access to the network and its services. WLANs are vulnerable to DoS attacks in a number of ways. First, using a brute-force attack, an attacker can “flood” an access point with network traffic, which effectively shuts it down for other users. Users attempting to use that AP are unable to connect, which is much like receiving a busy signal when calling someone on the telephone. An attacker can also use a high-power radio source on the same frequency to interfere with the WLAN and drown out its signal. The resulting radio noise prevents devices on the network from talking to and hearing one another, which brings network operation to a halt. This sort of attack is risky for an attacker. Getting close enough to the WLAN with a high-powered transmitter can make him easy to locate using sniffers and scanners. A denial of service resulting from a high-powered signal may not always be an intentional attack. RF interference from other devices that share the same spectrum could result in essentially the same network conditions as a DoS attack. However, this sort of accidental “attack” is rare if you take care in designing your network. DoS attacks are nothing new. They’ve been a problem on wired networks and the Internet for years. Certain applications and devices are susceptible to different forms of DoS attacks. Crackers may exploit design flaws that can trigger shutdown or crashing of devices. The best way to become aware of these DoS threats is to be knowledgeable about vulnerabilities that affect your equipment and deal with them as they arise.
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In What Ways Can A WLAN Be Attacked?
Securing Your WLAN With Encryption
October 6th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
Encryption has been in use for a long time. The ancient Greeks and Romans used early encryption techniques to secure their communications, and governments and individuals have used encryption ever since. Many early types of encryption are still in use in some form today, including steganography, restrictive algorithms, and proprietary encryption schemes. These older encryption techniques often suffer from numerous design and implementation flaws, and, when companies integrate them into networking products, security ultimately suffers. Modern encryption techniques Modern encryption techniques utilizing computers and advanced mathematical science are far more secure than those that preceded them. They use unrestricted algorithms in conjunction with numeric keys to secure information. Because unrestricted algorithms are public, and have been tested and withstood scrutiny and attack by the world’s best cryptanalysts, they are more secure than the older restrictive algorithms. These techniques, even though they are not foolproof, have proven to be robust and reasonably secure. WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is the encryption standard developed for wireless networking. WEP encrypts data traveling between access points and computers on the network. It’s a nice name, but the technology hasn’t lived up to its promise. WEP suffers from a number of flaws that allow attackers to discover keys by analyzing network traffic. Attackers can then decrypt all data in real time and continue to compromise the network. WPA In order to improve security, the Wi-Fi Alliance developed a new standard known as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). WPA is much more secure than WEP, however, some older devices may not be upgradeable to WPA, and older mobile devices (Pocket PC and Palm) may not have enough processing power to take advantage of WPA. Although it is better, WPA is vulnerable to simple DoS attack. If an attacker sends two forged data packets to a WPA-enabled access point in under one second, he can trick WPA into thinking it’s under attack and force it to shut down for over a minute. This effectively locks all users out of the access point. If the attacker does this repeatedly, he can cause real headaches. All protocols are susceptible to DoS attacks in some form, so this is a trivial vulnerability. I say don’t worry about it; if your system allows you to do so, upgrade to WPA as soon as you can. If WPA is compatible with your network, then enable it. You can enable WPA (and WEP) using the configuration utility for your device or through its Web interface. If you can’t use WPA, then use WEP. Even if WEP can be broken, it takes some effort, and you can deter all but the most determined crackers. Faced with having to crack WEP or simply moving on to the next open WLAN, most crackers will just move along. VPN If you telecommute or work from home and need extra protection, use a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN acts as a “tunnel” to protect data traveling between your workplace and home (or laptop). Chances are good that your company already has one installed so all you need to do is contact your IT dept and (very nicely!) ask for a VPN client. This allows you to check and send e-mail and other data through an encrypted link with the company mail server. Dealing with Default Settings Failing to change the default settings on WLAN equipment can facilitate attacks and allow unskilled script kiddies to access your network with little effort. Each manufacturer has default settings for all the equipment they produce. These settings facilitate installing the equipment; unfortunately, many users never change them. They just take their router out of the box, hook it up, and start using it. Default settings are public knowledge to crackers, who post them all over the Internet. There are default settings for passwords, SSIDs, broadcast strength, and IP addresses. Failing to change any of these can leave your network vulnerable to attack.
