Introduction and Purpose

The purpose of this article is to provide evidence and information to counteract the suggestion that Assertivenet is potentially used for malicious purposes.

Initial Research

On Saturday, March 11, 2006, I received a somewhat urgent telephone call from a client of mine, Hibiscus Florals (www.hibiscusflorals.com). The owner, Mark Morkowski, was concerned because he had been reviewing his website traffic statistics and had noticed that at numerous points throughout the day, a user or spider from "ASSERTIVENET" (IP 66.154.103.125) had visited the Hibiscus website.

Since this was rather unusual, Mark elected to investigate further by searching for more information "Assertivenet" via the Google search engine. The first three results that he found appear below:

• http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum10/11080.htm
• http://www.powerbasic.com/support/forums/Forum12/HTML/002979.html
• http://www.completewhois.com/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=66.154.111.40

From this information, Mark and I gathered that the owner of the spider in question appears to be a company called Assertive Networks, and hosted through a company called "BC Hosting." More information wass not immediately available.

It is this lack of information that likely led some of the members of the PowerBASIC forums to block the IP range 66.154.* from accessing their various websites, and justifiably so. But this same lack of information led to additional questions:

1. What files was the Assertivenet spider accessing/trying to access? Was the spider crawling pages or, like some bots, was it looking for specific files that could be used for malicious purposes (e.g. files and scripts that could be manipulated for website attacks?)
2. Why is the apparent owner of the Assertivenet spider a web hosting company (BC Hosting)?
3. What is the intended purpose of the Assertivenet spider?

Additional Research - All Is Not As It Appears

At this point, I decided to look beyond what the website traffic statistics revealed, as well as the information that Mark’s initial search revealed. I needed to start by answering the questions I posed earlier, and in order to do so, I needed to access the raw log files for the Hibiscus website.

I opened up the log files, searched for the particular IPs in question, and found a series of entries such as these:

2006-03-11 03:47:34 66.154.103.125 - 216.89.218.168 80 GET /robots.txt - 200 0 400 285 78 HTTP/1.0 www.hibiscusflorals.com Gigabot/2.0/gigablast.com/spider.html -
2006-03-11 03:47:34 66.154.103.119 - 216.89.218.168 80 GET /larger_image.asp PID=215 200 0 0 299 125 HTTP/1.0 www.hibiscusflorals.com Gigabot/2.0/gigablast.com/spider.html -
2006-03-11 03:50:37 66.154.103.119 - 216.89.218.168 80 GET /larger_image.asp PID=195 200 0 0 299 31 HTTP/1.0 www.hibiscusflorals.com Gigabot/2.0/gigablast.com/spider.html -
2006-03-11 07:47:05 66.154.103.125 - 216.89.218.168 80 GET /robots.txt - 200 0 400 285 78 HTTP/1.0 www.hibiscusflorals.com Gigabot/2.0/gigablast.com/spider.html -
2006-03-11 07:47:05 66.154.103.119 - 216.89.218.168 80 GET /larger_image.asp PID=219 200 0 0 299 109 HTTP/1.0 www.hibiscusflorals.com Gigabot/2.0/gigablast.com/spider.html -

The spider in this case actually belongs to a search engine called Gigablast, and is appropriately named the Gigabot. The Gigabot only crawled pages and files as other search engines have, and made no attempts whatsoever to access files and scripts of a known malicious nature.

Gigablast is a "Tier 2" search engine that has over 1,000,000,000 pages indexed as of the date of this article (March 13, 2006.) While it is not on the same level in terms of popularity as the Big 3 of Yahoo!, MSN, and Google, it has indexed a significantly large portion of the web, and can be useful for some searches. In particular, Gigablast has implemented an "Giga bits" feature whereby alternate searches are suggested based on the user’s original query in order to help narrow the query down and provide greater relevancy.

