Software | Internet Resources

Trust and the Internet – The Growth of Computer and Data Security

December 27, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

In its infancy the Internet was built and designed by and for academics and computer professionals to communicate with each other. The notion of unethical intruders stealing information was not even considered by the Internet’s builders and developers because they were sharing concepts and information that rarely had any real monetary value. To them the Internet was a safe and trustworthy place to communicate.

The Internet grew and spread – into entertainment, commerce and finance – during the late 1980s and on into the 1990s. The first Internet Service Provider (ISP) companies saw the lucrative potential and made the Internet available to the general public. As more and more people began using these pioneer ISPs services a new breed of criminal emerged. They were computer savvy and able to “hack” into computer systems to steal personal information and money from computer users. The Internet was no longer safe and trustworthy.

Computer designers and the ISP companies began to build more security into computers by improving confidentiality to ensure that information could be accessed could only gained by authorized users. The primary intent of advances in computer software was to protect users personal information.

With each improvement in computers and computer operating systems design, intruders became more sophisticated in their ability to penetrate computer security measures with an array of viruses, worms and other malicious programs designed to disable and corrupt computer operating systems and programs or access personal data – information including bank accounts, social security numbers and credit card data.

Intruders also became more advanced in their techniques and capable of using individual computer Internet connections to get into a vulnerable computer’s hard drive disc space and processor to use that computer for attacks on other computers. Hacking became increasingly difficult to detect and track.

The intensity and depth of criminal intrusion in computers spawned a new industry within the Internet community focused entirely on improving computer security, data safety and trustworthiness.

Filed Under: Anti-Virus, Protection, Software Tagged With: Computer security, Credit card, Operating system

Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses – New Definitions

December 24, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

A Virus was once a viral infection, a Worm was fishing bait and a Trojan Horse was Greek mythology. The personal computer has expanded those definitions.

Computer viruses are small bits of software code that are added to legitimate programs, modify the program and then replicate themselves. Once opened viruses can do extensive damage to programs and operating systems in a computer.

The earliest viruses appeared in the 1980s on floppy disks. Once the disk was inserted and the drive and running, the virus would find another program to attach to and do its damage. Because software programs were much smaller the viruses were spread from disk to disk. This factor minimized the spread of viruses – until the Internet became accessible to home computers. Then, users could go to Internet bulletin boards and download programs onto a floppy disk. If the program contained a virus, the computer became infected.

Email viruses are contained in an email or in email attachments. Often, the virus is activated when the user double-clicks on the email or the attachment. Once activated, the email replicates itself and automatically mails itself to up to 50 addresses in the user’s address book.

A Trojan Horse virus is a computer program that appears to perform one function and, in fact, performs a different and harmful function when launched. It generally does significant damage to the computer.

Worm viruses typically reside on a network. They find security holes in a computer and attach to a resident program. A worm can simultaneously do damage to a computer while slowing down Internet traffic and taking up bandwidth space.

As viruses evolved with the transition from floppy disks to CDs that protected programs from modification, hackers created viruses that loaded into a computer’s memory and ran in the background as part of a two phase action. Once the virus infected the computer – the first phase – the second damaging “attack” phase would occur, triggered by another computer event.

Filed Under: Anti-Virus, Protection, Software Tagged With: Computer virus, Trojan Horse, Virus

Home Computer Maintenance

December 20, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Periodically cleaning a home computer should be part of a computer maintenance program. Over time computers collect dust, in the keyboard and inside the computer itself. As dust inside accumulates inside the “box” it becomes harder for components to dissipate heat and heat is one of the biggest causes of component failure.

A few tools are required – a good light source, a flashlight, a small, low suction vacuum cleaner made for cleaning computers, a can of compressed air, a soft bristle brush and a wrist grounding strap. Before beginning to clean, the grounding strap should be placed on the wrist and the other end attached to a grounding post on the frame of the computer.

Turn the computer off and unplug it!

The keyboard is the first cleaning task. First, turn the keyboard over and gently shake any loose grit from in between the keys. The next step is to blow debris out of the keyboard. A can of compressed air with a low pounds per square inch rating (PSI) has enough pressure to effectively dislodge dust and most other foreign material from in between the keys. Inspect in between the keys with a flashlight to see if there is any debris remaining. Finally, clean up the debris and remove it from the work area.

Next, remove the computer cover and inspect the interior. It is surprising to see how much dust can accumulate. Gently vacuum as much of the interior as possible. Bear in mind that some areas will be difficult to reach. Then use the air to blow the remaining dust out. It may be necessary to repeat these steps again to get all the debris. Use the brush, if needed, to gently brush off dirt. Finally, inspect the computer’s fan(s) to make sure they are turning freely. Replace the cover and clean up the work area. Power up the computer and check it for proper operation. The task is completed.

Filed Under: Common Solutions, Hardware, Software Tagged With: Cleanliness, Compressed air, Computer maintenance, Vacuum cleaner

Phishing Awareness Tips

December 17, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Online phishing is a subtle crime. These scams are designed to excite or alarm the recipients and put them in a position where they feel like they have to act on the email message immediately. Therein lays the reason why many of these scams are successful.