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Securing Your WLAN With Encryption
Protecting Your Kids With Computer Parental Control
October 6th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Every day, millions and millions of children surf the web. Every time they surf the web, they are at risk of seeing extremely graphic and disturbing images – images even too much for many adults to see. These images often include hardcore pornography. Even though many parents feel that they have taught their children how to use the internet properly and carefully, this is often not enough. Once the children hit a certain age (usually their teenage years), they are at great risk of coming into contact with pornography , or even chatting with online predators. Many teenagers may even put photos of themselves online, making it much easier for predators to find them. The other problem with chatting is that teenagers can easily give out personal information in a matter of seconds, making them extremely vulnerable to online predators. TAKE STEPS THAT HELP Being aware of what your children are doing online is extremely important in order to eliminate some, or all of the above risks. You can take a few steps that will help, which include putting your computer in the living room, or even peaking over their shoulder once in a while. Make sure they notice you are peaking over their shoulder – this will make the chance of them visiting certain restricted sites a lot less. Even though it may not seem right morally, an act like this can save you and your children a lot of pain and trouble in the future. INSTALL A PORN BLOCKER PROGRAM Even after taking the above precautions, it is close to impossible to monitor every move your children are making online. It is quite a scary thought for many parents, but there is one method that has been proven effective for many years – porn blockers. Porn blockers do exactly as the name states – block porn. How do they do that? They filter through the web every day, building list of adult websites to block. Obviously, it is very difficult to block every single adult website, but programs like ContentPurity and other similar software blocks a good majority of the adult based websites. These programs also blocks websites with certain keywords, and you can even customize these keywords yourself most of the time. These days, almost every household consists at least computer, while many have up to two, three, or even four. With such access to computers and the internet, children are at very high risk for seeing content that is simply not meant for their age group. Thus, as a parent, it is important to take the right step and purchase or find a good free porn blocker program such to ensure that your children will not be at risk of watching videos, which are not meant for their age. Even though you may feel some sort of guilt monitoring your children’s online activities, it is something you must do as a parent. Their mind has not fully developed yet in that time of their life and much of the content on the web is just not meant for them to see.
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Protecting Your Kids With Computer Parental Control
The Top 10 Free Online Antivirus Scanners Of 2009
October 5th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
Online virus scanners are a good means of detecting malware on your system and they can be employed if your regular security software is not working, i.e. because some infection is blocking it. They are not, however, a good substitute for actually having a good antivirus program installed locally on your computer. I’ve already compiled lists of what I believe to be the best 10 free antivirus and the top 10 paid antivirus programs of the year. Here is the final piece of the puzzle, the best of the online virus scanners – The Top 10 Free Online Virus Scanners Of 2009 #1 BITDEFENDER QUICKSCAN From the BitDefender site – Very fast scanning. Less than 60 seconds Runs online from any Internet connected PC Doesn’t slow down your PC Based on award wining BitDefender anti-malware technologies This particular scanner only detects viruses, it doesn’t remove them. You can find this virus scanner here : BitDefender Quickscan #2 F-SECURE ONLINE VIRUS SCANNER F-Secure’s free Online virus scanner can not only detect viruses and trojans but it can also remove them It can also take care of spyware too. This particular scanner works on Internet Explorer 6 or newer (with ActiveX and Javascript enabled) or, alternatively, on the Firefox 3 browser. You can find this virus scanner here : F-Secure Online Virus Scanner #3 FORTIGUARD CENTER ONLINE VIRUS SCANNER FortiGuard Center can only detect viruses and is not suitable for removing them. FortiGuard can be used to scan the files that are on your computer and you also have the option of submitting multiple files to their research labs for analysis. One point to note though is that you can only check one file at a time and there is a file size limit of 1MB. You can find this virus scanner here : FortiGuard Online Virus Scanner #4 JOTTI ONLINE MALWARE SCAN Jotti utilises results from several different scanners to inform you of any