I conducted additional research and discovered that some IP addresses from the 66.154.* IP block do resolve to gigablast.com e.g.:

• 66.154.102.46
• 66.154.102.10
• 66.154.103.50

Conclusion - The Gigabot is Safe

As you may well have gathered by now, the Gigabot is a perfectly safe spider that acts and operates in the same manner as other search engine spiders operate. There is no reason at this time to block the 66.154.* IP range that the bot uses; if anything, webmasters would gain from the potential free traffic that Gigablast would generate for their websites as the result of the Gigabot’s efforts.

Adam Senour is a freelance web designer based out of the Greater Toronto Area. His latest project is Search Engine Friendly Layouts, a series of tableless layouts using CSS that load a website’s content area first and foremost.

In 2002 thirteen-year-old Christina Long, a Connecticut suburbanite, became the first confirmed murder in the U.S. by an Internet predator. Unfortunately she has not been the last. Fortunately, recent media attention is finally making parents aware of dangers linked to Internet use.

A study performed by National Institute for Missing and Exploited Children concluded that in the past year one in five minors were subjected to sexual solicitation through chat rooms and instant messengers. 5% received aggressive sexual solicitation in the form of phone calls, mail, money, or gifts, as well as being asked to meet. Almost 70% of all solicitations occurred in the home, yet less then one-quarter of minors told a parent. Shockingly, by an average age of just eleven years most minors have been exposed to Internet pornography.

Internet predation is an issue that cannot be ignored. The Long family did not realize their children were in peril until it was too late. We must learn from their loss and take action before more children suffer a similar fate. Amazingly, many responsible parents who wouldn’t dream of letting their children cross the street without teaching them to look both ways, or under the supervision of a crossing guard, will let their kids play on the Information Super-Highway without any safeguards!

There are several excellent resources designed to provide education to both parents and children. One of the best is the National Institute for Missing and Exploited Children (http://www.missingkids.com). Here you will learn how to identify dangers and how to effectively address them. As an example, one of the easiest changes that can be made is moving the family PC to a highly visible area, making it easier to watch for risky behavior. There are other valuable tips, such as how to pick chat room and instant messenger user names that draw less attention from predators and what type of chat rooms to avoid.

The most important thing you must teach your children is that the Internet is not always a safe playground where they can let their guard down. Children often have a false sense of security on the Internet because they believe its anonymous nature will protect them, even from behavior that would make them run in real life. Children must be taught that behavior that would make them uncomfortable in person must not be tolerated online either. Most minors would be afraid of a stranger who starting talking to them with sexual innuendo or talking about their sexual fantasies, but fail to be afraid when they are approached online. In fact many children will even engage in conversations when approached, perhaps because the Internet gives the illusion of personal safety.

Children must be taught that giving out personal information is extremely dangerous. Teach your children that even the smallest piece of information, such as what softball team they are on, is enough for a predator to find them. Also teach them that a stranger online is not always who they say they are. Predators will often masquerade as children themselves to obtain information they can use to identify and find victims. Your child may think they are talking to someone their own age, when in fact they may be talking to someone intent on doing them harm.

In addition to education you must put in place parental controls and monitoring tools to add a second layer of defense. Even the best child will break the rules on occasion, and even the smartest child will fail to identify every dangerous situation. Quality parental control software should allow filtering of web sites and permit monitoring of which sites your children are visiting, allowing you to identify risky behavior before it is too late. Instant messenger controls that permit conversation monitoring, as well as permitting limits on which contacts your kids can have conversations with, are invaluable since predators often use these messengers to meet and entice their victims. Another option that is vital, although often overlooked, is a means of block peer-to-peer file sharing programs. These programs are typically used to download music, but can also serve as a portal for pornography, including the most insidious forms of child pornography. Finally, a quality monitoring tool to that allows you to watch everything your kids do will help identify and address risky behavior. The most typical tool for this is a keystroke logger, which logs every keystroke your child makes. Perhaps the greatest value of installing good parental controls and monitor tools is the positive effect it will have on your children’s behavior. They are less likely to break the rules if they know you are watching.

Educate yourself, educate your children, and invest in the tools to make sure they’re safe. Don’t let your family be the next saying they never thought it could happen to them.

Visit http://www.css-software.com for more resources and tools to help protect your children before it’s too late.

