Network Security

The internet is vast landscape of money-making opportunities. Some are legitimate but many are methods for others to take something of high value from you: your identity. Online identity theft is a fast growing venture whereby the thief is able to co-opt your name, identification number, bank accounts, passwords, etc and use it for their personal gain. These schemes are usually multi-layered, international systems that are hard to trace and even harder to persecute in the court systems of many countries. There are several predominant methodologies the criminals use, as well as, ways to protect yourself.

The main point of entry into your information is the world wide web. As you interact with web sites, you provide your information in exchange for theirs. The thief has at his disposal; impersonating websites or professional looking unknown websites, cookies that act as key loggers once you have left the infecting website and malicious code wittingly or unwittingly downloaded. The easiest defense against these are observation and diligence. Be sure to look for “https” in the address bar for websites that present themselves as reputable banking and merchant vendors. In addition, you can set browser to refuse cookies or limit their access to your information.

Theft of your good name can also be performed through social engineering emails, or “phishing”. The email detailing your sweepstakes winning or rich foreigner looking for an account to hide money is ALWAYS a scam designed to wrest information and/or checks from you. The email has thousands of variations but one single thing in common, they want some information or canceled check from you before they can process your share. Once again, the best defense is simply to avoid these operators, don’t open emails from people you don’t know and don’t give out details through email.

There are more ways for the identity thieves to secure your information than this, including straight out theft of your wallet or purse. In this case the best course of action is to alert the authorities and your banking institutions and credit card carriers of the theft as quickly as possible. In a matter of minutes a thief can max out your cards and clean out your bank account, so time is money! This is also a good argument for not carrying your social security card with you, as that number is hard if not impossible to change.

Lastly, there are a few proactive steps you can take to protect yourself. An identity protection service can act as a firewall between your digital self and the rest of the world, through filing papers with credit tracking companies and actively looking for your information in known criminal databases you will be alerted if anyone tries to impersonate you online or in person. You can also talk with your bank and credit card about setting freezes on your account or alerting you if certain types of purchases or additional lines of credit are requested. Through careful observation, perseverance and intelligent interaction on websites, you can avoid the specter of criminality that is identity theft.

It may seem like something from the latest action movie: a crazy computer genius breaks into the supposedly secure system and steals classified information from the United States government. While this is a very real problem for our national security tech experts, there is a multitude of everyday information issues that have the potential to affect all computer uses from school teachers entering their grades to high powered business women recalculating quarterly earnings to a six year old boy playing the newest sports game. These dangers include unapproved monitoring of a user’s actions, viewing of a user’s personal files, or stealing of a user’s private files and data. Few people have time to figure out the ins and outs of their complex systems, but with just a little technological savvy, though, anyone can learn to avoid these dangers and keep these cybercriminals out of their computer.

Almost everyone with a computer spends at least a little time “surfing” the World Wide Web. Hackers are capable of accessing a person’s computer and seeing exactly what they see on their screen and what they type in. This may not seem like a big deal, especially if a person is only visiting rated-G websites dedicated to ridding them of boredom, but it is a serious invasion of privacy no matter what. If these assessors happen to be associated with a type of marketing, they can also keep track of what a person buys, but even more devious types are after other information. And, if the surfer happens to enter any passwords, pin numbers, or other information, it falls right into their hands.

Beyond what pops up on the internet, hackers can even take a look at a user’s personal files. These include written documents, saved pictures and videos, and even games. This means that everything from last year’s vacation photos to the guest list for next week’s party is out in the open. These types of files, first, are not meant to be shared unless a user intends such, and, second, can reveal important information that might reveal locations and compromise a person’s safety.

Safety is most highly compromised when hacking, as it often does, leads to the theft of sensitive information. Most often reported is the theft of credit card information. However, birthdates, maiden names, passwords, social security numbers, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are all free game form those who know how to access another person’s computer. This can lead to identity theft, a difficult problem that can takes months and even years to rectify.

Computer user’s should not, however, leap off their machines. There are a few simply safety measures that can protect anyone’s system and block out those cybercriminals. First, one should always enter their information only in secure site and, second, good antivirus software should be running at all times. Also, passwords should be kept in safe places and never revealed. By doing these simple things, computer users can secure their information, ditch the digital danger, and get back to safely surfing in no time flat.

