Protecting your computer is vitally important, because if someone breaks into your computer they can potentially gain access to your email addresses, passwords, financial information, and more. A wide variety of threats are constantly circulating through the internet, and everyone must now how to protect themselves against them. In this article we will examine some of the threats that are out there and give some examples of how to protect against them.
Viruses: There are as many different computer viruses as there are stars in the sky, maybe more. Different viruses will cause different effects to your computer. Some will simply make a nuisance of themselves, changing your home page, opening pop up windows, and perform a multitude of annoying actions. Others will negatively effect your computer’s performance, slowing it down and causing various programs to crash.
One famous type of virus are the Trojans. These viruses will infect your computer by disguising themselves as some benign piece of data, then do their dastardly deeds. Like the Trojan Horse, if they get inside your computer they can cause an infinite amount of trouble, sending back information to the virus’s creator, changing registry settings, and more.
Every computer needs to have some form of antivirus software in order to defeat these computer viruses, and here are two different programs you can use.
Symantec: Symantec is the company that offers what may be the most well-known antivirus software in the world, Norton Antivirus. Syamntec offers a number of different computer protection bundles that you can buy, some offering just the antivirus software, while others offer the antivirus, a firewall, antispam, and more. Symantec does have a number of weaknesses. First, the software is very expensive, costing no less than $50 for just the antivirus. Second, Symatnec’s products have been known to slow down computer performance, so users who run programs that require a lot of computer resources may want to steer clear of Symantec.
Avast!: Avast! is an effective antivirus program with a great price tag: free. The Avast! software is excellent at stopping viruses and also quite good at stopping malware and other computer threats. Avast! is so popular that there are some sites that are trying to sell the free Avast! software at the price of Avast!’s professional software, which does have a price tag. Avast! is free for home non-commercial use, while the professional edition is for computers that are used to make money.
Adware: Adware is a malicious program that displays advertisements on your computer, hence the name Adware. Adware can range from the merely annoying popup to a vast armada of popups that assail your computer, stifling its performance.
Ad-Aware: Ad-Aware is an anti-adware program offered by the Lavasoft company. Ad-Aware works by scanning your computer for adware and then displaying any adware it finds. You must then choose whether or not to delete the adware it displays. You must manually begin the Ad-Aware scan, but Lavasoft is also offering a professional version that will give your computer 24/7 protection from adware for a fee.
Spyware: Spyware is related to adware, but instead of displaying ads, it spies on you, searching for your personal information to send to whoever generated the spyware. Spyware and adware both fall under the category of malware, which describes any malicious program that will affect your computer.
Spybot Search and Destroy: Spybot Search and Destroy will scan your computer for spyware and remove whatever threats it discovers. Spybot is a free program and is also one of the best anti-spyware programs, better than many that come with a hefty price tag.
Phishing Scams: Phishing scams are attempts to con you out of your money by gaining access to your account. They work by sending out thousands of emails that claim to be from a well-known site such as eBay or Amazon. They pretend to be giving a special offer of claiming there is a problem with your account, anything they think will get you to login to your account. The email will have links to what appears to be the website the email claims to be from, with a section for you to login. The website is actually a fake, and by entering your account information you are effectively giving the scammers access to your account.
An easy way to spot such a scam is to look at the url. If the email claims to be from eBay the url should read www.ebay.com, but in some cases the crooks will not camouflage the url and it will read www.geocities.com/…/…/www.ebay.com/, showing the free domain the scammers are using for their fake website. Not all phishing scammers will make this mistake, so don’t trust the site even if it does have the correct url, as it is very easy to display the correct url with a fake website. The best way to deal with phishing scams is to always be suspicious, and never use any links you find in an email, but go to the site by directly typing the url into your browser’s address bar. Also, if you receive what you suspect to be a phishing scam you should forward the message to the company that the email claims to be from, stating your concern that you have just received a phishing scam. Companies take phishing scams very seriously and will quickly put an end to them as they become aware of the scam.
Fake Virus Scam:
The fake virus scam is diabolical in that it does not actually damage your computer; instead, it causes you to damage your computer by responding to it. When this scam goes around, you will receive a forwarded message, probably from someone you know who heard about it, that says there is a new virus going around, for example, the HateYou virus. You can easily tell if the virus is on your computer, just search for a file named “importantfile.xxx.” You will be told to delete the file if you find it. The problem here is that the file they tell you to delete is not a virus file, but instead a vitally important system file that your computer cannot do without. By deleting the file you will be damaging your own computer.
Before doing anything to your computer when you receive such a notice, you should do a little research. One site you can check to see if you’ve received a fake virus scam or not is www.snopes.com. When you go to the main page look under the computer category, then the viruses sub-category. Most antivirus sites also have a complete listing of viruses and fake viruses, so you can also check with your antivirus company’s website.