Kevin Whynot
CSS Software parental controls
http://www.css-software.com

Viruses are little bits of software that normally have a negative impact on our computers when they are activated. Usually viruses are attached onto other software programs (games, disk utilities, office documents/Macros, screen-savers), and are activated when these normally harmless programs are started.

A virus is inactive until the infected program is run or an infected boot record on a floppy/CD is read. When the virus is activated it loads into your computer’s memory where it can perform its nasty job or spread itself to other programs on your system or computers in your network.

Floppy disks used in an infected system (or CD-Roms/DVDs burned on an infected system) can then carry the virus to another machine. Programs downloaded from USENET, or file-sharing programs (Kazaa, Morpheus, Limewire etc.) can also spread a virus. More frequently now, email is also becoming a favourite way to spread viruses, Trojan horses and especially internet worms.

It should be made clear, that USENET and file-sharing programs do not create viruses or infected files in any way. It is certain anti-social people who create viruses, and then use these services to spread the infected files to other users on the system.

This is very similar to cars and highways in that Ford, Toyota or the highway makers do not cause traffic accidents, it is the idiot who got drunk and then drove who causes a 14 car pileup. Of course if there weren’t cars or highways there wouldn’t be an accident… then again, the idiot would still be getting smashed and driving his horse-carriage into the store window.

When you get a virus on your computer, it can erase everything that you have on your hard drive. Each virus is different - some of them come up as strange messages on your screen, while others just work at eroding the files on the computer. A virus just doesn’t appear in your computer - you have to put them there, usually by running program from the Internet that contain viruses. They sometimes come from attachments in emails. It is possible that an email from a friend could contain a virus if that person’s computer is infected. With anti-virus software installed on your computer, this will tell you whether or not it is safe to open the email with a message such as "No virus detected in incoming mail:

When you do get a virus through programs or mail, it hides in your computer and when you save data in the computer, you also save the virus. Then it starts to infect all the other files in your computer. When you send files to a friend or co-worker, you also send the virus to his/her computer. After a while the virus starts to crowd the data in your files and causes major problems with the system, such that you may not even be able to open important documents or you may not be able to open any of the programs on the computer. The virus won’t affect the memory of your computer, but it will affect any disks that you use to save your work.

Learn how to remove blackworm virus and how to easily block trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, and other malicious software in the future. Growing library of Computer Security Articles

Although the fake check scam is an old one and about 65% of the population are aware of it, scammers are constantly finding ways to improve their techniques and trap even the most computer/internet savvy of people.

So as technology progresses along, so does the online crime.

Heed my warnings to beware of any offer that you receive utilizing a “cashiers check” over the amount of what is being asked. The newest scam to date is the “phony job offer” coming through online job boards such as CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Dice.com, HotJobs.com etc. etc.

How it Works

You are notified via e-mail with a job offer to act as a "Donations Processor" or something similar. You are e-mailed a link to a (fake) contract and asked to sign and fax it back.

Within a few days, you will receive a FedEx envelope containing a Cashiers Check in the amount if either $4500 or $7500. Your main contact will notify you via e-mail requesting the status of the funds. Once you have the funds available, which you likely will considering the banks will immediately release the monies of a cashiers check under $5000, you will be given instructions on how to and who to send the funds. You will likely be asked to wire the funds via Western Union but strongly instructed not to send the money as a “business” transaction but rather a “personal” transaction. Note: the needy somebody you are sending the funds to is always in Ukraine!

You will also be strongly instructed to not send the funds online, but to walk in to a Western Union office. You are told to keep 10% of the cashiers check for your time and efforts and to pay for the wire transfer funds out of the cashiers check as well. It is also likely that your wire transfer will be sent in two (2) different transactions to two (2) different names.

Within days, you will be notified by the bank that your account is being closed and that the check you deposited was a counterfeit. You will also be notified that you are possibly facing felony counterfeit charges for passing a fraudulent/counterfeit check.

Your original contact will fall off the internet planet. Your e-mails will be rejected and the website will be long gone.

Sound Stupid?

