The Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore
The internet is undoubtedly a fantastic resource for
families and offers a rich vein of educational content.
However, there are potential dangers - welcome to the
seedy world of viruses, spam, trojans, pornography, spyware
and other nasties.
Here are the Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should
Ignore:
1. Viruses - A computer program that copies itself. They
often disrupt your computer system or damage your data.
Viruses are usually received by email attachments so be
careful opening anything from a dubious source. They can
affect anyone, for example, the destructive Mydoom worm
affected one out of three small and mid-sized businesses.
2. Spyware - Sends information about you and your computer
to somebody else. Spyware may send the addresses of sites
you have visited or worse still, transmit personal
information. With today's concerns about identify theft
this is a real worry. For example, CoolWebSearch may hijack
web searches, home page, and other Internet Explorer
settings. Spyware is normally received as part of shareware
or freeware downloaded from the web.
3. IP Spoofing - A technique to gain unauthorized access
to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a
computer with an address indicating that the message is
coming from a trusted host.
4. Trojans - An apparently legitimate computer program
that is really intended to disrupt and damage computer
activity by sending information, perhaps even passwords
onto a third party without you knowing. As an example,
recent emails entitled "Osama Bin Laden Captured" attempted
to download the "Trj/Small.B." Trojan if the embedded URL
was clicked. This trojan attempts to hijack the PC.
5. Spam - Unsolicited mail often promoting products of a
dubious financial or sexual nature. Don't leave your email
address on websites and internet bulletin boards as they
are harvested by spammers.
6. Adware - puts advertisements on your screen. These take
many forms including popups, popunders and advertisements
that appear later, even if your browser is closed. Some are
sent using the Windows Messenger service which allows a
spammer to direct an advertisement straight to your
computer by sequentially sending messages to IP addresses.
Always irritating, they are also often of a pornographic
nature.
7. Diallers - for those of us still with dial up modems,
dialler programs redirect calls to a very expensive number.
You won't know until you get the bill.
8. Hijackers - Hijackers take control of your web browser
and may reset your home page, search bar and search pages.
They can redirect you to undesirable sites or stop you
going to particular sites.
9. Hackers - With so much personal data available online
to anyone with a password you must be sure your password is
secure. If you are using your mother's maiden name, your
cat's name or your birthday then your password is at risk.
Here are two tips for making a secure password. Method One -
pick two random unrelated three letter words and two
digits. Mix them up and what do you have? A secure password
such as "red19cat" or "hotpin73". Method Two - pick a short
sequence of words such as Now Is The Winter Of Our
Discontent Made Glorious' and you have a password of
"nitwoodmg". You could even change the I's and O's to
digits.
10. Phishing - Emails purporting to come from reliable
sources such as Paypal, Ebay or your bank. Often wanting
you to verify your account details, they can look very
realistic but are generally scams to harvest usernames and
passwords. Always open a new browser winder and type the
address there, rather than clicking on the link provided.
11. Hoaxes - Chain letters, scams, false alarms. At best
they take up time and bandwidth but at worst vulnerable can
be victims of fraud. Pass it on!
12. Stranger-danger - For those of us with children - do
you know what they actually do when they are online? Are
they working on homework tasks, downloading illegal music
or pornography? Or are they chatting to strangers in chat
rooms? You should consider blocking access to undesirable
sites and logging their activity with a surveillance tool.
Oh, and don't forget that where children are concerned,
computers should always be kept in a family room and never
in their bedroom.
Three Step Action Plan
There are three essential steps that should be taken to
ensure your PC is kept threat-free.
Firstly, be sensible when opening attachments or following
email instructions from apparently reputable sites.
Secondly, make sure you are using the latest service pack
of Windows as Microsoft is continually closing loopholes to
tighten up security.
Finally, there's a range of low cost tools such as
firewalls, antivirus, spam blockers and spyware killers
available. Like everything else they vary in quality and
you tend to get what you pay for so always do your research
first and perhaps try a free trial before getting your
credit card out.
http://www.surfcontrols.com specializes in providing
reviews and recommendations of top-rated tools to help
protect your online experience. There's a quick reference
list to dozens of top sites promoting different aspects of
safe surfing packed with useful information and there's
also a great set of top tips for safe surfing.
Copyright Kai Chandler (#12t5109)
Showing posts with label spyware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spyware. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Curing Cyber-Sex Infidelity
Studies show that about 60% of married men cheat at least once in their marriage and about 40% of women are unfaithful, too.
Both men and women are very capable of being unfaithful in marriage even though society perceives men to be the sex that cheats; this stereotype is not true, though - both men and women are unfaithful in marriage.
Some psychologists even predict that the number of women who are unfaithful in marriage is far higher. Reasons given are that women are not as prone to being caught and men are more honest about it when confronted. So, what really causes a spouse to become unfaithful?