The internet has quickly become a cesspool of individuals who have nothing better to do than to make other’s life miserable by preying on their personal internet accounts. They are normally cowards that hide behind fake personas and do not have the gall to come out into public. In many cases, they are considered hackers and people’s email accounts are flooded by these crooks on a daily basis. They have become increasingly advanced in their misdeeds and can fool many people into simply opening a webpage which in turn can take over and destroy the victim’s whole computer.

In today’s day and age, people are extremely dependant on computers, smart phones, etc. It is literally the way many do business, stay connected with family and friends, and take care of financial responsibilities. In essence, the list can go on and on. Having this in mind, evil individuals can take complete advantage of this huge dependence making people very vulnerable. Almost everyone has an electronic mail account, in some cases several different ones. Hackers will prey on these by cultivating lists and send out mass messages. Many of these messages come along with a variety of viruses.

Their disguises in these situations are becoming more and more unique and tailored towards the targeted individual. For example, if one is looking for a job, they may see an influx of too good to be true job offers spamming their inbox. One slip up by opening one these messages and one’s computer could be exposed to a ton of adware. Just one minuet virus can weigh heavily on one’s operating system. They can slow it down to a snail’s pace and make the computer virtually impossible to use efficiently.

These evildoers who send out the messages are becoming increasingly advanced and one may not even know what exactly has happened after opening a file until it is too late. Many major email providers are making strong efforts to combat spam mail. Most will sift through all the incoming mail and properly place the message into the correct inbox, however sometimes the messages can get through the filters. With this in mind, it is of the utmost importance to be very critical of what is opened. In addition, most providers will do an automatic virus scan prior to any attachment being opened. This has saved many from falling victim to the internet predators.

Since people are so dependent on computers for everyday life, it is vital that everyone is very critical when exposing their computers by opening unknown documents. The fact of the matter is one malicious message could potentially send a computer’s system into turmoil that will not only cost a fortune to fix, but could lead to stolen identification, financial records, and other personal items that should not fall into the wrong hands. To be 100% sure one does not become a victim of the crime, it is highly recommended to be extra critical when dealing with any electronic mail messages that are from an unknown source.

Whenever we open any website on any Internet Browser, we come across the following series of Status Messages on the status bar. For e.g. Connecting to.., Website Found Waiting for Reply, Downloading.., and finally “Done”. But after the initial page has loaded if we were to click on any Hyperlink we find that we get the same series of messages again. If we get the same message again it means that after the Initial connection was made, the Server has snapped its connection with the Client.

Why Does the Server Disconnect from the Client? The answer to this is that Internet Connections make use of the HTTP Protocol which is stateless in nature. If the Server maintains a dedicated connection line with the Client, there is no guarantee that the Client will actually use the connection to an optimum. Hence, the Server snaps the connection so that it can connect with so many other clients at the same time (if the earlier Client wants to access some resource all it has to is – Reconnect).

In the Initial connection attempt, the Client would need to pass all its technical information like IP address, Port number, OS , Browser Version etc to the Server. But for every Reconnection if the Client were to do that, it would waste considerable time on the Internet. Hence, there is a need of ‘Internet Cookies’. When the Server is about to make a response for any request made by the Client, it simply stores the last ‘transaction’ state of the client onto a Cookie and sets it on the Client Terminal itself during Response. Cookies store or maintain the state of the Client as it connects the Server and stores it on the Client Side itself in the folder ‘Temporary Internet Files’.

The advantage of using Cookies is that for every Reconnection, the Client may not ‘Re-introduce’ itself again and again. The Server just picks up wanted information from the Cookie (stored in an expected format) and establishes the Response. Cookies can also store repeated ‘user-entry’ information like ‘Remember Password’ facility that is found in most of the user logins today. However, if we want to, we can erase all Cookies on the Client Side by simply selecting ‘Delete Cookies’ or clearing ‘Temporary Internet Files’ folder from the Browser > Internet Options Menu.

A 2 point golden rule about Cookies is:
• Cookies are “Set” by Server on Client during ‘Response’.
• Cookies are “Retrieved” by Server from Client during ‘Request’.

