Top Five Spyware Threats to Internet Security

Spyware means any program that can change your computer system while gathering information about your activities while you are on the computer. The information is usually sent to the spyware creator via your internet connection without your knowledge. In order for it to work correctly, it must be able to run without the user shutting the computer down. Being hidden also helps the program to get installed in the first place. Because of this, spyware is usually disguised as a Trojan horse. This is a program that quietly runs in the background, inviting the user to run it, while spreading its malicious code. This code can do any number of things. It can start right away or it may simply install a program that won't start for sometime. Once it does start, it can delete all of the files on the computer or it can infect the computer and try to infect other computers on the network. There are a number of ways spyware is delivered, and as a Trojan horse is the most common. It usually comes with other pieces of software that a user might find interesting. This software is usually shared through a file-sharing network or downloadable off of the internet. Once the user installs the software, the spyware also gets installed.
The most common reason spyware is infecting computers is for the profit of the spyware creator. In most cases, it gets information about the computer user and shows them pop-up ads related to their needs. It can even redirect internet search engine results to the benefit of the spyware creator. In addition to these things, spyware can infect your e-mail address book. Once this occurs, spam will be sent to every single person in every single infected address book. This spam will usually be an advertisement of some sort for the spyware creator's website. Once infected with spyware, the creator can also profit from it by stealing important information like bank account information, credit card numbers, or contact information. It can steal the password information for your software licensing. Spyware can also take control of your modem to make expensive telephone calls from the creator. There are currently five major spyware threats to your internet security.
The first major spyware threat is Gator or GAIN. This program displays banner and pop-up ads based on your internet surfing habits. It comes bundled with many popular software programs. The major difference between Gator and most other spyware programs is that users are clearly notified of its download before it occurs.
Another major spyware threat is CoolWebSearch. This spyware can do a number of things. First, it can hijack your current internet settings, making things display wrong, and causing other system problems. It can reset your homepage, and despite the number of times you try to change it, you will be unable to reset it to your desired site. It can also take over your web searches, displaying only advertiser sites when you search for information on web items. It installs bookmarks to pornographic websites in your “Favorites” menu. It can cause your system to continually reboot. It can also cause serious system slow downs.
The third major spyware threat is 180searchassistant. This program has both pop-up and pop-under ads based on the user's search terms. Moreover, once a site is clicked on, a new browser window opens to display more advertisements based on the search terms. It constantly updates by itself, and it can display pop-up ads even when the internet is not running. It can cause system slow downs.
The fourth major spyware threat to your internet security is ISTbar. This spyware program displays pornographic pop-ups, even when the internet is not in use. It can hijack your browser settings, reset your homepage, and cause continual cascading pop-ups while you are using the internet. It will continually download related files without your knowledge. Moreover, it can cause system slow downs.
The final major spyware threat to your internet security is Internet Optimizer. This program redirects your computer to its advertising sites. It also downloads and continually updates itself without your knowledge. The worst part about this spyware, though, is it leaves a back door open to your system so other viruses can penetrate your defenses.