infections you may have on your system. This particular scan is good for detection purposes but cannot be used for removing malware. You can find this virus scanner here : Jotti Malware Scan #5 KASPERSKY FREE ONLINE VIRUS SCAN Kaspersky are a well known member of the antivirus market and they too offer a free online virus scanning tool. Again, this one is only good for detection and not removal but their scanner is much quicker and more efficient than some of the alternatives. You can set the Kaspersky online virus scanner to trawl through individual files, folders or even entire drives on your computer. You can find this virus scanner here : Kaspersky Free Online Virus Scan (temporarily unavailable at the time of writing) #6 PANDA ACTIVE SCAN Panda Active Scan is another free tool that you can use for detecting and eliminating viruses from your computer. Not only can it scan your files but it can scan you email too. It installs as an ActiveX control in your Web browser (Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher). This offering from Panda offers virus removal as well as detection abilities. You can find this virus scanner here : Panda Active Scan #7 TREND MICRO HOUSECALL Trend Micro’s Housecall is also capable of cleaning infected files. This virus scanner is able to detect and remove the most common viruses, though it may be less effective with Trojans and some of the other more obscure types of infection. You can find this virus scanner here : Trend Micro HouseCall #8 VIRSCAN FREE ONLINE SCAN The eighth offering in this list comes from VirSCAN.org who have a free online scanning service that can check uploaded files for a variety of security issues including viruses, spyware, trojans, backdoors and many other types of malware. There is a file size limit of 10MB but any type of file can be uploaded and checked. One thing to note, however, is that this scanner only offers detection of malware. You can find this virus scanner here : VirSCAN Free Online Scan #9 VIRUSTOTAL ONLINE SCANNING SERVICE You can upload single files to VirusTotal which will then quickly scan for viruses, worms, trojans and many other types of malware. With VirusTotal you have a 5MB limit on the files you can upload. Files that have been uploaded can then be scanned with a large number of well-known virus scanners and results from each are then displayed. Again, detection only with this one. You can find this virus scanner here : VirusTotal Online Scanning Service #10 WINDOWS LIVE ONECARE SAFETY SCANNER (now discontinued) Number ten in the list won’t be here for long as Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner is making way for Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). This scanner is good at detecting the more common viruses but only works in conjunction with Internet Explorer. Also, it is only able to detect viruses, it cannot remove them. You can find this virus scanner here : Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner (now being being replaced by Microsoft Security Essentials)
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The Top 10 Free Online Antivirus Scanners Of 2009
How Do I Block Pop-Up Ads?
October 3rd, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
It is certain that all of us come across popup windows once in a while we are surfing on the internet. It feels really annoying when something stupid interrupts your endeavor appearing from nowhere. These are called Pop-Up ads. The specialty of these ads is that you need to manually click on them to close each. Pop-up ads need to be avoided and blocked to all extents possible because many scammers try to invade in to your personal details like passwords, credit card details and bank account details using these pop-up ads. Thus, a pop-up blocker becomes inevitable and highly indispensable. WHAT IS A POP-UP BLOCKER? A pop-up blocker is a program that stops these unwanted ads to come up during your browsing. The pop-up blocker is installed in the web browser . Most browser packages have them pre-installed and those not having them can be upgraded by downloading a pop-up blocker of your choice from the free software sites. Pop-up blocker not only prevents these annoying ads to opening in a new window but even protects you from a possible identity theft and personal information theft. Pop-up blockers have additional features for the people who want to view the pop-up ads of particular sites. For this they need to enable the view pop-up ads for that particular site. Many types of pop-up blockers with unique features are available online. You can buy as per your needs. However, some of the most basic types of pop-up blockers are free and can be downloaded from any of the popular sites. An additional advantage of using pop-up blockers is that you can prevent your computer from becoming slow or being infected from malware , spyware or any virus. This prevents your pc from getting slow. Choose an effective pop-up blocker as soon as possible and get rid of unwanted content to make your browsing experience delightful.
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How Do I Block Pop-Up Ads?
How Do I Stop My Kids Watching Porn On The Internet?