So, Internet Cookies serve the purpose of increasing the overall Request to Response Efficiency and reduce time lag. It is to be noted that programmatically it is possible for the Web Developer to set an Expiry Date and time on the Internet Cookie so that it automatically terminates or destroys itself on the Client side after some limited usage. In Server Side Scripting Languages like ASP there are methods like ‘Expires’ which can be used for the purpose. Cookies set by one Server can also later on be accessed by another Server, which is a useful e-marketing tool these days.

Are you concerned about the number of ads on your computer, which pop up while surfing? Well, you probably should be. The good news is there is protection available for your computer. There are a number of adware remover software packages out there, for both Mac and PC, to help keep you ad-free!

One thing to watch out for is performance degradation. If you buy your software from an unknown company, it is possible it will be written in an inefficient way, causing your computer to become very slow. This can be very aggravating! So you probably want to stick with the famous software vendors.

There are a number of scary things out there, besides adware. Worms, trojan horses, and spyware are all forms of programs that can hurt your computer. Fortunately, most of the professional software can detect these things and remove them from your computer. This software will keep your computer running smoothly.

In this day and age, most malware is passed from computer to computer by the Internet. However, it is also possible to become infected by sharing memory media. Disks, flash drives, zip drives, and CDs can pass the bugs from PC to PC. So it is important to run your software on these devices as well as running it while you are on the Internet.

One thing to be careful of are macros, used in many popular programs. Sometimes the creators of the bugs embed them into the macros, and the macros can be attached to the documents used in the software. Therefore, the bugs (and the ads) can be passed from PC to PC by simply exchanging the documents. This is a simpler way to pass the infections back and forth. The good news is many defense programs are able to detect this type of bug.

Another thing to beware of is email. There are ways for ad-creators to embed the ads into emails or attachments, so that simply opening the email will cause the infection to happen. If you receive an email from someone you don’t know, with a suspicious subject line, do not open it! If you delete it without opening it, you should be alright.

One thing to beware of, when buying commercial software, is automatic renewal fees. Sometimes the vendor will charge your credit card every six months. Of course, it is stated in the fine print, but it is easy to overlook if you are not careful. Let the buyer beware!

Another trap to watch out for is running more than one program at the same time. This can cause system problems, causing the computer to slow down dramatically, and also cause conflicts of other kinds. So make sure your computer only has one program on it. Then you should be safe.

Hopefully, all of this information has not scared you too much! It is still very rewarding to surf the Internet, even if there are a few ads. If you take the proper precautions, you should be just fine. So have a good time, and happy computing!

A virus is an enemy of your computer. It is a collective term that includes all kinds of malicious software like worm, virus or Trojan. While internet is very useful and inevitable for modern man, these varied dangers of internet can be striking. A virus is often concealed or hidden in other programs. For e.g., the installation programs that you may receive through your email. When you run this program the virus gets into your system and can do a lot of devastation to all the programs in your computer. A Trojan can corrupt files and keep track of keystrokes.

A worm is much like virus and is self-copying. Worms are capable of reproducing multitudes without much human assistance like through sending emails. They also do not need any executable program for passing them along. When a computer is affected by a worm, it lags behind in data transfer and can infect all the systems on that network.

While considering the subject worm virus, we can know that it is typical malicious software that is capable of spreading through email attachments. It can also be executed when you download an infected file into your computer. It is highly recommended to scan your system regularly or once a week at least if you are a web fanatic. A worm virus can enter your system even if you use an anti-virus program and it’s very tiring and strenuous to remove once it has been executed.

Usually a worm virus that enters your system tends to destroy all the information in the hard disc that is stored in your files, documents and folders. It can install itself in your system and you won’t have even the faintest idea until you have lost all your valuable information and eventually your hard disc itself. When you doubt an illegal entry, backup all the essential files as quickly as possible.

The two major customs to get rid of worm virus is to make use of a removal software or to reformat the whole hard disc. The former is found to be more convenient and safe as it perceives virus signatures in files and solves virus infection.

The removal software will first try to confirm if a worm is running and then terminate the program if necessary. It will then move on to scanning the hard disc for any known worm files. If found, the registry entries to these files will be removed and the files will be eventually deleted. Then finally the computer will to restarted to delete any worm file that is in use.

