Anti-CIV

If you are using the Internet at all, you probably already know your computer is susceptible to threats and viruses developed by thieves looking to steal your personal information. They could be snooping for your credit card numbers, banking information, or any other pertinent data that might help them “impersonate” you. They may use a tactic of gaining access to your email address book to attack other computer users whose email addresses you store on your PC. It is for reasons such as these that you need to ensure your computer is protected at all times.

There are many ways you can protect your computer, starting with the critical anti-virus program. This type of program when running on your PC is always on the lookout for viruses that attempt to enter through your email, computer programs, or Internet downloads and then alerts you to their presence and deletes them. The anti-virus program is your first wall of defense while on the Internet.

First let’s cover the basics.

Definitions

*Virus: a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer …

*Spy-ware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the users interaction with the computer, without the users informed consent.

*Junk Files: Over the course of time, your computer accumulates unwanted and unremoved junk files that are no longer necessary. These junk files remain unused by the operating system, but occupy much disk space.

The first step to optimizing your computer is removal of any virus, malware, spyware, and adware infecting your computer. You may notice pop-ups, error messages, difficulty navigating on the internet, a change in home page, a slowdown in computer functions, and other undesirable behaviours. You need programs designed to eliminate these threats. Once the threats have been neutralized and eliminated you will be ready to take the next step in optimizing the performance of your computer. First let’s look at what we are dealing with.

Internet protection and computer security go hand in hand, when we look at why we need both of these additional measures when using our computers and the internet together. More and more people are using their computers for shopping online and banking online, because of this present trend the undesirable people in today’s society have now found a another way to obtain money easy. Computer security and internet protection are one of the same things.

The undesirables in our society will steal your information from your computer will even damage your hard drive for the pure fun of it. The security of your personal information should be at the very top of your wish list if using the internet. Let’s look at some of the things you can do to reduce if not eliminate the risk of the information held on your computer being stolen/hacked into:

Computer Security is a branch of technology known as information security as applied to computers. Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction. The objective of computer security varies and can include protection of information from theft or corruption, or the preservation of availability, as defined in the security policy.

Technological and managerial procedures applied to computer systems to ensure the availability, integrity and confidentiality of information managed by the computer system

Computer security imposes requirements on computers that are different from most system requirements because they often take the form of constraints on what computers are not supposed to do.

Typical approaches to improving computer security can include the following:

o Physically limit access to computers to only those who will not compromise security.

o Hardware mechanisms that impose rules on computer programs, thus avoiding depending on computer programs for computer security.

o Operating system mechanisms that impose rules on programs to avoid trusting computer programs.

o Programming strategies to make computer programs dependable and resist subversion.

Computer Security has three Layers:

o Hacking

o Cracking

o Phreaking

Hacking:

Got Spyware?

There is now a bill in Congress to make Spyware illegal. Good luck at catching the creators, in the mean time here are two links you can use to get started on your journey against Spyware.

http://www.lavasoft.com Ad-aware
http://www.safernetworking.com Spybot Search and Destroy.

Note there is better version available for a cost. There are many things you can also do to protect your computer Keep Automatic Updates turned on for all of your Anti-Virus Software, and operating systems. Clean out your cookies as well there is often cookies placed to track your whereabouts on the Internet.

Now the subject of viruses. There are commercial anti-virus scanner like Symantec Norton Anti-Virus and MacAfee in fact many new computers come with trial versions. Unfortunately when these versions run out users most of the time ignore it and wonder why do I have a virus? Let me explain something just because you have a antivirus software program on your computer you are not cured. Virus writers do just that write new viruses and edit old ones to do new things. You need to update your signatures of your anti-virus software continuously. Crafty virus writer’s code Viruses to disable your anti-virus software!

This is a paper about securing your home computers and networks.

The goal of computer security is to keep unauthorized users from using your resources. This can be anything from your computer to your printer or even your web camera. Detection is another important aspect that should be monitored as well.

I often get asked “Why should I worry?”

Maybe you shouldn’t. If you are concerned about any of your files or the possibility of losing them you should care. There is also online banking that many people use to watch their accounts. Malicious users can also use your computer to launch attacks against other networks, or put files on your computer as a means of storage. Even if you have the computer just to send email to Grandma don’t think that you are not at risk. Attackers like to hide there tracks by jumping thru multiple locations such as your computer. Malicious users can take over your webcam and watch and even listen to you!

Attackers like to use multiple systems to launch denial of service attacks-sending tons of packets to bring a network to its knees.