Yes, while reading this article, it probably sounds obvious that this is a scam, but when you receive the job offer with the CareerBuilder.com logo and transaction numbers listed along the bottom, you are not apt to suspect anything fishy. This is the trap!

Every victim of this scam fell for it because the original job offer came via e-mail shortly after submitting their resumes to CareerBuilder.com.

About 90% of the job offers are using CareerBuilder.com as their primary form of contact, although a reported few have come from Monster.com and HotJobs.com.

What to do if you are a victim?

Every victim has filed complaints with the FBI, FTC, IFCC, Western Union, FedEx, their local General Attorneys and police department with no success or response. I spoke independently with a representative from the Secret Service that claimed in essence, this is the perfect crime. No representative of the United States will step forward to assist with prosecution or extradition because the neighboring countries won’t assist. What does this mean? It means that so long as the public isn’t aware of what to watch for with these internet scams, then basically the victim is victimized 10 times over.

The victim has to foot the financial bill in addition to possibly facing jail time for passing a counterfeit cashiers check. This also means that money is being stolen from Americans and could very possibly be used to support terrorism. Sound a little far fetched? I don’t think so, we don’t know who is running this internet scam, the only fact known is that they have made millions, possibly even billions of dollars stealing from us, the Americans.

Online organized crime continues to slip through the cracks making scammers and possibly terrorists rich.

Efforts have been made to contact CareerBuilder.com asking for their assistance with notifying newly registered job seekers of the dangers that easily leak through their system. CareerBuilder.com steps aside from their responsibility by stating that a “fraud” link at the bottom of their pages provides warnings of what to watch for. They neglect to admit that this particular scam isn’t listed on that page. They also neglect to admit that they don’t inform you that your personal contact information including everything on your online resume is sold for profit. CareerBuilder.com has the funds and the means to assist with putting a halt to these types of scammers, however, they don’t and they won’t.

If you are angered by the negligence of CareerBuilder.com, feel free to send written correspondence to the following:

1. Chairman — Robert Montgomery – Robert.Montgomery@careerbuilder.com
2. CEO — Matt Ferguson – matt.Ferguson@careerbuilder.com

We Need Your Help

I have begun a personal crusade to inform the public of this scam and others like it. I have also decided to ask for help from society to offer support to the victims of this scam. They are alone, nobody is stepping up to the plate to help. Why should they have to bare this cross alone? I am a single parent dedicating hours out of my day to publish what I know and effortlessly work to research what the scammers’ next steps are going to be. If I had the finances to assist, believe me, I would. I have partnered with another victim of this scam who is footing finances barely available to work towards the same goal as I – stopping organized criminals from ripping off innocent hard working Americans. You may visit our website and offer your contributions toward our efforts at www.webnetpresence.com and www.peopleschronicle.com. A receipt is provided for your contribution in addition to contact information to verify the validity of the donation. Thank you in advance.

Ramona Kurylas http://www.webnetpresence.com ramona@webnetpresence.com

Adware or Spyware as it is also known by is a malicious program or should I say programs that infect your computer with adware. Currently there are thousands of variations of adware / spyware waiting to attack your PC.

Some of these adware programs are harmless and are really only a minor annoyance and can be cleaned from your system easily with nearly all adware remover programs. However some more infectious adware programs can be potentially damaging to your system, your life and your bank account.

One of the major adware / spyware companies states that currently 85% of all internet users have some form of adware / spyware on there PC today. And the most frightening fact of all was that in this study those computers had a least 24 instances of adware spyware hiding on their computer system and causing problems not only for the user but the system itself.

So what do you need to look out for and how do you know if you have adware running on your PC.

Are you constantly receiving annoying pop-up windows from sites you have never visited.

Is your home page constantly changing from what you have set it to. If so your browser has been hijacked by adware.

Is your operating system slow to load and you notice it getting slower each week this is adware. Again you will no whether it is adware or not especially if you haven’t installed any software that could be slowing your system down.

Do you have any strange software loading at start-up this is another trait of adware / spyware programs.

Does your internet explorer hang when trying to open it chances are you have adware spyware affecting your browser.