Here is some general information for getting rid of worm virus attack.

Run your anti-virus and follow the steps with conformity. Then choose the “clean –up” button to delete the files manually or by a mouse click. Run your removal program once again to make sure of the termination. Double check to verify that the worm is gone and go on until your computer is clean.

Computers are tools to help us become more productive. Unfortunately, some evil computer programmers use computers for bad purposes and have created bits of code that hinder computer use and damage your personal property, clog network traffic or even lead to identity theft. They propagate little computer programs, often hidden or deceptively packaged, that are malware, viruses or trojans and commandeer our computers to do things that we otherwise would not do. Some of the bad things these programs can do include being used for spamming other sites, for breaking password protection, for denial of service attacks by flooding a victim server, or for capturing keystrokes on a user’s computer to steal their personal information and passwords. There are steps you can do to protect yourself, however, and we will provide you with some of these below.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to invest in software to detect these snippets of code. There are versions of software that both scan your computer and also versions that scan ongoing code in real-time. Both types of protection are recommended to protect yourself. You can also store checksums and have your computer alert you if a file is trying to change or infect one of your own files without permission. Most of these programs will scan all your files and store the checksum, being vigilant and alerting you to any attempts to change the files so that you can approve or disapprove as appropriate.
Another strategy is to use programs that scan for adware. Often, adware will try to steal personal information, and it is important to protect yourself against this. Be careful clicking on any ads, especially ads associated with dating sites or pornographic content. Ad clicking might install something or place a cookie on your computer that can later be used by nefarious users to access information about you, potentially leading to identity theft.

Do not accept files from unfamiliar sources. If you do not know or trust the website or individual that has sent you the file, then decline the transmission. Many people that propagate these files use “social engineering” to try to trick you into receiving it – perhaps saying the file is related to a charity, a friend (referring to a common name), or a free gift that you have won. Sometimes they even claim to be celebrities.

A final piece of advice is to be cautious with your email. Many of the evil computer users will use “phishing” techniques to try to get you to disclose your personal information or to click through to a site that may place an undesired program on your computer. Do not fall for attempts to get you to disclose your username and password to other sites. Also do not accept any files that end in EXE or COM extensions as they may execute themselves immediately with negative results. Good luck protecting yourself!

To start out, a trojan horse can be described as a type of malware that fools the user into thinking it is performing a desirable function when in reality is doing damage to your system. The trojan can access all of your network connections and delete necessary registry files, which are necessary to make your computer run properly. This type of virus can completely destroy your operating system if you are not careful of what you are doing on your system. If infected you may have to completely reinstall your operating system and much, if not all, of the data on your hard drive could be destroyed beyond repair.

Now, let’s discuss how a trojan can really make its way into your operating system. There are several ways this can happen such as: downloaders (like those to download music and movies), email attachments, and websites with Activex control. It really isn’t a good idea to install any kind of unknown downloader onto your system and peer to peer networks are well known for causing trojans; If you don’t know where it’s coming from, don’t download it. Email attachments are a touchy subject as well, but a good rule of thumb is to only open attachments from people you know. I cannot stress this enough, if you don’t know what it is, don’t open it. Now, Activex controls on websites are everywhere so my suggestion would only to allow Activex on reputable websites. If you don’t, you may be sorry in the long run.

Your best method of preventing a trojan is internet security. These can range from relatively inexpensive to the highest end you can find. Sometimes the best isn’t always the most expensive, so do your research to find the best security for your specific system. By purchasing internet security, which includes antivirus software, you can prevent yourself from having to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to repair your system or even purchase a new one. However, to make sure that your antivirus and Internet security service is running efficiently, you must keep it updated on a regular basis to have the most up to date list of viruses and malware.

Being a victim of this devastating virus can be both the common user and to a business. So please be aware and use caution on the internet. There really is nothing worse than losing your livelihood just because you weren’t cautious.

Spyware is software installed without a user’s knowledge to monitor his or her computer and Internet usage. It falls under the larger category of “malware” meaning “malicious software.” Spyware is often disguised as or included with other software, which is usually how it gets on to a user’s computer. Once there, it can perform a variety of undesirable actions. These can range from recording and transmitting personal information to a third party to redirecting Internet traffic and search engine results.

