We all get the odd virus now and then, but sometimes that one virus could cause so many problems. In this article I shall be going though just some of the problems that these virus software programs can do, and how to fix them.

One of the worst type of virus is one that effects the Boot Config, if this happens you will notice an error such as "Invalid boot sector" or "unaccessable boot device", there are many other errors for the same problem, if you don’t get even a windows loading screen then your issue may be the Boot Config, sounds like a hard problem to fix don’t it, infact its pretty easy. For this we shall need a Windows XP install CD, if your computer never come with one then please go down to where you paid for your PC and ask for one, insert the CD and then turn on your PC, you will get a text messege saying "To boot from CD press any key", so press anykey!, now wait for a few mintues untill it says the terms and conditions, read though them and then follow the onscreen instructions untill it warns of another operating system already installed. It will give you a option to go into the recovery console by pressing R, this is what we want to go into. Wait, and a Dos like screen will show itself, type the following "/fixmbr" and then "/exit", and then load up your PC and windows should load up. Now I would advice for you to do a virus scan using what ever software you use!

Another type of virus is one that cuts you of the network or internet often, these can be hard to fix as they most of the time merge with the system files. First of all check that you can’t just fix it by using MSCONFIG (Start - Run - Msconfig - Startup - Disable all), if you can then do so and then run a virus checking peice of software, if this fails then read on. Load up in Windows safe mode (Press F6 before the windows loading screen and then select safe mode) and now wait for safemade to load, once loaded use your virus checking software to rid yourself of the virus that is creating this problem, almost all viruses can be removed from Safemode. If this fails then seek professional help or reinstall Windows.

Yet another type of virus is not really a virus its spyware and adware, this is the type of problem most people get and it is the most common caluse for computers to slow down over time, you may ask where you could get spyware from and the most common places are p2p software such as Kazaa or websites offering Illegal content or even porn sites, but you may also get it from any other type of site. Spyware and Adware are big issues for slowing down your PC so I am sure you want to get rid of them, to do so you will wish to download Anti-Spyware software and I reccomend Spysweeper by WebRoot, others may wish to try Ad-aware, download the anti-spyware tool you want and then UPDATE the softrware, now do a full system scan and go make a drink, when you get back the scan should be done and it will list all of the spyware and adware, right click and click remove all and then wait again for it to remove the software. When done it may ask you to reset, do so as surgested, but now you will want to get another peice of software called Spybot S&D, this is free and can be downloaded from http://www.security.kolla.de, download and update that then run scan, it will find more spyware and adware so don’t be shocked by thinking the other software did not work, in turn they work together to make a better peice of anti-spyware, Spybot also gives you the chance to immunize from some spyware, click that and now your system won’t get the same spyware again. I reccomend doing a spyware check every 1 week.

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The internet is undoubtedly a fantastic resource for families and offers a rich vein of educational content.

However, there are potential dangers - welcome to the seedy world of viruses, spam, trojans, pornography, spyware and other nasties.

These are the Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore.

1. Viruses - A computer program that copies itself. They often disrupt your computer system or damage your data. Viruses are usually received by email attachments so be careful opening anything from a dubious source. They can affect anyone, for example, the destructive Mydoom worm affected one out of three small and mid-sized businesses.

2. Spyware - Sends information about you and your computer to somebody else. Spyware may send the addresses of sites you have visited or worse still, transmit personal information. With today’s concerns about identify theft this is a real worry. For example, CoolWebSearch may hijack web searches, home page, and other Internet Explorer settings. Spyware is normally received as part of shareware or freeware downloaded from the web.

3. IP Spoofing - A technique to gain unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a computer with an address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host.

4. Trojans - An apparently legitimate computer program that is really intended to disrupt and damage computer activity by sending information, perhaps even passwords onto a third party without you knowing. As an example, recent emails entitled "Osama Bin Laden Captured" attempted to download the "Trj/Small.B." Trojan if the embedded URL was clicked. This trojan attempts to hijack the PC.

5. Spam - Unsolicited mail often promoting products of a dubious financial or sexual nature. Don’t leave your email address on websites and internet bulletin boards as they are harvested by spammers.

6. Adware - puts advertisements on your screen. These take many forms including popups, popunders and advertisements that appear later, even if your browser is closed. Some are sent using the Windows Messenger service which allows a spammer to direct an advertisement straight to your computer by sequentially sending messages to IP addresses. Always irritating, they are also often of a pornographic nature.

7. Diallers - for those of us still with dial up modems, dialler programs redirect calls to a very expensive number. You won’t know until you get the bill.