Are you constantly receiving error messages and registry errors on your home PC this is another symptom of adware.

If you are an internet user you need to understand the growing concern that adware poses to your rights and freedoms. Don’t get caught napping on the internet make sure your computer is adware free,

Basically adware is a parasite that is just waiting to infect your computer and in some cases even your friends computers.

This adware parasite can potentially steal your identity by tracking your internet movements, stealing your passwords, stealing your bank details and anything you type on your computer.

Remember if your child users your computer these pop-ups or browser hijackers could be sending any kind of undesirable information to your children. Protect your children with an adware spyware removal tool.

Even though some adware is harmless and even some webmasters install programs that track there movements for marketing purposes, don’t you think it is your right to decide who knows your business and not have it stolen from you by some malicious adware spyware program.

These adware spyware parasites search the internet looking for unprotected computers just like yours or mine they then steal your information and send it back to the creator of the adware spyware. Once spyware has found a spot to hide, it will go right to it doing all kinds of malicious things to your system—from attacking you with pop-ups, hijacking your browser, to installing more adware parasites, or finding and distributing your personal information.

Ron Cripps has been involved in the internet for many years, and in that time has watched the internet become infected with adware spyware to the level that it now at plague porportions. Ron has decided to take action against this adware spyware threat with a adware spyware review site

The risk of monetary loss in the event of a computer security breach is frighteningly high. These days, an unprotected computer is likely to be infected with a pest within 20 minutes of being connected to the Internet. The average computer is checked for weaknesses by unknown parties 17 times a day.

If you are one of the 70% of users who has experienced an Internet-based attack that you were aware of, you probably shudder as you recall the time, money and aggravation it cost you to clean up your computer or reinstall your operating system. The costs are high enough to cause a business to fail. In fact, the majority of businesses that experience data loss or total system failure do fail, usually immediately.

In our work with small businesses and home users, we have observed that people are generally aware of the dangers, but at the same time, up to 90% do not have adequate protections in place. This is a cause for deep concern because of the enormous negative impact these attacks have on individuals and organizations.

It is also cause for curiosity. It’s as if 90% of the homes and businesses in a bad neighborhood weren’t locked up at night: Very risky. It made us wonder why.

So, we started asking. Here is an overview of the responses we got:

• Response #1: Internet security isn’t achievable because new threats are coming out all the time, so why bother.

As computer professionals, we’d like to weigh in with our opinion about these responses because if your system is not adequately protected on the Internet, you are at high risk and we’d like to see you move to a low risk category.

1. For the first response, that Internet security is not achievable: Ninety-nine percent of all reported intrusions occur because of known vulnerabilities or configuration errors. This means that 99% of intrusions are preventable right now, today. Internet security is very achievable.
2. For the second response, that Internet security is too complicated: Computers certainly can be complicated. However, the right kind of information and support can turn any fearful, confused computer user into a confident, capable one. As the computer industry has matured, computer experts have become better at communicating to end users in clear language. The "complexity gap" is shrinking.
3. Woe betides the person who persists in the third attitude, that recovering from a security breach is easy. Recovering from a security incident is always costly. It can take up to several days or weeks to recover (if at all). During that time you can expect to pay heavily in system support, business downtime, and serious aggravation.
4. The fourth response, that "it won’t happen to me," is a sort of irrational optimism that humans often use as a way to manage fear in a risky world. Unfortunately, it’s a terrible strategy for the online world, because you can be virtually 100% certain it WILL happen to you.

We urge and encourage you to take the steps you need to take to protect and secure your data, your computers and laptops, and all your wireless devices. Being confident is about being prepared. You need computer Internet security and data protection solutions that give you high confidence.

The author specializes in common sense computer security solutions for real people in their homes and small businesses. View recommended solution here. Includes $25,000 identity theft insurance policy.

