Many people are concerned about internet security and the security of there computer today and rightly so.
First let's talk about passwords, a password is supposed to be secret, and hard to guess. If your password is the answer to any of these questions it is not safe. What year did you graduate from High School or College? What year were you married in or divorced in, or born in? What is your dogs name? What is your phone number? What is your High School sweethearts old phone number? What is the name of your kids or grand-kids?
A strong password should look something like this j8lAC0Tb, this is a random generated password, 8 digits long (though I recommend 12 - 16 digits) that using upper and lowercase letters and numbers together. DO NOT USE THIS PASSWORD, SINCE IT IS PUBLISHED IT WOULD BE EASY TO GUESS TO NOW.
You can get any easy to use random password generator here. http://www.securesafepro.com/download.php
When shopping online you need to look at the address in your address bar. If the address starts with http:// is a non-secure website, if it starts with https:// it is a secure network, that is an important tool, when deciding where to shop and spend your money.
When shopping online never use your personal bank cards or credit cards, purchase a prepaid Visa or Master Card, load it with the money you need to make your purchase or just keep a few dollars on it for midnight shopping, if the card is hacked all they can get is what's on the card, and they can't get access to your bank information at all, because you did not use your bank cards.
Also in the security realm is Firewalls, Anti-Spyware software and Anti-Virus Software.
A Firewall is: A firewall is a set of related programs, located at a network gateway server, that protects the resources of a private network from users from other networks. (The term also implies the security policy that is used with the programs.)
A firewall works in conjunction with your router to block programs from accessing your computer, or to deny your computer access to blocked internet sites.
Computer security borrows this term from firefighting, where it originated. In firefighting, a firewall is a barrier established to prevent the spread of fire.
Do you need a firewall, not really anymore, starting with Windows XP, your computer came with an installed and active firewall.
Today you really need to know about 3 things, Adware, Spyware, and Malware:
Adware: Adwares are software applications that are supported by advertisements (Advertising Software). It automatically display advertisement when the software is running. It is one of the way a programmer can offer his application at a reduce cost or even for free. Most of the time, a license can be bought to remove the advertisement permanently.
Spyware: Spywares are a progression from adwares. In order to provide the user of adwares with more targeted advertisements, various forms of statistics and information on user's activity on the system is tracked and sent to advertising companies. Sometimes these are done under the hood without user's knowledge and consent. Like spying on your habits and activities on your computer. Thus the term spying software.
Malware: Malware are malicious software that affects the normal functionality of your system. Sometimes, annoying pop up will appear out of no where to direct you to some sales sites. Sometimes emails spams will automatically be sent from your system. Adware and spyware progress to a malicious state if it start to affect the use of your system actively instead of just showing you passive advertisement.
You need to kill all of these "wares". Yes you need a good anti-spyware program to kill these and yes this is worth investing money in.
Anti-Virus Software: Antivirus (or anti-virus) software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses. Such programs may also prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware.
A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signature-based detection involves searching for known malicious patterns in executable code. However, it is possible for a user to be infected with new malware in which no signature exists yet. To counter such so called zero-day threats, heuristics can be used. One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses for looking for known malicious code (or slight variations of such code) in files. Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do if opened/run by emulating it in a sandbox and analyzing what it does to see if it performs any malicious actions. If it does, this could mean the file is malicious.
However, no matter how useful antivirus software is, it can sometimes have drawbacks. Antivirus software can degrade computer performance if it is not designed efficiently. Inexperienced users may have trouble understanding the prompts and decisions that antivirus software presents them with. An incorrect decision may lead to a security breach. If the antivirus software employs heuristic detection (of any kind), the success of it is going to depend on whether it achieves the right balance between false positives and false negatives. False positives can be as destructive as false negatives. In one case, a faulty virus signature issued by Symantec mistakenly removed essential operating system files, leaving thousands of PCs unable to boot.[1] Finally, antivirus software generally runs at the highly trusted kernel level of the operating system, creating a potential avenue of attack.[2]
In addition to the drawbacks mentioned above, the effectiveness of antivirus software has also been researched and debated. One study found that the detection success of major antivirus software dropped over a one-year period.
Some software does both the "wares" and virus's.
This should keep us talking for hours.
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