Five Tips to Keep Kids Safe on the Internet

Exercise Parental Control –
As a parent you are naturally concerned for your child’s safety at school, at the park, and even in your home. There is another place, though, where you should be making sure your child is always safe. That place, as you probably already know, is the Internet. The online world is one full of fun, adventure, and information. However, it can also be a very dark and highly dangerous place as well. Because children tend to be less skeptical than adults and want to believe rather than disbelieve what people are telling them, they can become a target for those who wish to prey upon that innocence.
There are some frightening facts to consider when it comes to your child’s safety on the Internet. For instance, one in five children were solicited for sex on the Internet last year; about 25% of children were exposed to photos of sexual acts, and about 1 out of every 17 children was cyber bullied last year. Cyber bullying can include threats of harm to the child, threats against friends, or even against family. It is not something that should be overlooked as a danger for your children online.
Like with just about anything, the Internet has its good points and can be enjoyed by you and your children. There are precautions you should take, though. Here are five tips for keeping your children safe when they are surfing the Internet. Nothing can ever keep them 100% safe, but by following a few of these tips, you can help them avoid sexual predators and cyber bullies that can turn innocence and fun into darkness for you and your child.
The first thing you can do is to communicate with your child. Explain to him or her some of the dangers online and that you want to help them avoid those dangers. To that end, post a list of rules near the computer where they are visible at all times. Some good rules to include are: Never give any of your personal information to anyone online, keep your address, phone number, and where you go to school to yourself; immediately let your parents know if anything you see online concerns you, makes you uncomfortable, or scares you at all; always check with your parents before you even consider meeting someone in person that you met on line, since offline meetings can be dangerous if the wrong person is involved; never, for any reason, give your internet passwords to anyone other than your parents; check with your parents before you download anything like software onto the computer, it could endanger your family’s privacy or the computer itself; and just like in real life, never do anything that could harm anyone else or is illegal in any way. Post these rules so that they are always visible and can act as reminders.
The second tip is to simply keep an eye on your children. When they are online, try to directly supervise them as much as possible. Since that is obviously not always something you can do, at least put the computer in a high traffic area where you can easily see what they are doing. You may even consider locking the computer with a password if a parent is not in the area or if your child is old enough to be home alone.
Third, depending on the age of your child, you may want to consider some sort of spy software for your kids. There are “tattle tale” software programs that will record exactly what your child is doing online down to chatroom texts and screen shots.
Fourth, if you don’t want to go as far as a spyware program, there are keylogger programs for parents. Keylogger software will record all keystrokes made from the computer so that you will know what you child has done from his or her end of things, anyway.
Lastly, communicate with your kids. Talk to them openly about the Internet, your concerns, and why you have those concerns. Explain that it is not a trust issue, but rather that you just know that there are people out there who wish them harm and you want to protect them. Your own child’s awareness and maturity may even surprise you.
The Internet can be such a wonderful place, full of information, friends, fun, and adventure for both adults and children. However, just like the park, the mall, or sometimes even the playground, the Internet does harbor those who wish harm or to prey upon children. However, like in other places, you can cut down the risk and keep your family safe by following a few common sense tips that can put your mind more at ease as your techno-savvy child surfs the net.

Protect your Computer and Internet Privacy by: Alex Marias

Is a known fact that every time you open a browser to view a web page, order something online, or read your email in a web based viewer that information is stored on your computer for later use. Whether you are viewing the weather online, reading sports, catching up on the latest world news or viewing something a little more private, all that information is stored in your computer. Windows operating systems store all this material in what are called Temporary Internet Files or cache. Web pages may store bits of information about who you are when you visit web sites in files called cookies on your computer. Your web browser will store a list of web sites you've visited and places you've gone in a history file in your computer. Even if you are not online, programs will store histories of the files you've opened, played, or viewed.

Generally there might not be any reason to worry about all these files in your computer, but what if you sell your computer and all that information is left for someone else to see. Maybe friends and relatives visit and use your computer and you dont want everyone to know what files you are running on your computer. Then you are going to want to know how to delete these files. Even if you are not worried about privacy on your computer, you may be surprised to realize how much hard drive space all this information takes up. If you are running out of drive space, you may want to delete these files. How can I delete these files? For Internet Explorer 5 and above, you can follow these directions to clear out temporary files and delete cookies. 1) Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools 2) Click on Internet Options 3) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files 4) You may also want to check the box "Delete all offline content" 5) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the temporary internet files 6) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that websites have placed on your hard drive. To clear the Internet History in IE: 1) Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools 2) Click on Internet Options 3) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen,click on Clear History 4) Click OK To clean up other temporary files on your computer in Windows 98 or higher: 1) Click Start, Programs (or All Programs), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup 2) Choose the correct drive usually C:\ 3) Check the boxes in the list and delete the files This deleting method is only good if you want to free space, because normal file deletion only removes a file's directory entry, and leaves the data contained in the file on your hard drive, which can be easily recovered by any average computer user using a undelete utility. If you delete cookies or if you delete history using conventional methods anyone can recover them! Even after a hard drive format, files can be recovered using expensive hardware and software which use forensic latency track analysis algorithms.

