Computer Security, Viruses And Threats [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

Computer Security, Viruses And Threats [aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com]

In the latest in this series of business technology debates, the FT's Hugo Greenhalgh looks into the nature of IT security. What are the risks, and what forms does cybertheft take? Discussing this and other issues are William Beer, a director in PwC's information and cyber security practice, Ray Stanton, vice-president of professional services at BT Global Services, and Bryan Glick, editor-in-chief of Computer Weekly.

aboutcomputer99.blogspot.com IT security: Stay calm - be resilient

... http://www.lancope.com/news-events/webinars/the-2012-computer-security-threat-landscape/ . "The significance and sophistication of computer security threats is growing with each passing year," said Tom Cross, director of security research for Lancope. Lancope Hosts Webinar on the 2012 Network Security Threat Landscape

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse.

For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can't access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause loss of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cybercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI's top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are referred to as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy.

*The Hacker.

The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network.

*The Cracker.

The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It's basically an evil hacker. They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills.

*The Cyberterrorist.

A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy compute rs for political reasons. It's just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning.

*The Cyberextortionist.

The term cyberextortionist refers to someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a companies network. They will request a paid sum of money to prevent the threat from being carried out, a bit like black mailing.

*The Unethical Employee.

An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company's network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge.

*The Script Kiddie.

A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. *The Corporate Spy. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice.

Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days.

When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user's consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread througho ut infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It's similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs to attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn't need to do that, it copies itself to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth.

A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms it will not replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classified as malicious-logi c programs which are just programs that deliberately harm a computer. Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if your computer displays one or more of these things:

* Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.

* You have less available memory than you expected.

* Music or sounds plays randomly.

* Files get corrupted.

* Programs are files don't work properly.

* Unknown files or programs randomly appear.

* System properties fluctuate.

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through three common ways.

1 - When an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files.

2 - When an individual boots a computer with an infected drive, so that is why it's important to not leave removable media in your computer when you shut it down.

3 - When an unprotected computer connects to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment.

There are literally thousands of malicious logic programs and new ones come out by the numbers so that's why it's important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known method for providing 100% protection for any computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs. Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in the drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a boot sector on t he drives and even if it's unsuccessful any given virus on the boot sector can infect the computer's hard disk. If you must start the computer using removable media for any reason, such as when the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.

How can you protect your computer?

The best way to protect your computer from any of the above is by using good quality internet securities software. Purchasing this from a reputable security company is recommended to ensure that your software is kept up to date with the most recent virus signatures. If you are not up to date an unrecognised virus will not be stopped by the software. A full security package will protect you from viruses, Worms, Trojan horses, keyloggers and will detect when a hacker is attempting to hack into your computer and prevent them from gaining access when you are online or connected to a network. It is not advisable to use a free antivirus servic e as these do not provide adequate protection and are a false economy. Recommended internet security software companies are:- Norton, McAfee and others.

Related Computer Security, Viruses And Threats Topics

Question by sparkedit2: Computer Security? I have windows vista ultimate and i want to install some antiviruses. I have webroot-spysweeper and norton antivirus. Can i install both of them? I tried installing 2 different antiviruses on my other computer and it totally crashed! Since i have 2 different products, i wonder if it will always crash if you have more than 1 antivirus working on 1 computer. -thanks P.S.- which is better? Norton antivirus or norton internet security? Best answer for Computer Security?:

Answer by Fireplane
For a really good anti-virus you actually have to pay money, Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security are different things that protect different parts, I like to use AVG, even the free version is pretty good.

Answer by Stevon R
Norton and though's other ones fail completely. Take to much memory and crash a lot. I highly recommend getting this. http://free.grisoft.com/ The free version takes hardly any memory and has gotten 5 Awards for best protection on XP and Vista. They update the virus dictionary almost every day keeping you safe from virtually everything.

Answer by geek
You should never run more than one antivirus software in your computer, but with spyware is another story is wise to have more than one. I will said the norton internet security is much better than the antivirus alone. Remember no PC security product can possibly protect you from every new spyware and malware threat. The majority of these new threats would be undetected by most of the popular security programs, including the ones we all use. Some anivirus will detect spywares but can't delete them so don't think they don't work is just that they are not designed to solve those issues. Here is a list softwares so you can create your own security suite based on freewares, this not only will secure your computer but also boost its performance. Anti virus: Just run one antivirus on your PC, both options are great but i recommend AVG. AVG free edition. http://www.download.com/avg-anti-virus..... Avira Antivir: http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Pe... Anti spyware: You can run more than one. A Square 3: http://www.download.com/A-Squared/3000-2... Ad-aware http://www.download.com/ad-aware-2007/..... Spybot S&D http://www.download.com/spybot-search-..... Spywareblaster http://www.download.com/spywareblaster..... Firewall: Zonealarm http://www.download.com/zonealarm-fire..... Registry cleaner: advanced windows care personal http://www.download.com/advanced-windo..... This is another combination recently posted at cnet.com Comodo firewall+avira antivir+spyware terminator all of them are free and are excellent choices. I only add spywareblaster and advanced windowscare to that combo. you can download all of them at download.com.Restart in safe mode then run all your security software one by one. Be patient because this take some time to get it done and do it at list once per month

Answer by Joey
Yes.You can run your webroot-spysweeper and Norton antivirus. Only one Anti Virus program should be running at all times.. You can have more than one Anti-Spyware program on your PC, but one good one is good enough... Regarding your Norton antivirus or Norton Internet security question! To be honest with you i and most pro PC users would choose neither!! There are many free programs |"top rated" programs that are very good, free and more importantly, do the job, and are light weight on your PC..Norton is not the best recommendation i would give.. Here are top reviews on the best ..Users reviews and tips.. http://pcsecuritycentral.blogspot.com

Answer by stylezuk
Anti-Virus AVG Spyware/Adware removal: SUPERAntispyware Ad-Aware 2007 Free Spybot General cleanup remove cookies and more: CCleaner Firewall: Pc Tools Firewall Plus All free. Available @ my blog. http://internetsecurityandmaintenance.blogspot.com/ So many companies trying to make money by selling you products to keep your computer safe and clean, all of which are freely available. Hope this helps.

Answer by Ralph C
You usually can't run two anti virus progams at the same time. They usually conflict and either don't work or cause your computer to crash. You are better off just finding the best product and sticking to that. If you're interested I wrote a free report about internet security programs which you can find at: http://www.handsoffmycomp.com

[computer security]