The need for organizations to monitor and control Internet usage in the workplace should be an accepted fact of doing business in a cyber-connected world. Statistics indicating that 30 to 40 percent of Internet use in the workplace is unrelated to work issues should come as no surprise. Neither should the report that 90 percent of employee computers harbor as many as 30 spyware programs. In fact, studies indicate that companies may be incurring average costs of $5,000 per year per employee in lost productivity due to Internet abuse. Other data suggest that as much as 72% of employees are downloading music and video clips, eroding bandwidth and leaving networks open to spyware and other malicious agents.

As these dramatic statistics show, the need for organizations to manage their Internet access should be a baseline requirement. But how do organizations choose from the wide range of filters available to them? Perhaps one of the first decisions they will to make is between a software-based filtering solution and dedicated filtering appliance.

Both appliance and software-based options offer standard functionality — they monitor Internet activity, block site access, automatically enforce corporate Acceptable Usage Policy guidelines and report inappropriate behavior. However, upon closer examination, there are some important and compelling reasons to choose an appliance-based solution.

An overview of the advantages of an appliance over software when it comes to handling your organization’s Internet access include these basic five categories:

• Security
• Stability
• Accuracy & Reliability
• Maintenance
• TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

Because software-based filtering solutions must integrate with your OS, you cannot be assured that the complexity will not cause security and stability problems. Filters that are software–based can degrade performance because they share resources with their hosts and performance degradation can increase in conjunction with load. It’s hard to scale a software-based filter because more users create increased loads on the host systems. A dedicated Internet filtering appliance uses pass-by technology to check website and IM requests against a list that is updated automatically. If the request matches a name on the list that is not allowed, a denial is sent back to the requester and no bandwidth is utilized.

The dedicated resource of an appliance and its pass-by technology will prevent network slowdowns as well as single-points of failure on the system. The accuracy and reliability of an appliance-based Internet filter is maintained through fluid updates to the system. Software has to ‘check’ every single request, creating a bottleneck that it is a single point of failure. If the bottleneck becomes overwhelmed or crashes, no Internet traffic will be able to pass into or out of the company.

In terms of time and cost, a dedicated Internet filtering appliance requires less maintenance than a software-based filtering system. The database is maintained on the appliance filtering device, where it can be updated automatically with new sites, protocols and even port activities in order to block port-hopping servers. Software filters require manual updates and again, require all traffic to travel through that one single point of failure.

The cost of maintaining both is measured by what each type of service provides. While investing in an Internet filtering appliance may not be feasible for a very small company with only a handful of employees, software based programs are not scaled for handling large loads. The costs of failing software filters are more likely to impact a company’s revenues than the investment in an Internet filtering appliance.

The ultimate task of a Web filter is to filter both incoming and outgoing Internet traffic. The Web filtering solution you choose must be able to protect employees from visiting sites that do not match the Acceptable Usage Policy while also protecting the company from the financial, legal and security ramifications of employee Internet activity. An appliance-based Internet filter protects a company’s assets, reputation, employees and their bandwidth in one package.

iPrism internet filters and web filters provide internet monitoring and network security. http://internet-filters.stbernard.com

The answer is really simple. To protect your own computer from damage, and to prevent your computer from being used to pass on infections to other machines without your knowledge.

Many people are reluctant to shell out the cash for decent antivirus software. I’ll agree that at roughly $50 for a decent antivirus program, it isn’t exactly small change. But, let’s look at the costs more closely for a moment:

Computer $600-$4,000
Monitor $250-$1000
Software/Games $500-$5000
Internet Connection $25+/month
Personal/Business Data Priceless

So, on the low end of the scale we are looking at an investment similar to an older used car, on the higher end, a computer investment similar in price to a newer used car.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing that you wouldn’t buy a used car that had all the locks removed and didn’t need a key to start it, and comes with a free "STEAL ME" sign on it too.

Having a computer that does not have up-to-date antivirus protection is absolutely the same. You are simply asking for trouble.

And trouble WILL find you.

How can I be so sure? Simply because that is what viruses, worms, malware etc. are made to do. Their ONLY job is to find unprotected computers and attack and hijack them without your knowledge. These things are VERY good at what they are built to do, and they NEVER stop. If your computer isn’t protected, and you share disks or go online, it will get infected.