If you’ve ever seen a strange-looking toolbar in your browser, or found that searching the web doesn’t work the way it used to, you may have spyware. By redirecting the flow of data between a personal computer and the website it is trying to access, spyware can download additional programs or even use a user’s computer to connect to other sites without that user’s knowledge. This often results in a noticeable slow-down in Internet traffic, as the invisible downloads will take up valuable bandwidth. You may also have trouble visiting sites that you haven’t had trouble with in the past.

Luckily, eradicating spyware is almost as easy as getting it. There are a number of powerful and free spyware scanners that quickly find and delete spyware on person computers using a database of known spyware. But be careful; sometimes clever spyware creators make their programs look like spyware or virus scanners. Educate yourself about the program you choose to download before you run it.

Whatever program you eventually choose to use, it is important to restart your computer before running it. At any given point, multiple spyware programs could be running in the background, and rebooting your PC will quit them and give the spyware scanner a chance to find and delete them. You may have to run it more than once, just to be sure—but if it works, you should see a noticeable increase in your internet speed.

To avoid spyware, it is important to pay careful attention to what you download. Avoid downloading and installing .exe (executable) program files unless you completely understand what it is you are installing. Be wary of “free” offers that seem too good to be true but require you to download something onto your computer; these are often digital trojan horses that aren’t as free as they seem.

It is also important to maintain and update the “definition” files for your spyware scanner. Scammers are constantly looking for new ways to take advantage of unwary Internet users, and by keeping up with the spyware definitions, you can be sure to eliminate any new threats as they come. Run the spyware scanner just as often as you would a virus scanner—once a week is a good idea.

Take these important steps to protect your personal information online. Educate yourself about malware and the shady side of the Web, and you won’t have any trouble.

As the internet expands its horizons and getting the world to shrink inversely to its proportion, the other side of the coin has been defaced. The buzzword, SPAM has struck. This very agency, the SPAM has started to be a global phenomenon by the amount of effect that it has on the range of people using the internet from a novice user to a professional or power user. The SPAM has been a cause of concern for every internet user and organization. Also, the impact of spam on the computer industry in its advanced stages which also includes the spreading of viruses through it has spelled disaster on the IT industry numerous of times.

The Spam is basically the flooding of the Internet with multiple copies of a same piece of a message or a file with the intent of accomplishing a cheap way of commercial advertising which is often about products that are of dubious existence or are illegal to sell or the products that one would never care to look at if given a chance. The spam is a emitted by very sophisticated softwares and worms which scans the vulnerable computers and users over the internet and emites their way through them. Their is a very huge variety of spam blockers that are available off the internet which promises for a user to stay protected from SPAM but neither of them is so effective that keeps pace in sync with the propulsion of new spam which ranges from several thousands a day.

The spam that delivers virus to an email address is usually consisted in a piece of an executable file which might probably look like a funny game or a prank software at first but holds a lethal virus in itself. The virus file actually binds within itself a software that can put all the data on a hard drive exposed to an agency and putting the privacy of the user on a big risk. The virus file usually has an inbuilt mail server built into it which helps the creator of the virus to control the computer of the victim and also use it as a proxy to emit the virus furthermore into the internet through your email. Also if an internet user supposedly visits the ad-ridden websites, its very likely that he/she might click on the advertisements such as pop ups and ad banners which will lead them a step closer to the virii infection.

The business of spam has become very smart in terms of the techniques used to spread it. One technique of spreading SPAM is by configuring the software to send the spam across the random email IDs and when the email loads on the computer of the holder of an ID that was randomly generated by the software, the creator of the spam gets to know the IP address of the person that opened the email and thereby scanning that IP address for any vulnerable entry paths and thereby accomplishing the task of intrusion. This trick of spamming can also promote the use of target advertising by fetching all the private data such as interests, the websites visited, the pages opened or the transactions done on a computer and then sending out the emails to the victim’s ID that would appeal him and thereby luring him into a potential scam.

To combat spam, one must be aware of its workings. Also, for a novice user, if he/she is not very into the technological aspects of the computers, should install an anti-spam software and also should not click on the emails that come from the unknown sources. Only an awaken user can avoid spam and keep him/her secure from losing the data which to some is more important than their lives.