October 2nd, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
Many parents dread their children using the internet, and it is usually for one reason – fear that they may came across porn by accident, or furthermore, they may surf for porn on purpose . Either way, porn can be very damaging to your child. Thus, it is important to discover early whether your child is surfing for porn. Why would discovering whether your child is watching porn or not matter? If you find out your child is watching porn, there are several reputable programs that can help you block porn from the computers in your household. This is an extremely important step to take, as much of the material online is extremely hardcore, and such material can be very damaging to the mind of a child, thus causing long lasting effects. If proper precautions are taken, you can find out if your child is watching porn, and take action to halt it. ITS ONLY EVER A FEW CLICKS AWAY Every single day, thousands of children are introduced to the world of computers and the internet. Though the internet is a fascinating place where children learn, discover, and have fun, it can also be a place that is extremely dangerous, in the sense that certain unethical material can be accessed. Pornography is only a few clicks away on the internet, and needless to say, a child can access porn very easily, whether they are doing it on purpose, or by accident. As children use the internet more and more, they grow more curious. They may grow old of the previous things they used the internet for, and they may feel the need to explore further. This may lead to going into chat rooms, which can often lead to one thing – pornography. Many chat rooms have pornography banners, and clicking on these banners will land your child into porn sites. Furthermore, a majority of chat rooms have pop ups. When your child opens the chat room, many, many popup will come up, many of which contain adult material. Clicking on these popup will also take you into porn sites. Let alone that chat rooms are quite dangerous, porn sites are even worse. Once your child sees porn once, it may become an addiction. Their next step will be to visit search engines and look for porn. At this point, it may become a daily thing, where they watch porn, and it can take away from other things they regularly did – hang out with friends, study, play sports and so on. HOW CAN I BLOCK PORN? As you can see, pornography is something that can have many negative effects on your child, thus it is important to find out early whether your child is surfing for porn. How can you find out? There are many programs that help you do just that, by monitoring your child’s surfing activity. You will obviously be doing this without them knowing, or else the program would be virtually useless. A very reputed program to help find out whether your child is surfing for porn is PC Tattle Tale. The program costs a mere $49.99, and can make a lifetime of difference. There are, of course, a lot of other available porn blocker software programs. I recommend you to have a look around and find out what best suits your needs. As an adult, you are probably aware as for how much of the internet is filled with adult content. It is your job to monitor your child and find out whether or not they are watching pornography. If they are, you must then take further steps to counsel them, and to possibly limit their access of the computer and internet. It only takes a few adult videos to corrupt the mind of your child, so do not let it get that far. Take action while you can and put your child back on the proper road. Pornography can have long lasting negative effects on their mind. Now, there are obviously other ways to find out if your child is watching porn, but using a program to help you is one of the most efficient ways!
The Top 5 Firefox Security Addons
September 30th, 2009. Published under Scams. No Comments.
Mozilla Firefox is, in my opinion, the best of the currently available web browsers. When it comes to speed, privacy and security, Mozilla Firefox has the best to offer. The best thing about this web browser is that it allows you to install additional add-ons according to your own requirements. You can easily find a number of add-ons which would enhance the performance of your Mozilla Firefox browser. Privacy and security has always been an issue, when it comes to surfing the internet. Mozilla Firefox has successfully helped us in this particular area but there are times but there may still be times when you are not completely satisfied with it’s performance. The best way to enhance the performance of Mozilla Firefox is to use add-ons. There are number of add-ons which can prove to be useful in tackling the problems related to privacy and security, below are my favourite 5 – BETTER PRIVACY When we use internet, we might come across some non deletable long-term cookies, which hamper the performance of your computer to a great extent. Such cookies can be used to track you on the internet, which could be very dangerous. Better Privacy allows you to know about such cookies, so that you can block them and protect your personal information from being traced. LSO (Local Shared Objects) attack your computer in the form of Flash plugins. These types of cookies are hard to trace and delete, but Better Privacy allows you to block them before they ever get onto your computer. Before your system becomes the shed for all such LSOs, you should install this add-on to your browser which ensures that your information will not be traced on to internet now. Download Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623 CLEAR PRIVATE DATA Every time you switch on your web browser to browse web sites, a number of cookies are saved into your system. There is a misconception that just by clearing the history we will be deleting all our previous data, but it is miserably wrong. We have to go into many folders and delete all the cookies stored, which is highly irritating. Clear Private Data is the add-on which clears all the private data from your computer on order to increase the safety level. Private data is a very sensitive thing, and one must make sure that we do not expose it. Clear Private Data works exceptionally well and gives you a little bit space to be careless as it can comprehensively protect your private date automatically, and this is the best part of this add-on. Download Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1280 SECURE LOGIN Secure Login is a plugin which enables you to manage all your passwords. It can be rather irritating to have to enter the user ID and password every time you want to log on to your e-mail accounts on your personal computer. You can use this add-on to save your user ID and passwords, so that you can simply log on to your accounts by using simple