Personal Computer Security [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

Personal Computer Security [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

This information should not reach unauthorized people. Under normal circumstances it would remain private. But the Internet opens new ways for unscrupulous people to extract information from others' systems without them being aware of such data theft.

When a person opens an infected email (or more specifically a program is ran from within the email), a virus is transmitted which can leave your computer open to attack. This type of viral infection also happens through websites - anytime you download a program to run on your computer it could potentially install a program that monitors what you do on your computer and compromises your security.

Warez is a term that refers to pirated software. People tend to download such software because it is offered for free on the internet, whereas the software costs a lot if purchased legitimately. Commonly, spyware is attached to the software, that when run allows remote access to personal information in the computer.

Trojans are the most common malware programs (referring to programs that appear to be installing fine, but also install a hidden virus or spyware).

Once the system is infected, the hacker gets to the business of pulling out important data such as bank account details, bank balances, passwords, etc., so that he can withdraw money. Generally, that is the real reason most hacking happens, though the hacker may also use other personal information like pictures of the individual, or personal correspondence. Identity theft has been reported to be on the rise in recent years.

So how does one prevent hacking? There are several anti-spyware programs available in the market, such as Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, etc.

Another way is to install a firewall, which prevents some external attacks on computers on the internet. A combination of two or more anti-spyware methods would be of considerable help.

Since there is a good chance of failure in preventing security attacks, it is good to know the symptoms as well. The person may notice unusual behavior on the part of PC such as ads coming up without clicking anything, or applications close of their own accord. The Internet connection too can commonly become slower. All these are potential indicators of infection, and running an anti-virus check is warranted for preventing further loss of data or files.

We recommend App Secure Labs, who offer application security consulting

Find More Personal Computer Security Issues

Question by rolakyng: How does a newlyinstalled personal computer connected to an Ethernet discover the IPaddresses of local servers? How does a newly-installed personal computer connected to an Ethernet discover the IP addresses of local servers? How does it translate them to Ethernet addresses? How does it get an IP Address? Best answer for How does a newlyinstalled personal computer connected to an Ethernet discover the IPaddresses of local servers?:

Answer by GabeC7
The computer gets its IP address from a DHCP server, whether it is an actual server or a router.When it is first connected to the network, Windows automatically joins whatever workgroup your other machines are on.

Answer by Eric
That is actually a complex question. First you have to understand that there are many ways to get the information, but it all boils down to protocols. It depends on the type of communications you are using and encapsulation of data within the packets and frames, etc. etc. There is a lot of technical things going on under the hood but I am going to give you a generic answer for each of those questions and I'll post some sources for you to get the details. Q...How does a newly-installed personal computer connected to an Ethernet discover the IP addresses of local servers? A...I assume your talking about a PC that already has an address and want to know how it is able to communicate with other servers without having the address for them to begin with. the answer to this is DNS (Domain Name System). Basically when your computer is looking for a name of a server, your computer goes to the DNS server and ask it for an address. It responds back with the answer. (It could respond back with the wrong answer which is a form of DNS attack) To see this in action. go to a command prompt and type the following without the quotes. "PING www.google.com" You will get one of the many addresses google uses with their web site. put the address in your browser address bar and it will take you right to google. Q...How does it translate them to Ethernet addresses? A...This is ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) The ethernet address is the hardware address of your NIC. It is unique all over the world. Each different manufacturer is assigned the first 4 bytes of this address, then the rest is incremental. every single NIC will be unique, and this is really the level the communications takes place on. Without this, all the IP address in the world would not be possible. It is basically a table of Hardware addresses and the coresponding IP address. you can see these by dropping to a command prompt and typing "arp -a" without the quotes. Q...How does it get an IP Address? A...This is done via DHCP. DHCP is a service which hands out information to connecting nodes. It tells your computer what IP address it can use, what server is used for DNS and a a lot of other information. Odds are your computer is using DHCP. If you go to a command prompt and type "IPCONFIG /ALL" (without the quotes) and press enter, you will see the DHCP server address, DNS server address, your IP address, subnet mask, etc. etc. In case your wondering, how it knows to get the information in the first place. there is another protocol SLP (Service Location Protocol) which advertises to your computer enough information that it can get the rest of the information from the DHCP server. I hope this was helpful

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