Posts Tagged ‘virus’

What Are Internet Cookies, How Do They Work?

To gain knowledge on how to prevent information theft in upkeeping computer security, it is best that we understand more about cookies. This awareness may be tiny and of less excitement but we can acquire a major understanding on how they work and use it for our protection against security threats.

1. What cookies do are storing bits of informations on your computer and preferences. Let’s assume that you already have visited a site before, meaningyou are a return user, and this is made possible by using cookies. What else, it may also store specifics like region codes used for automatic local news on weather from a site.

2. Cookies from internet are created by a web server and are stored in a computer storage at the time the user first enters a site. Later in the session between the webpage and the user, more cookies may be placed or adjusted.

3. Cookies are made in pairs of name and value like “ZipCode,” and the value is “60119″ for zip code a user last entered in a web page query.

4. Internet cookies will not gather existing information from a computer. The user may be asked to fill in a query regarding his / her private data, but a cookie can’t obtain the data alone although the file was in the computer drive.

5. Although an internet cookie could save many other data, it is not capable of getting saved in other cookies.

6. You might clear the cookies on your PC by browsing into your Temporary Internet Files folder.

7. Internet cookies are also used for marketing. “Targeting” is highly targeted marketing to internet users based on information (like past purchases) saved in their cookies.

8. There are cookies that can track users across the Internet, not just on one site. This technology was developed by DoubleClick company.

9. The 2003 White House Office of Management and Budget memo illegalized the use of persistent cookies, which are cookies that stay active, even after a user has exited out of his or her Web browser. This kind of cookies are easily abused to bring in spyware and viruses.

10. The small, 1×1 pixel cookies called web bugs attached in banner ads are small 1×1 pixel cookies hidden in banner ads that store cookies onto a machine when a user clicks a banner ad.

Psychological Means That Computer Virus Uses to Spread

I guess you have been in a situation where you are convinced to buy certain goods but regretted later when you’ve got home. I have. I usually categorize that kind of marketing as high pressure psychological selling, because the salesman usually applies high level of psychological pressure on the prospect to finally succeed in selling the goods. Trojans and worms are more and more into these practices of iplementing psychological pressure in order to compromise a victim. Such techniques implements but not limited to the exploitation of human basic psychologies: Curiosity, Greed, and Fear. How do we tell that a trojan or a worm virus is trying to get into our system using a psychological pressure? These are things to beare of to help us tell just prior to their attempts to compromise our system: 1. Is it pressing us to download and run some program, in the fear of getting the computer worse due to some infection of trojan or computer virus? If it is while it’s not at all the active running antivirus software we have installed, we can say that it is definitely a virus, malware, or even a worm. 2. Is it offering some software solution that looks like it’s too good to be true and free at the same time? At times, it can be just a marketing hype, but it’s a best practice to beware about the urge to download or agreeing on something it is offering. Downloading a program or just opening a page containing java script or flash application would be enough to get our computer compromised by a computer virus, malware, or trojan. 3. Are we aware of the brands (if any)? Is it a rather famous antivirus brand, or just some very popular one, but not an antivirus? At times the viruses take advantage of well known brand names only to trick uncautious people. Do you remember the “XP Antivirus 2008″ virus disguising Antivirus Software Downloads? Its high success rate really was boosted by the “XP” brand, riding on Windows XP’s brand. Lately, a brand new release of the virus is already spreading, one that we know as “XP Antivirus 2009″. 4. It’s a good practice to always check and recheck if the URL we type is not a fake or phising site. You have to do this if you wish not to unwantingly enter a phishing site, in which case is a much worse scenario compared to contracting a virus. A rogue site is an latest psychological scam in that it tricked visitors into thinking that it’s the right site they’re searching to visit. Everything they have on the page would in turn then be taken for granted by unsuspecting visitors. 5. If you are not sure about those things mentioned above, consult someone you know who knows better about them. There should be at the very least something certain about it, like a popular brand name of antivirus or computer security software solution, the exact URL or at least domain name of the target site, what should be classified into being too good to be true and what not. The success rate this way of contagion has is surprisingly high, assuming the wide availability of legitimate computer security software and antivirus or Internet Security Software available in the market. Based on this fact, I always tell everyone who asked me about computer security to continuously learn about it, even for just a small bit of knowledge. Because with knowledge only although a tiny bit, that we can really sustain our safety against malware.

Protect Your Data and Computer System With These Easy 5 Steps

Do you find that you keep on getting compromised by virus, worms, or trojans although you have the best security tools installed? The following details is comprehensive and practical to the application to secure your system.

You can defend both the system and your computer from almost all threats to your privacy and security, if you have a similar policy or just implement these points.

1. Each and every patches to Windows security for your Windows OS must be updated. All you need is a working internet connection and you will have an always updated Windows OS without any cost.

2. Find a best antivirus to date and install it. Consult software review for the best antivirus ranking to date. Nowadays, antivirus software solutions are sold at very affordable price; some with limited capablities are even free. Provide internet connection to let the antivirus update itself anytime, and let it run automatically when the computer starts. This can be done automatically by default with most programs.

3. Have a firewall installed and configure it well. Either a software or a hardware firewall will do fine, you just need to make sure it is working properly. In case you are connecting through a router, a built-in firewall may have been included in it; You only have to fill the deny or allow list to make it work perfectly. Software version of firewalls are widely available, even the free ones!

4. Don't let yourself run or install any program without having it tested and declared safe in a different computer first. A virtual machine or a virtual computer can do this tricky job with no cost at all and act as a free virus protection.

5. Backup your files regularly, just in case. Best laid plans are those prepared for worst case. All you need is only a few DVDs. With a spare large size harddisk, the cost is reduced to zero!

It's clear that it cost very low and even free if you want to protect yourself from threats.