Phishing is Fishing for Information

No one will ever ask you for your password, social security number or credit card information in an email ;that is, a bank or anyone that you normally do business with.! It is not safe to send this kind of information in an email because it is not secure (secure means that it does not have a special web page that can only be seen by you). They would know that information anyway. If they are asking for this information you should be very leary. Never give out your personal information to a place the asks in an email and do not go to a link from an email and think that you are at the sign in page, they may just be trying to get your password! Always be careful when answering a email that asks for more information then you are willing to give out in public. Think of email as post card type mail not a sealed letter.
A bug in Internet Explorer brings more Phishing Scam woes...
iDefense.com publicly announced the bug yesterday, which will allow phishing scam artists to capture key strokes as users enter information into log in and form pages of genuine sites while using Internet Explorer browsers (v5.01, 5.5 and 6).
The bug allows this to happen by using javascript to display the genuine site page within another domain using a frameset. By framing the genuine page in one main window of another site's page, the visitor sees the genuine page.
Framesets are commonly used in the design of web pages, they allow you to have more than one page displayed as if they were one page, above each other or beside each other such as the top banner being one, the side bar being another and the page content being another. Learn more about what exactly a frameset is here.

Microsoft are so far placing emphasis on ensuring that internet users should verify the identity of the page they are visiting before interacting with it in any way. Normally, a visitor will see the true URL in the address bar. If you want to keep current on what hoaxes in emails here are some good links:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

Cleaning Your Computer Will Help It Last Longer And Work Better by: Scott Dary

To clean your mouse – The trackball can pick up dirt and dust from your desk and mouse pad. Also, the wheels that the trackball come in contact with get dirty and need to be cleaned. If you notice your mouse "doesn't work right", it may be time to clean it. First, turn your PC off. Turn your mouse over and you will see the ball sticking out of a cover. Look at the arrows on the cover and turn it in the indicated direction to open it up. Don’t worry about anything falling out. The only thing that comes out is the ball, and maybe a little dust, and you want to take that out anyway. You can clean the ball with alcohol if it needs it, but usually just wiping it off will work. A cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol works well for cleaning the wheels. When you’re done, drop the ball back in and put the cover back on. If cleaning it doesn’t help, it may be time to replace it. PC mice are usually less than $10 and are sometime free if you watch for sales in the Sunday paper.
To clean your optical mouse - If you have an optical mouse, one with a red light under it, there is no ball and you can just wipe off the lenses with a cotton swab.
To clean your keyboard - Never spray anything into your keyboard, this includes coffee. You can use a vacuum cleaner to clean dust, dirt, staples and cookie crumbs from your keyboard, but make sure your computer is off before starting, and make sure you don’t have any loose keys. Rubbing alcohol works well to clean the keys and surface of your keyboard, but use it sparingly. Using a cloth works well, as paper towels tend to leave little pieces behind. If you spill something sticky like your favorite soft drink on the keyboard, the keys will likely start to get sticky as it dries. It could be time to replace it. They too are cheap and can be free if you watch for a sale.
To clean the computer - You can use a vacuum to clean around the vents and anywhere else that looks dusty. Be careful in the back of the PC to not knock any plugs loose. It is a good idea to keep the vents clean and free of dust, pet hair or lint. How often you clean your computer depends more on the environment it's in than the manufacturer’s recommendation. I have 2 dogs that shed so I clean my computer about every 2 months. A cloth and alcohol can be used on the outside of the PC if it’s dirty but, again, turn it off first.
To clean your monitor - A vacuum can be used to remove dust from the vents. If you have fingerprints on the glass, you can use the same wipes that you would use on your glasses or use as soft cloth and warm water followed by a dry cloth. Think of your monitor glass the same way you think of glasses, if you wear them. They may have delicate coatings on them that can be scratched. Always avoid chemicals on displays.
To clean a laptop display or LCD – These displays are plastic and can also be scratched by paper products such as tissues or paper towels or damaged by chemicals. Use a cloth made for glasses or camera lenses or a soft cloth and warm water followed by a dry cloth.