shortcuts. This feature is somewhat similar to that of Opera’s Wand login. It provides an easy way to save passwords and also enables you safely maintain multiple account details. You can also enable your login details to be protected from external JavaScript code. It also allows you to customise your keyboard shortcuts, in order to operate the add-on within your comfort zone. It also protects your data from phishing . Secure login is a wonderful add-on that would surely make your form filling work easier and much, much simpler. Download Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4429 WEB OF TRUST – WOT WOT – Web of Trust – is one of the best add-ons for Mozilla Firefox. It warns you about all the websites that might be a threat to your computer. It helps you to avoid all the dangerous sites that would hamper the performance of your computer. WOT provides a front layer protection to you system. WOT keeps you safe from deadly browser exploits and unreliable online shops. WOT works as per the safety ratings given to over 21 million web sites and its algorithm enables the add-on to keep updated with all the latest ratings. You can customize the WOT add-on with respect to your requirements. WOT is an exceptional tool to provide a safer browsing experience to your family. Surf safer and add WOT to your Firefox now. Download Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456 VIRUS THREAT LEVEL VTL is basically an indicator, which indicates the threat level of a website. This add-on simply adds an indicator to the status bar of the browser. And whenever you open a site, it shows the content level of the dangerous programs like malware and viruses. So, whenever you can see the indicator showing the RED light, you can simply close that particular web site and protect your system from being attacked by unwanted programs. It is a wonderful little tool, which makes your browsing activities absolutely safe. VTL uses statistics from McAfee, Symantec and ESET products to come up with an appropriate threat level of any web sites. This makes it a reliable tool. So, before your computer actually gets attacked by any viral content, this indicator enables you to prevent it because “Prevention is always better than Cure.” Download Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4548 These were some of the best add-ons for Mozilla Firefox which would surely minimise your security and privacy constraints on internet. Add these add-ons and make your internet browsing safer. Also, please let me know if you are aware of any other good security addpns for Firefox.
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The Top 5 Firefox Security Addons
How Are Identity Theft Crimes Being Committed Today?
September 29th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
A few years ago, when identity theft was a new crime, many people became victims via the simplest of schemes and ruses. Nowadays, however, web users are far more educated about the risks and so the identity thieves are having to find new ways of committing their crime. ID theft is still here for the long haul but those behind it have had to become far more inventive about how they trick their victims into revealing sensitive information. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video PHISHING & VISHING One of the more obvious forms of identity theft comes in the form of phishing which is something I hope you now know all about. (If you don’t then you can get detailed information here – Phishing – What Is It And How Can You Avoid It? ) To recap, phishing is a technique employed by identity thieves whereby they send emails to consumers that appear to be from a legitimate source, such as their bank or credit card company. Said email will then ask the consumer to verify some important pieces of information, such as their account number, credit card numbers, or even their social security numbers. Should you return the email, with the information that was requested, then an identity thief will have all they need to be able to start buying products and services in your name. Such a scheme was incredibly effective at first but has become less so with time as people have wisened up to it. A newer version of phishing, known as ‘ vishing ‘, doesn’t even require the victim to own a computer. Instead they will receive a phone call, spoofed so that it appears to have come from their bank, which will require an account authentication process. The hope here is that the victim will be foolish enough to tap or speak out their account number so that the thief can then steal it. PHARMING Pharming has also been around for some time now and tries to trick users into revealing information in much the same way that phishing and vishing attempts do. The main difference, however, is that pharming is not conducted via email or the telephone. Instead, pharming normally relies upon a computer being infected with a Trojan which then allows it to server up fake web pages which look identical to the genuine article. Imagine that you open up your bank’s web page and are confronted with something that looks exactly like what you are expecting to see – you could be tempted to enter your information there couldn’t you? The proliferance of pharming has led to consumers becoming more aware of it and search engines and browsers have begun offering tools which will flag up suspect pages. This has led identity thieves to come up with yet new cunning plans… EMPLOYMENT WEBSITES One of the newer versions of identity theft being committed today takes advantage of the current economic climate. With large numbers of people out of work, or looking to earn more than they currently are, employment websites are receiving unprecedented numbers of visitors. ID Thieves have taken advantage of this fact and will trawl such sites looking for potential victims. They will then pose as a ‘prospective employer’ when making contact with an individual who has posted a resume online. They will then ask the applicant to submit themselves to a background check. Job seekers will think that the information being requested is reasonable and that the requester is a legitimate recruiter. They will often gladly hand over all manner of information, including names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers. STAY SAFE The lesson here of course is to never trust anyone with your sensitive information unless you are 100% certain that they will keep it safe and secure. Whilst there are countless other scams used by identity thieves to gain access to information the basic premise remains the same -they extract information from people by gaining their trust. Remember that people, and organisations, online are not always who they say they are. Stay aware of these scams at all times and you may just avoid the headache of identity theft .
