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Computer Security
Computers are open to all sorts of nasty little bugs eg worms, spy ware, viruses etc. There are many ways to protect your self from these things but they all are different and need to be cleaned and deleted differently. These are some types of things that can affect your computer:
Viruses eat away at your computer files in the hard disk. Viruses can enter your computer through insecure emails, bad websites (porn etc) or not installing a basic virus scanner. Viruses can be harmful but do not pose a threat to your personal information.
Spyware is any software that gathers your personal information through an internet connection. You can receive spyware with out even realising it. If you are often downloading software or shareware there is a good chance you have spyware on your system, for example if you download a song to your hard drive of limewire etc, spyware can be added into the file and once the download is complete and the file is saved it automatically starts to monitor what you do online and transmits it back to the person who created it. Spyware can be harmful to you, it can empty your bank account if your not careful. But spyware isn’t very difficult to remove all you need is to do is get a spyware scanner eg spybot search and destroy and to prevent your computer getting more spyware just be careful with what you download.
Worms are self replicating programs, they use networks between computers to send copies of them selves to other computers and they are able to do this with out the user noticing. Worms are different to viruses because they don’t need to attach them selves to existing programs to work. Worms always harm the computer by slowing it down by creating multiple copies of it self and taking all the computer usage, whereas viruses corrupt and destroy targeted files. To remove and or delete worms depending on how serious the worm is any how long it has been on the computer, all you should have to do is download the patches from the internet and keep up to date with your antivirus software and anti spyware programs, and if your receive attachments in your email its best not to run them in your computer in case it is a worm i.e. the ILOVEYOU worm that was sent through millions of email addresses a few years ago.
Adware is software that has advertising functions attached to the original program. Some adware is actually shareware that displays an
offer to the user after the file is downloaded. Adware isn’t really harmful to the computer its self but it can be incredibly annoying to have little pop-ups every second saying stuff like “you have won a free trip” or “free porn”. Adware can be removed with programs such as Ad-aware, Adware-SE etc. These programs also act as Virus scanners, Spyware scanners etc.
Keyloggers are little programs that monitor your system and what you are doing at all times. The main function of keyloggers is to uncover your passwords and send them back to the person who created or sent you the program. A keylogger program can be downloaded unwillingly through spyware. If you have a keylogger on your computer that you have installed your self that is fine if you want to monitor who goes on your computer but any other keyloggers can be found by most computer scanners and be easily deleted for your own privacy and safety.
Trojan’s are destructive little programs that start off as an application. Unlike viruses, they don’t copy them selves but they can be just as destructive. One of they worst types of a Trojan horse is one that claims to rid your computer of viruses when actually it brings viruses in to it. The term Trojan horse come from the Greek story of how they defeated the Trojans in war, they left a large wooden horse out side the gates of the Trojan city, so the Trojans accepted this as a gift of surrendering they brought it into their city not knowing that it was full of Greeks. That night the Greeks exited the horse and killed everyone in their sleep.
These programs are named after this because they breach the firewall with out you noticing it and start attacking your system. A Trojan program can be removed by various virus scanners but Norton antivirus is by far the most reliable and it is possible to find free subscriptions on the internet.
All these little problems can be avoided if you take the necessary precautions. These include, Firewalls, Virus scanners, Router Firewalls, Spyware scanners, automatic updates, patches etc.
A ‘software’ Firewall is a program that closes all of your open internet ports (all 65535 ports). But its leaves ports 25 and 80 open for internet and email. If you have instant messenger programs or sharing programs eg. Msn or limewire they need their own ports to connect to the internet so if your Firewall is on it will automatically block their access and will display a message to you asking if these programs are safe. That isn’t the main purpose of a Firewall though, a Firewall are designed to keep your private files safe and to stop anyone accessing your computer remotely or viruses from getting in your system as well. In plain English a Firewall watches over what you can see that comes in and out of your system and notifies you when it something tries to get in that it doesn’t know. One of the best Firewall is the standard Windows Firewall that comes on every Microsoft system, but other examples is “Black Ice” and can be downloaded from the internet.
A ‘hardware’ firewall does basically the same jobs as a software firewall only it isn’t in the computer. A hardware firewalls are usually found in routers for broad band internet, therefore they can directly control what enters and leaves your system without being in it.
If you have a windows system another important thing to do is activate the automatic updates. This updates your system when ever Microsoft has new software eg. patches, virus definitions etc.
And finally one of the easiest ways to secure your computer is to be careful with what you do if your are connected to the internet is to not give out personal information.