Author: Joey Vella

These days the volume of Spam email is a significant portion of the email distributed online. These Spam emails consist mainly of people trying to promote products using your unsolicited email address as a sales tool but even more sinister people trying to defraud you of money. This is done via a series of emails designed to spoof you into entering key financial information and is growing in frequency all the time.

These emails are referred to as Phishing emails likened to catching a fish where you throw in the rod looking for a bite, in this case entering account numbers and passwords. This identity fraud can ruin you financially and can take you months or years to first prove you were not responsible and to try and recover some of the money stolen from you.

Legally your financial institution is not obliged to return any moneys to you as a victim of online fraud. Their terms and conditions usually state quite clearly that it is your responsibility to maintain the integrity of your username/account numbers as well as any password or pin numbers. So whilst online banking is very convenient the responsibility clearly sits with you in regards to security and privacy of your information.

These phishing emails are designed to collect your financial information and usually do so by copying the websites of your financial institution and pretending that you need to update your username, password, address etc. These sites are so convincing that it only takes a moments lapse in concentration to compromise your security and privacy. Your bank or financial institution would never ask you to update information via email. If you need to carry out a financial transaction do so by going directly to the website and not clicking on any email links.

So how can you prevent being tricked by these phishing emails ? Firstly if the email looks unprofessional with poor spelling and grammar you can assume it is Spam and delete the email. If it is a professional looking email with company logos and colors there is actually a simple way to check if the email you received is legitimate. Most email these days is delivered in HTML format which gives you richer emails with text and graphics.

Move the mouse over one of the hyperlinks and in the status bar of the browser or email client you will see the domain the link is really going to take you. If this is not the domain of your financial institution it’s Spam and delete the email. If it does match the correct domain complete a further check as follows. Somewhere in your email client or browser you should see a ‘View Source’ option. Select that and you will see the HTML code that composes the email.

Look for the link and make sure the address in the ‘href’ tag is a legitimate domain for your financial institution. Again remember emails from your financial institution you should click on are generally marketing, sales or new product information emails. Make sure you have anti-virus and anti-spyware applications installed on your computer to make sure you do not have spyware or malware that could be recording your account numbers and passwords.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/how-to-avoid-being-defrauded-by-phishing-emails-1515749.html

About the Author:

Joey Vella is an IT Consultant with over 20 years of IT and Project experience. Specialising in Windows platforms and system configurations. Joey consults to a number of companies including PCWinTools.com

Author: seo ssl

If you’re connected to the Internet (especially with an “always on” connection such as cable or DSL), you’re at risk for intrusion from hackers or with infection from a virus or spyware. This can happen without your knowledge. You can be browsing, logging on and off various web sites, etc., and be compromised. However, you can protect yourself from this type of intrusion by following a few simple steps.

1.. Use a firewall to block all incoming connections from the Internet to services that should not be publicly available. By default, you should deny all incoming connections and only allow services you explicitly want to offer to the outside world.

2.. Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised.
3.. Ensure that programs and users of the computer use the lowest level of privileges necessary to complete a task. When prompted for a root or UAC password, ensure that the program asking for administration-level access is a legitimate application.

4.. Disable AutoPlay to prevent the automatic launching of executable files on network and removable drives, and disconnect the drives when not required. If write access is not required, enable read-only mode if the option is available.

5.. Turn off file sharing if not needed. If file sharing is required, use ACLs and password protection to limit access. Disable anonymous access to shared folders. Grant access only to user accounts with strong passwords to folders that must be shared.

6.. Turn off and remove unnecessary services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical. These services are avenues of attack. If they are removed, threats have less avenues of attack.

7.. If a threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied.

8.. Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread threats, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.

9.. Isolate compromised computers quickly to prevent threats from spreading further. Perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media.

10.. Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched.

When it comes to doing business online, security is a two-way street. Safe online transactions demand smart behavior on the part of consumers and proactive security policies and procedures on the part of Web sites.

Businesses that sell goods or services online also have a responsibility to keep their transactions secure and private. And the more sites know about current e-commerce security threats, the better job they can do at protecting their transactions. Your browser should comply with industry security standards, such as SSL Certificate. SSL(Secure Socket Layer) is a security Protocol.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/10-points-to-keep-your-network-secure-and-safe-from-hackers-and-viruses-1458210.html

About the Author:

Nill Smith is a contributing author for ClickSSL.com, a website that provides discount offers on SSL Certificates from our websites online. If you are searching great offers and discounts for buy ssl certificates. Author can offer branded SSL Certificates at affordable price.

Author: Rob Ferrall

The marketing hype from publishers of anti-virus and anti-spyware software might lead you to believe that do-it-yourself virus removal is simply a matter of installing the right product. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing, your attempts to clean a virus from your computer may be a complete waste of time, or worse yet — cause more problems than you had before you started on your PC virus removal endeavors. Especially if you have contracted a newer virus, or one that only has homegrown tips on how to remove that virus or bug, you run into the real possibility of damaging your computer or losing some, or all of, your important files.

Missing the target – About 600 new viruses and other types of malware are discovered every month. It’s nearly impossible for off-the-shelf anti-virus software to stay in front of that tidal wave, and the shareware products that abound on the internet are usually months out of date. Thus, your software may give you a clean bill of health when in fact your computer is still infected, and spreading the infection undetected, in the background.

Catching it again – An increasing number of viruses are designed to survive detection and removal, by reinstalling themselves every time you start your computer. Most hard-drive based anti-virus programs are powerless against these kinds of viruses, because the viruses load before the anti-virus software gets a chance to. Your computer might be “clean” when you finish your virus removal, only to be re-infected the next time you boot up.

Losing the baby, keeping the bathwater – Some types of “malware” — such as adware — are actually components of freely distributed software programs, which won’t run without them. And an aggressive anti-virus program can often give “false positives”, identifying harmless program components as lethal viruses. If you automatically delete or quarantine them, programs you were counting on may stop working.

Winning the battle, losing the war – Some anti-virus spyware is so aggressive it can use a significant amount of your computer’s memory. Thus, causing your computer to slow to a crawl or interfere with the installation of legitimate software or even day-to-day usage of your PC. With performance degradation like that, who needs a virus?

The hard fact is that virus programmers are much, much more computer savvy than most users. To clean your computer safely, it’s best to turn to a trained professional with high-end tools and the knowledge to be able to tell what’s really a threat and what’s a necessary file.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/dangers-of-diy-computer-virus-removal-1397433.html

About the Author:

CPS provides professional PC virus removal for Brighton, Howell, Hamburg, Pinckney, and all of Livingston County, Michigan.