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How Are Identity Theft Crimes Being Committed Today?
Why You Shouldn’t Disregard The Conficker Virus Just Yet
September 29th, 2009. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
You may have disregarded the warnings about the Conficker virus the day before April 1st as just another exaggerated epidemic like Y2K. However, if you are lucky enough to have avoided infection up to now it may be time to take the warning a little more seriously because the Conficker virus is a very real crippling agent that can destroy your computer system if activated. Thought to have been developed in Germany, since the root of the name ‘ficken’ is a German obscenity, and the domain it uses has been tracked to Ukraine, the Conficker virus is a very powerful computer worm that has infected millions of computers since it emerged in October 2008. It is estimated that, since then, between 9 and 15 million computers have been infected by the Conficker virus, and the number is still growing exponentially as its variants gather strength and continue to grow. There are four known variants of the Conficker virus , all of which are designed to open the door for each other should one find its way onto your computer. Although the variants have different destructive paths into your personal laptop, once they fix themselves into your operating system they open the door for strong strands so that your computer can be taken over. Most people who have the Conficker virus are unaware of its presence until they notice that they can no longer update their computer software or until their operating system crashes. This is because the Conficker virus works in the background downloading files and using your computer system as a host computer to continue spreading itself throughout the Internet world. This is one reason why it has been a struggle to trace the origins of the Conficker virus, because once it finds a host computer it simply exhausts all its available resources, using it as a command center, and then moves on. Thus, if you are not aware of its presence in your computer, you can continue to use most of your Internet functions until it has used all your resources and crashes the operating system leaving your computer worthless and inoperable.
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Why You Shouldn’t Disregard The Conficker Virus Just Yet
What Exactly Is A HYIP Scam?
September 28th, 2009. Published under Fraud, Scams. No Comments.
Firstly, for those of you who don’t already know, HYIP stands for High Yield Investment Program. HYIPs are one of the most common scams on the internet today, though they became a source of income for scammers well before the digital age. There are a huge number of people looking to make extra money, for many reasons, including becoming debt free or in the hopes of giving up their day job. A large proportion of those people have internet access and will come across some of the thousands of HYIPs that are circulating the net at any time. The allure of HYIPs is the promise of large returns on small investments, the type of investment a lot of potential internet investors may believe they can afford. With some HYIPs offering returns from 10% to even 50% per day on an investment of as little as $10, it is easy to see why some people get suckered into them, especially when it is known that some people do make the quoted returns. The downside of HYIPs, however, is that a larger number of people lose all their money. In order for the HYIP to pay out to some investors, they use the money invested by the newer members. In other words, a high yield investment program is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. Whilst anyone getting in early could make a profit, the truth is that the only people consistently making money from HYIPs are those that start them. As no-one really knows how much money is circulating at any time it is impossible to predict when the HYIP will crash, as it surely will. Therefore, investing in one is not much different to flipping a coin – ‘HEADS’ I win : ‘TAILS’ you lose