Protect your Computer and Internet Privacy

Protect your Computer and Internet Privacy by: Alex Marias

Is a known fact that every time you open a browser to view a web page, order something online, or read your email in a web based viewer that information is stored on your computer for later use. Whether you are viewing the weather online, reading sports, catching up on the latest world news or viewing something a little more private, all that information is stored in your computer. Windows operating systems store all this material in what are called Temporary Internet Files or cache. Web pages may store bits of information about who you are when you visit web sites in files called cookies on your computer. Your web browser will store a list of web sites you've visited and places you've gone in a history file in your computer. Even if you are not online, programs will store histories of the files you've opened, played, or viewed. Generally there might not be any reason to worry about all these files in your computer, but what if you sell your computer and all that information is left for someone else to see. Maybe friends and relatives visit and use your computer and you dont want everyone to know what files you are running on your computer. Then you are going to want to know how to delete these files. Even if you are not worried about privacy on your computer, you may be surprised to realize how much hard drive space all this information takes up. If you are running out of drive space, you may want to delete these files. How can I delete these files? For Internet Explorer 5 and above, you can follow these directions to clear out temporary files and delete cookies. 1) Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools 2) Click on Internet Options 3) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files 4) You may also want to check the box "Delete all offline content" 5) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the temporary internet files 6) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that websites have placed on your hard drive. To clear the Internet History in IE: 1) Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools 2) Click on Internet Options 3) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen,click on Clear History 4) Click OK To clean up other temporary files on your computer in Windows 98 or higher: 1) Click Start, Programs (or All Programs), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup 2) Choose the correct drive usually C:\ 3) Check the boxes in the list and delete the files This deleting method is only good if you want to free space, because normal file deletion only removes a file's directory entry, and leaves the data contained in the file on your hard drive, which can be easily recovered by any average computer user using a undelete utility. If you delete cookies or if you delete history using conventional methods anyone can recover them! Even after a hard drive format, files can be recovered using expensive hardware and software which use forensic latency track analysis algorithms.

Cleaning Your Computer Will Help It Last Longer And Work Better

Cleaning Your Computer Will Help It Last Longer And Work Better by: Scott Dary

To clean your mouse – The trackball can pick up dirt and dust from your desk and mouse pad. Also, the wheels that the trackball come in contact with get dirty and need to be cleaned. If you notice your mouse "doesn't work right", it may be time to clean it. First, turn your PC off. Turn your mouse over and you will see the ball sticking out of a cover. Look at the arrows on the cover and turn it in the indicated direction to open it up. Don’t worry about anything falling out. The only thing that comes out is the ball, and maybe a little dust, and you want to take that out anyway. You can clean the ball with alcohol if it needs it, but usually just wiping it off will work. A cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol works well for cleaning the wheels. When you’re done, drop the ball back in and put the cover back on. If cleaning it doesn’t help, it may be time to replace it. PC mice are usually less than $10 and are sometime free if you watch for sales in the Sunday paper.
To clean your optical mouse - If you have an optical mouse, one with a red light under it, there is no ball and you can just wipe off the lenses with a cotton swab.
To clean your keyboard - Never spray anything into your keyboard, this includes coffee. You can use a vacuum cleaner to clean dust, dirt, staples and cookie crumbs from your keyboard, but make sure your computer is off before starting, and make sure you don’t have any loose keys. Rubbing alcohol works well to clean the keys and surface of your keyboard, but use it sparingly. Using a cloth works well, as paper towels tend to leave little pieces behind. If you spill something sticky like your favorite soft drink on the keyboard, the keys will likely start to get sticky as it dries. It could be time to replace it. They too are cheap and can be free if you watch for a sale.
To clean the computer - You can use a vacuum to clean around the vents and anywhere else that looks dusty. Be careful in the back of the PC to not knock any plugs loose. It is a good idea to keep the vents clean and free of dust, pet hair or lint. How often you clean your computer depends more on the environment it's in than the manufacturer’s recommendation. I have 2 dogs that shed so I clean my computer about every 2 months. A cloth and alcohol can be used on the outside of the PC if it’s dirty but, again, turn it off first.
To clean your monitor - A vacuum can be used to remove dust from the vents. If you have fingerprints on the glass, you can use the same wipes that you would use on your glasses or use as soft cloth and warm water followed by a dry cloth. Think of your monitor glass the same way you think of glasses, if you wear them. They may have delicate coatings on them that can be scratched. Always avoid chemicals on displays.
To clean a laptop display or LCD – These displays are plastic and can also be scratched by paper products such as tissues or paper towels or damaged by chemicals. Use a cloth made for glasses or camera lenses or a soft cloth and warm water followed by a dry cloth.

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