There are techniques that can be used to avoid being taken in by phishing scams. The first step to avoid being taken in by one of these emails is to stop and think rather than react. Scammers rely on overreacting. Once composed, look at the email carefully and do not click on or open anything in the message. Also, do not open any attachments. Part of the scam may be malware that is activated when the message is acted on.

Official looking scam emails often have a generic greeting rather than addressing the intended victim by name. This should raise a red flag in the recipient’s mind.

Look at the design of the email carefully. While a scammer’s email may look official, there is usually something subtly wrong with the design. Look at the sender’s address by resting the arrow – without clicking – on the address. Typically the actual scammer’s email address revealed is masked and is different from the address in the “from” line.

If the sender’s address looks familiar and legitimate at first, read it letter by letter. A phishing scam email will typically have a one or two letter difference or an extra add-on in the address – enough to indicate that it is a completely different address.

One of the newer defenses against phishing scams is Microsoft Windows 8′s Smart Screen Filter. This addition to Windows helps detect unsafe sites.

Also, avoid making any payments using a wireless Internet device. Cyberspace is much less secure than a computer with security software and all home computers should have strong security software installed to protect users.

Filed Under: Common Problems, Protection, Software Tagged With: Confidence trick, Microsoft Windows, Phish

Understanding Social Media

December 16, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Understanding social media requires more than just knowing who is on the site. You need to what they what they like, who they are, and the influence you have to the site. It is also beneficial to understand analytic. Analytic will help you understand what is going on in the social media site. Know the community and become familiar with them. One way of familiarizing yourself with social media is through technological software.

There are many sites that provide insight into social media sites and Social Media Monitoring. You can learn firsthand, step by step instructions on how to set up a social media and what information is vital to understand before beginning. It is important to learn the community, tools, and how use analytics. These sites can guide you to become successful in social media monitoring.

Social media can be useful to companies, to promote the business. Social media sites offer many tools to help collect data, so that you have a better understanding of what is going on, and steps you can take to better yourself and business. If a company is using a social media site for their business, analytics is a must have tool to get a better understanding of what and how to use these tools on your social media site one can visit the website.

Technology is an essential part of today’s businesses and everyday personal life. Social Media had also become an essential, from twitter to facebook. If you are not currently experienced with social media sites, it is about time to learn about them. Our world is becoming more technical, and many employers require the use of technology. It is now part of everyday life and advancing daily.

Filed Under: General, Software Tagged With: Business, Facebook, Internet marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social media, social media monitoring, Twitter, Understanding

Understanding and Fighting Malware

December 13, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

The significant increase in malware e-crimes by criminals, has caused a sift in attention from detecting viruses and spyware to focusing more closely on combating malware activity. Part of this challenge is that e-crime gangs are constantly changing and making malware more difficult to detect. As experts have learned more about malware, progress is being made in defeating these programs.

Part of combating malware is understanding the mindset and objective of the people who employ it. At the least, a person who intentionally and secretly infects someone else’s computer with malicious software wants to intrude on the computer’s operation and possibly do damage. More often, the attacker’s intent is to steal information or money from the user.

Malware software is essentially the same as viruses and spyware, and in many cases the same approach – detecting and blocking – can be used to detect malware. Again, the approach to detection differs because of the attacker’s intent. Programs have been developed to specifically scan computers for malware. Other programs can detect and remove malicious software that is already resident on a computer by scanning the registry, operating system and programs. The scan generates a list of potential intruding software for the user to act on. A few programs are capable of intercepting attempts to install malware or modify browsers.

It is important to make another distinction between viruses, spyware and malware. While the legality of viruses and spyware is often a grey area, malware is clearly an illegal intrusion on an individual’s privacy when there is an attempt to steal personal information or money. The legal term is computer containment and it is a violation of law in several states. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also become increasingly aggressive in pursuing e-crime because of the financial impact of malware on businesses and consumers in the United States.

Filed Under: Anti-Virus, Common Problems, Software Tagged With: Malware, Spyware, United States

The Affects of Malicious Software

December 11, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

The world of computer technology continues to grow at an exponential rate. Unfortunately, as the technology becomes more sophisticated and intuitive, so does the increasingly diverse array of intruding software designed to irritate and inconvenience users, damage their work and steal from them.

The general term for all of these rogue programs is malware. However, there are several important distinctions among these programs. Some malware is simply an annoyance and does not do any damage. Other programs are created to interfere with a computer’s operation. This software can generate a range of problems on a computer from degrading performance to shutting it down. This can be expensive and time lost, particularly for a business with a network of infected computers. It is the malware user’s intent that makes the difference.

It is also the insidious nature of malware that makes people angry. Malware that uses one computer as a “zombie” to spread viruses to other computers, or that tracks users computer activities is, at the least, unethical. Computers were originally designed to be trusted.

The most intentionally malicious software programs are designed to steal from others. Some of these software creations – phishing scams – gain entry to a computer with the intent and ability to persuade unsuspecting computer users to act impulsively. The result is all too often the loss of personal identity information or money – or both.