8. Hijackers - Hijackers take control of your web browser and may reset your home page, search bar and search pages. They can redirect you to undesirable sites or stop you going to particular sites.

9. Hackers - With so much personal data available online to anyone with a password you must be sure your password is secure. If you are using your mother’s maiden name, your cat’s name or your birthday then your password is at risk. Here are two tips for making a secure password. Method One - pick two random unrelated three letter words and two digits. Mix them up and what do you have? A secure password such as "red19cat" or "hotpin73". Method Two - pick a short sequence of words such as Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent Made Glorious’ and you have a password of "nitwoodmg". You could even change the I’s and O’s to digits.

10. Phishing - Emails purporting to come from reliable sources such as Paypal, Ebay or your bank. Often wanting you to verify your account details, they can look very realistic but are generally scams to harvest usernames and passwords. Always open a new browser winder and type the address there, rather than clicking on the link provided.

11. Hoaxes - Chain letters, scams, false alarms. At best they take up time and bandwidth but at worst vulnerable can be victims of fraud. Pass it on!

12. Stranger-danger – For those of us with children - do you know what they actually do when they are online? Are they working on homework tasks, downloading illegal music or pornography? Or are they chatting to strangers in chat rooms? You should consider blocking access to undesirable sites and logging their activity with a surveillance tool. Oh, and don’t forget that where children are concerned, computers should always be kept in a family room and never in their bedroom.

Three Step Action Plan

There are three basic, essential steps that should be taken to ensure your PC is kept threat-free.

Firstly , be sensible when opening attachments or following email instructions from apparently reputable sites.

Secondly , make sure you are using the latest service pack of Windows as Microsoft is continually closing loopholes to tighten up security.

Finally, there’s a range of low cost tools such as firewalls, antivirus, spam blockers and spyware killers available. Like everything else they vary in quality and you tend to get what you pay for so always do your research first and perhaps try a free trial before getting your credit card out.

The author, Kai Chandler, edits http://www.surfcontrols.com which specializes in providing reviews and recommendations of top-rated tools to help protect your online experience.

You are at your computer, checking out software on EBay. The computer is really sluggish, and you are not running anything else. You click on a link, and BLAM you are redirected to a search page you’ve never heard of and the “back” button won’t work.

You’ve got Spyware! Just what is “Spyware?” The word brings to mind exploding pens and shoe phones. In fact, software makers have struggled to define what spyware is, and is not.

The Anti-Spyware Coalition, a group of companies that include EarthLink, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard, have recently published a document that defines spyware as such: “Spyware impairs users control over material changes that affect their user experience, privacy or system security; use of their system resources, including what programs are installed on their computers; or collection, use and distribution of their personal or otherwise sensitive information”

In simpler terms, spyware “spies” the software on your computer, personal information, what web pages you look at, and in some cases, usernames and passwords. Ugh.

The first spyware distribution was in 1999, and is attributed to a popular freeware program called “Elf Bowling.” Many users found to their dismay that this “harmless game,” was sending information to the creators, Nsoft. This spawned the first anti-spyware program in the year 2000.

Now, both spyware and anti-spyware programs are too numerous to count.

There are several types of software that fall under the generic description of spyware. Let’s look at a few, and what they do.

Adware – adware is an application that displays advertising banners. The reason this is criticized is that it can send information back to the company, who then “targets” you with specific banners based on the web pages you’ve opened. This is different from clicking on a banner for more information. This program sneaks in the “back door,” not “advertising” its presence. Please note that the word “AdWare” is a trademark of AdWare Systems, an honest software company. They are not a part of adware, just share the unfortunate name.

Key loggers are just that. They collect the keystrokes you make, like logging into your bank account, and send it to the hacker. Now he has your account number, user name, and password.

Hijackers and Toolbars are another form of spyware. Hijackers take over your browser, opening pages you don’t want, and preventing you from opening ones you need – like a site that tells you how to get rid of them. Toolbars are the same sort of thing. Now, you may want to have a toolbar like Yahoo or Google on your browser. They can make searches easier, and may have popup or ad blockers. The malware forms of these try to look like them, but they have completely different motives.

Malware is a generic term for “malicious” software. These programs don’t just collect information; they are out to get your computer. Technically, these are not spyware, but a brief explanation seems to be in order. Malware spreads itself through the computer, changing files, making copies to send, even erasing the hard drive. Virus’ and worms are a part of this group.