The top antivirus software programs cost as little as 2 months internet connection. They all include constant and unlimited automatic updates that keep your system safe and clean.

If you can afford $1500+ on a computer, $300+/year on internet connections, you can definitely afford another $50 once to make it safe (and prevent it from being used to spread viruses and Trojan horses behind your back).

Anything less would be uncivilized!

P.S. Some people have started to make claims that if you don’t use antivirus software you should be held legally responsible if your machine be used as part of an attack (even if you did not know about it).

Learn how to remove black worm virus and how to easily block trojan horses, spyware, computer viruses, and other malicious software in the future. Growing library of Computer Security Articles

If you’re going to connect to the internet, you need to protect your computer, otherwise it’s like leaving your front door wide open with a big ‘Robbers Welcome’ doormat on your front step. You’ve probably heard all the terms – such as virus, hacker, firewall, spyware and a million more – but perhaps think that the anti-virus programme that came with the computer, or that your PC-savvy mate downloaded for you is enough to keep you safe, right? Wrong …

First of all, you need a firewall. This is your first line of defence, making it extremely difficult for any hacker or malicious programme to get through. Nothing is 100% impenetrable, however, and an anti-virus programme that will always be on the lookout for anything nasty that manages to find its way in is essential.

But there are things that manage to get onto your pc in the most unlikely of ways: it can be inadvertently added by you as you download music, screensavers or games onto your PC, or it can even be added by someone you know and trust, such as a suspicious spouse or your employer. This is Spyware and is a frightening breach of privacy which allows people or programmes to see what you’re doing, what sites you look at and even log your keystrokes so that they can reproduce everything you type, such as passwords and credit card details.

The only way to truly guard against spyware is to have a dedicated programme that detects and removes it.

So, you have your firewall and your anti-virus programme in place; surely an anti-spyware programme is just money down the drain? Unfortunately not: this will fill the cracks left by your other security programmes, and although it will not make your computer completely impenetrable (unfortunately the people writing these programmes are extremely good at what they do) it will be the equivalent of locking all your doors and windows and having an alarm system armed before you leave your house – someone could still get in if they really wanted to, but they’d probably rather go next door, where they’ve rather invitingly left a downstairs window open.

People are now using their computers for a range of personal and business applications, the loss or infiltration of which could do them serious emotional and financial damage. Taking preventative measures to ensure your online security should be as natural as closing the door behind you when you go out, and there are affordable and easy to use programmes out there to help you do just that.

For a full range of products to keep your computer safe, visit http://www.vaultlock.com

Otherwise you might as well order that ‘Robbers Welcome’ mat now!

Every single computer on the internet is at risk from PC threats which include viruses, Trogans spyware, adware, key loggers, the list goes on. Most people genuinely try by buying an anti-virus program or an anti-spyware package which will help but there are still many other problems that need to be addressed.

More and more people are using PC’s these days for internet banking, paying bills, online shopping, using programs to manage financial information, and much more. It’s great to be able to do all these things without stepping out the door, but what people are actually doing is storing some of their most valuable information on PC’s and if the proper precautions are not taken hackers can have a field day.

Hackers and virus writers are getting increasingly sophisticated every day. At the same time, people are storing more and more confidential information on their computers. A good hacker can enter an unguarded PC through your browser, download your, credit card numbers, social security numbers, your entire identity is there for them take and use at there discretion.

Most people realize that they should be taking some type of security measure, but they don’t know where to begin. Before you ever risk all the data on your computer again, you need to know exactly where to begin locking your PC down or you are taking some serous risks.

I have been working in the IT industry for many years now and it has been a scary experience to see how PC threats have evolved. People need to seek good advice and put a system in place to protect their computers and themselves against the many PC threats.

I recommend people to use the Windows update feature, a trusted anti-virus package, a trusted anti-spyware package, and make sure they are set to auto update. These three things will certainly help guard against many of the nasty PC threats but other precautions still need to be taken to insure your PC protection.

I suggest people download and put to use the free information provided at www.yourpcprotection.com.

Glenn Munn Information Technology support officer (MCP)Microsoft Certified Professional Comptia A+ accredited