The ultimate malware insult is the programs that attempt to persuade the user to purchase a product from a website while doing serious damage to the computer itself. Most of this activity is perpetrated by criminals, often remotely located in other countries. It is blatantly illegal and yet difficult to track down and prosecute because these gangs indirectly attack computers through other computers and websites all over the world. The good news is that law enforcement is becoming equally savvy and sophisticated in fighting e-crime.

Filed Under: Common Problems, Software Tagged With: Malware, Personal computer, Spyware

Choosing Blogging Platform and Host

December 9, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

So you’ve decided to finally start your own blog. You have a name and even a domain name. So what now? Well you need to choose what type of blogging platform is going to be the best for you.

There are basically two choices: a do-it-yourself platform or a hosted solution. Hosted solutions are thought to be simpler (very good choice if you don’t have your own domain name), while the do-it-yourself option has more powerful options, just like a tax calculator.

Some hosted bogging platforms include squarespace.com, typepad.com and others. With these sites, you go through a very simple registration process and in some case pay for the hosting fees. You then get a URL for your blog, some simple tools for writing and editing and away you can go!

Do-it-yourself platforms such as WordPress require a bit more work. You’ll also need a web host. And this host will need to support the scripting language (usually PHP). Database support is also required (usually MySQL). Make sure you know how many databases your host will provide and the type of database support will be provided. Also, make sure that your hosting account will provide enough space. Blogging sites can take up large amounts of space, so make sure your host can provide enough.

Make sure you check on your host’s allowed throughput. When your blog gets popular you may be serving up video and images in great quantity, so you want to make sure you don’t have a small limit as to your traffic flow.

Make sure to choose a reputable hosting site. Make sure that the host company will and can offer the options you need. It is important to know whether your chosen host will actually let you host blogging options such as WordPress or whether they will only allow their own chosen options.

Filed Under: Common Solutions, Software Tagged With: Blog, Domain name, MySQL, Option (finance), PHP, Uniform Resource Locator, Web hosting service, WordPress

International Cyber Crime

December 8, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Cyber crime, or eCrime, is a worldwide problem that goes beyond consumer fraud. It has a direct impact on the security of every country that uses the Internet. For those reasons, there has been an international effort to enact laws to punish attacks on personal, corporate and government computers – for whatever reason.

In the United States the most current statute is 18 U.S.C. 1030. The language in Section 1030 is part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and makes it a federal crime to:

“intentionally access a computer without authorization” and thereby obtain information contained in a financial record or of a credit card user or contained in the file of a financial institution”

Section 1030 further defines the scope of the act to include, “knowingly and with the intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer.”

How prevalent is cyber crime? The results of a Gallup Poll released on December 13, 2010 indicate that 11 percent of those polled knew someone or had personally been the victim of a computer attack – an increase of eight percent from a previous poll on the same question.

In 2009 alone, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 336,665 computer attack complaints in the United States – a 22.3 percent increase over 2008. Of the complaints, 146,663 were turned over to law enforcement for action. The financial loss from the attacks referred to law enforcement agencies amounted to $559.7 million, an increase of $264.6 million over 2008′s total.

Cyber crime does not recognize international boundaries and it is difficult to track the criminal activity back to its source. While an attack may originate in a country half way around the world, it travels through several zombie computers and server before reaching its mark.

Governments affected by cyber crime realize that fighting and prosecuting computer attacks will require a concerted and coordinated effort by agencies in every country.

Filed Under: Common Problems, Protection, Software Tagged With: Computer crime, Internet Crime Complaint Center, United States

The Growing Danger of Botnets

December 4, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Botnets are a rapidly growing cyber crime industry. While there are not any firm estimates of the number of cyber gangs operating botnets, organizations that track botnet activity report that one network hosted 50,000 bots, also known as zombie computers.

How does a botnet operate? Basically, a botnet is a group of computers that have been infected by software that gives control of the computer to the botnet manger, or herder. Once controlled by the herder, these computers can be instructed to send email, exploit browsers and other scams to other computers. Typically, the owner of a computer under the control of a botnet is unaware of the situation other than the possibility of reduced computer speed and performance.

How pervasive are botnets? It is estimated that as many as 25 percent of home computers using the Internet may be part of a botnet. A 2009 quarterly report issued by McAfee stated that 12 million new IP addresses had been added to botnets since January 2009 and that the largest number of these addresses – 18 percent – was located in the United States.

The March 16, 2008 addition of USA Today research indicated that as many as 40 percent of the eight million computers on the Internet were botnets. A graph included in the article showed that between August 2006 and January 2008 the number of botnets had grown from 333,023 to 7,303,148.

Russian based Kasperksy Labs and Symantec have both stated that botnets pose a much larger Internet threat than viruses of any kind. The also noted that social networks are rapidly becoming a favorite target for botnets to compromise.

Can botnets be detected and defeated? The way in which botnets are dispersed in a region and the sheer volume of traffic make it extremely difficult to track a botnet to its originating source. Cyber gangs are agile and smart at moving networks to avoid detection.

Filed Under: Anti-Virus, Protection, Software Tagged With: Botnet, McAfee, Symantec