Other malware programs are “Trojan Horse, or Backdoor.” These hide quietly in your computer until you connect to the internet. Then they creep around your browser, “reporting in” to the owner, who then uses your computer “address” to send out virus’s, malware, and spam. Some hackers link several computers to send so much nonsense information to a particular web site that it is overwhelmed, causing it to shut down.

How does spyware end up on your computer? You’re not going to like this . . . but most likely you loaded it on yourself! Wait! Before we get nasty letters, let us explain. Remember those “smileys” you downloaded last week? How about the cute cursor the nine year old picked? Most of these “free” programs have spyware attached, or imbedded in them. Even Adobe Reader loads a “Yahoo search bar” when you update the reader.

Remember when you installed the program and that gray box popped up with a thousand lines of small print? Did you read it? I doubt anyone does. The spyware distributor counts on that. If you do manage to slog through the legalese, and stuff only advanced programmers would know (or care about), there will be a few innocuous lines, something along the lines of: “this program will collect information to better your enjoyment of this program,” or “a web search toolbar will be added to your browser.” When you click on the “accept” button to install the software, you have also agreed to the spyware program.

Another way is when a box pops up claiming to be legitimate software needed to view the site properly, or that it is an update. It only has a “yes” button, implying that you are required to allow the download. These are copying legitimate updates from places like Microsoft, or Macromedia.

Just what is spyware going to do to your computer? Anything you can do, he can do better. It is an executable that can record keystrokes, read your files, watch your word processing program, change your home page, add and delete files, read your cookies (with personal info), then “phone home” with the info. Some spyware will crash your browser if you try to uninstall it. Others may “pretend” to be uninstalled, but they wait until your back is turned to load itself back on your system.

You don’t know how the stuff was loaded on your computer, but it is causing all kinds of problems. The computer is running slower, certain programs are not working, and on occasion, you see the dreaded “blue screen of death.” (crash). Don’t worry, you are not alone According to an October 2004 study by America Online and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 80% of surveyed users’ computers had some form of spyware, with an average of 93 spyware components per computer. 89% of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 95% reported that they had not given permission for it to be installed.

Now what do you do? There are several good “spyware removal” programs out there. But be warned! There are also a number of programs that claim to be anti-spyware that do not work, or worse add more spyware to your system! A good resource for “suspect” spyware is the list at: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm They have a list of over 200 programs that claim to take care of spyware, but may not do what they claim.

Once you get your computer “clean,” how do you avoid getting “dirty” again? There are firewalls and programs designed to watch for known spyware. When you register, the “known spyware” definitions can be updated on a regular basis.

You could use a browser other than Internet Explorer (most spyware exploits problems here). This writer loves Mozilla Firefox – it’s free at www.mozilla.org

Our lawmakers are doing their best to stem the tide of spyware/malware. For example, in Washington State, USA, it is illegal for anyone other than the owner/operator of a computer to install software that alters web browser settings, monitors keystrokes, or disables computer security software.

The Gibson Research Corporation, www.grc.com, has several free fixes to “plug holes” in Internet Explorer’s security.

There is hope. In 2005, NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought suit against Intermix Media, Inc. Intermix’s spyware program spread by drive-by download (loaded without permission), and installed itself in such a way it was very difficult to remove. Intermix settled for $7.5 million dollars.

Spyware is here to stay. Your best bet is to be informed – know the tricks used by spyware to load itself. Use a firewall or spyware blocker program. Most important, understand exactly what that new program will install on your innocent computer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mike Christy is the owner of http://www.spywarecenter.info which is a free information site providing the latest Spyware news and instructions on how to remove Spyware from your computer.

Pharming is one of the latest online scams and rapidly growing threat that has been showing up on the Internet. It’s a new way for criminals to try to get into your computer so they can steal your personal data.

Phishing and pharming are related online scams but pharming has evolved into a much more sophisticated trick. Phishing scams involve sending you bogus e-mails that look like they are from a bank or another online business.

The ideal thing the criminal wants you to do is click on an e-mail link that takes you to a web site that looks authentic. Then, the instructions ask you to enter your password and account number. Once you do they get your sensitive personal data and they help themselves to your money.

The new pharming scam is similar to phishing scams but with a bit of a new twist. The pharming scam works by actually redirecting your Internet browser. That just means when you type a legitimate website address into a web address bar you are redirected without your knowledge to a bogus site that looks identical to the genuine site.

Once you log in with your login name and password, the information is immediately captured by the thief. The real danger of the new pharming scam is that you no longer have to click an email link for your personal information to be stolen.

You can obviously see how serious this scam could be. So to avoid becoming a new victim of the pharming scam here is a list of recommendations that may help you.