Although unknown for sure, it is safe to say that ever since we have had marriage, we have also had adultery. It is not a likely thing to want to admit but adultery dates back to biblical times.
For example, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and spoke about a woman who had sex without marriage. Adultery was then punishable by stoning to death. Jesus told the accusers, "Let the person without sin throw the first stone." Since the discovery of social networking sites, dating sites and chat rooms, being unfaithful in marriage - especially through the Internet - has skyrocketed despite Biblical admonitions against it.
Such websites as The Ashley Madison Agency have even turned to making a profit from those who become unfaithful in their marriage. The website is solely designed for those married spouses who are seeking to become unfaithful in their marriage.
Consider this fact reported last year at a convention of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers: Two-thirds of attorneys surveyed said the Internet played a significant role in the termination of marriage in the prior 12 months with excessive interest in online porn contributing to more than half of such cases. As discussed below, many of these instances were uncovered through spy software.
Interestingly enough, this subject has also spawned a new type of software - spy software. Spy software is not spyware! Since it is becoming increasingly difficult to find out whether your spouse has been, or is being, unfaithful, especially through the secrecy of the web, "significant others" use spy software more and more to uncover the truth about their relationships.
Marriage partners are employing spy software to check on the spouse they are suspicious about through the computer.
Studies show most of the time a spouse will begin unfaithfulness on the family computer and that is why spy software is so potent!
The difficulty arises when a spouse starts using a business computer or laptop to abandon their marriage. There is plenty of software on the market for this though, but one brand of spy software that surpasses all of the competition is that of Awareness Technologies of Marina del Rey, California.
The key to spy software is to choose one that monitor's everything your spouse does. The Awareness spy software uniquely monitors Instant Messages, email, desktop activity, websites, and even logs all keystrokes. Spy software is easy to install and in the case of WebWatcher or SONAR, easy to monitor.
Suspecting that your spouse is cheating is a feeling that you do not want to admit, but it is also something that you do not want to disregard, either. Marriage is based on trust and loyalty and while you may only suspect that your spouse is being unfaithful, you have to trust your instincts and verify it with products such as Awareness Technologies' spy software - if for no other reason than to maintain your sanity.
Both men and women are very capable of being unfaithful in marriage even though society perceives men to be the sex that cheats; this stereotype is not true, though - both men and women are unfaithful in marriage.
Some psychologists even predict that the number of women who are unfaithful in marriage is far higher. Reasons given are that women are not as prone to being caught and men are more honest about it when confronted. So, what really causes a spouse to become unfaithful?
Although unknown for sure, it is safe to say that ever since we have had marriage, we have also had adultery. It is not a likely thing to want to admit but adultery dates back to biblical times.
For example, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and spoke about a woman who had sex without marriage. Adultery was then punishable by stoning to death. Jesus told the accusers, "Let the person without sin throw the first stone." Since the discovery of social networking sites, dating sites and chat rooms, being unfaithful in marriage - especially through the Internet - has skyrocketed despite Biblical admonitions against it.
Such websites as The Ashley Madison Agency have even turned to making a profit from those who become unfaithful in their marriage. The website is solely designed for those married spouses who are seeking to become unfaithful in their marriage.
Consider this fact reported last year at a convention of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers: Two-thirds of attorneys surveyed said the Internet played a significant role in the termination of marriage in the prior 12 months with excessive interest in online porn contributing to more than half of such cases. As discussed below, many of these instances were uncovered through spy software.
Interestingly enough, this subject has also spawned a new type of software - spy software. Spy software is not spyware! Since it is becoming increasingly difficult to find out whether your spouse has been, or is being, unfaithful, especially through the secrecy of the web, "significant others" use spy software more and more to uncover the truth about their relationships.
Marriage partners are employing spy software to check on the spouse they are suspicious about through the computer.
Studies show most of the time a spouse will begin unfaithfulness on the family computer and that is why spy software is so potent!
The difficulty arises when a spouse starts using a business computer or laptop to abandon their marriage. There is plenty of software on the market for this though, but one brand of spy software that surpasses all of the competition is that of Awareness Technologies of Marina del Rey, California.
The key to spy software is to choose one that monitor's everything your spouse does. The Awareness spy software uniquely monitors Instant Messages, email, desktop activity, websites, and even logs all keystrokes. Spy software is easy to install and in the case of WebWatcher or SONAR, easy to monitor.
Suspecting that your spouse is cheating is a feeling that you do not want to admit, but it is also something that you do not want to disregard, either. Marriage is based on trust and loyalty and while you may only suspect that your spouse is being unfaithful, you have to trust your instincts and verify it with products such as Awareness Technologies' spy software - if for no other reason than to maintain your sanity.
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