Archive for the ‘Security Help’ Category

Just about everybody has important data on their hard drive, from digital pictures to important documents, emails, bookmarked websites the list goes on and on. In my experience people are pretty lax about backing up their PCs, and I think this really is an area that deserves attention. With a good back up set you can bounce back from a fatal hard drive crash and be up and… Continue reading

Allowing Programs to Access the Internet

WorldStart has offered some firewalls over the years, and with the increasing popularity and availability of broadband, it’s become an important component in securing your PC. There are a number of different firewalls out there—hardware, software suites, and stand alone titles—but I’ve noticed a lot of frustration when it comes to controlling internet access. Back on May 19, 2004

Safe Online Shopping

How can you tell if an online company is legit when you’re thinking of buying something? Well, there are some key things to look out for:

If you get an unsolicited email about a product from a company you don’t know, then DEFINATELY do your homework before you buy. Check out their reputation , or see if the same product is available from an online… Continue reading

How Anti-virus works

Anyone who has a PC has used, or at least heard of anti-virus. The war on viruses has gotten hot and heavy in the last two years or so. Anti-virus manufacturers have really got to be on their toes if they want to keep us protected. There is a lot more than scanning emails and downloads anymore to keep the nasties out. Today I’d like to take… Continue reading

Stopping Spyware

Spyware is basically a type of program that gathers information about you without your knowledge. This information may be distributed to many sources or just a single source.

Note that if a program alerts you that your personal information may be shared it is not “technically” spyware, but it can be considered “Adware”.

Spyware programs can be extremely annoying and can wreak havoc on… Continue reading

How Firewalls Work

There are mean people out there that want very badly to get into your system or network. Maybe they want to steal information, to simply cause as much destruction as possible, or to use your system for their own uses. If you’re online a lot or have a broadband connection, the attempts to enter your system may be relentless.

I feel that there are three main areas… Continue reading

How to Find What Virus was Removed

In my security articles over the past few weeks I have tried to keep you posted on potential threats. Informing you not only about specific virus threats but also trying to bring everyone up to speed on other aspects of security issues. This week is no different; I have a couple of techniques you can use to see what kind of… Continue reading

I remember when I first started wrestling with my pc and hearing the tidal wave of jargon I had to sift thought and interpret in order to figure out what’s going on. It’s like learning a new language filled with everything from extremely technical terms, to almost silly terms, and some very far-reaching acronyms.

Today my focus is going to be on security terms that are used regularly when discussing… Continue reading

The Oldest Virus on the Net

When considering a security article for this week I thought it appropriate to shed some light on a virus that has been in the background since the mainstream introduction of the computer into our homes. This virus has eluded all antivirus software and has infected at least 50% of all end users. It is responsible for flooding the Internet with junk email… Continue reading

Is There a Creep in Your Neighborhood?



I’d like to let you know about an online resource that my wife showed me. It all came about while she and I were getting ready to move into a new house. We have two small children and my wife was concerned about the neighborhood, so she went to this website and did a search of our new… Continue reading

Be Careful with Attachments

Well, it’s been another big year for hackers. There have been a number of really bad viruses just within the past 6 months. We’ve seen the W32.Beagle, W32.Netsky, MyDoom, and so on and so on. Most of these viruses were transported or replicated from pc to pc using email attachments . These are easy to spot if you’re paying attention… Continue reading

Erase Your Hard Drive

People give there old PCs away to family members, charities, and some end up at the local PC repair shop without ever being properly wiped clean. Everything stored on your PC is on the hard drive. There was a two-year experiment done by MIT graduates Simon Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat where they collected 156 hard drives from various places (the web, ebay, PC shops… Continue reading

Q:
What is a “Trojan Horse”?

A:
We’ve all heard or seen the story from Homer’s Iliad about the Trojan wars. In it the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to their enemies, the Trojans, supposedly as a peace offering. But after the horse is inside the city walls, Greek soldiers sneak out of the horse’s hollow belly and open the city gates… Continue reading

New Threat: Netsky.C Worm

There’s a new worm out there that I’m sure you’ve run into, and it’s a sneaky one. W32.Netsky.C is a mass-mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine (mail server) to send infected emails to the email addresses it finds when scanning the hard drives and mapped drives.

Using a variety of subject lines and body text these emails trick the recipient into… Continue reading