• Always use a secure website when you submit credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser. The beginning of the Web address in your browsers address bar should be "https://" rather than just "http://"

• Log into your online accounts on a regular basis. Check your bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate. If anything looks suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers immediately.

• Regularly check that your browser is up to date and new security patches are applied. Go to the Microsoft Security home page at http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx The easiest way to stay updated is click on the "Get updates for Windows automatically" link.

• Always report an entire original phishing email with its original header information intact to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov. Then, notify the Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01.

New security measures must continually be added to the Internet because criminals probe for any weakness they can find. Be aware of the latest online pharming scam so you won’t becoming a victim of this new threat.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal software and valuable tips. For regularly updated articles about adware and spyware and protection from identity theft go to http://spyware-information.com/articles_1.html

In today’s times spyware is a very serious issue and all computer users should be aware of the possible damage it can cause. It is estimated by well known industry insiders that nearly 90% of all computers are infected with some kind of spyware. This no surprise as spyware programs can be highly contagious and spread from computer to computer via emails and network exchanges rapidly.

Spyware’s main intent is usually to track where you go on the internet. This includes websites you visit, what you buy from the internet, and generally what you use the internet for, all the while the spyware program will report this information back to the publisher. The publishers of spyware are rich with all the information of thousands of computer users surfing habits and they make a huge profit by selling this information to third parties who may not take your privacy concerns in to account.

You may think that running anti-virus programs and firewalls on your computer will be enough to protect you from this threat but think again. Spyware can easily slip past these programs as spyware disguises itself as a part of a program that you actually want to install on your computer. Programs that you use daily may be harvesting spyware.

One of the most popular music players on the internet that millions of people use to play, download and organise their favourite music with is actually spyware. Can you guess what it is? RealPlayer is not just a feature rich jukebox anymore, it’s spyware. If you read the agreement before you install the player for the first time, RealPlayer actually tells the unsuspecting user that it will record all the information about what music you listen to, what videos you view and how often. It then transmits this private information back to it’s corporate office using your resources while doing so. This information is kept on file and used to profile you. Unfortunately you have no say in what information they have access to.

Spyware detection and removal software is imperative to keeping your private information private and keeping your computer healthy. It’s a scary thought that companies are armed with the technology to snoop on you when you are simply enjoying music and watching videos you enjoy in you own home.

Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to stay as protected as you can by visiting Spyware Advice where we provide free unbiased information on the latest spyware threats, how to remove them and how to stay protected.

A new variation of the Nigerian Scam theme

The scam artists are employing the Nigerian Scam to fleece unwary sellers who advertise pets for sale.

This is particularly despicable because not only are people losing their money but dogs are being abandoned in freight terminals or being killed to get rid of them.

Unsuspecting dog breeders have been caught off guard by this now well advertised scams as complaints are still numerous. These are usually high value dogs so the losses are often substantial.

These thieves are very clever and are well prepared. They have fine tuned this system of fraud, so it’s easy for the unwary to be duped. They’re extremely persuasive and carefully execute their plans.

Unfortunately it’s virtually impossible to catch them as they operate from overseas and are expert in covering their tracks.

Their method of operation is to claim that they are from some foreign country and they want to buy the item you have for sale, whether it’s a car or a dog or some other relatively high value item.

They tell you that someone in USA owes them money and that they will send you a check for an amount far in excess of your asking price. They don’t haggle over the price in fact offers a bonus. You are supposed to cash the check then send them a money order for the difference.

The problem is that the checks are counterfeit, but so well done that bank tellers can’t detect that they’re bogus. If you’ve sent the money when the check fails to clear, you are responsible, not the bank.

I read a recent article by a reformed con artist who claims that Americans are stupid, just waiting to be fleeced. This is not true. The problem is that we are the most generous, trusting people on earth, consequently we are often easy prey for these despicable predators. I think this is particularly true of animal lovers who just don’t anticipate this kind of behavior.

We have to learn to become more wary and know how to combat these thieves. Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware.

For more information on this subject visit: http://www.caveatemptorus.com

Written by: George W. Cannata, author and publisher of the web site http://www.caveatemptorus.com July 29, 2005. You may copy this article in its entirety so long as you include credit to the author.

Internet is the ocean of knowledge. In this ocean you will find beautiful pearls of knowledge. Also you must not forget the lethal sharks (x rated sites) in this ocean, especially when you allow your innocent children to surf on it. The children are more vulnerable when they are using the Internet without close vigil of their parents.

If your unescorted children innocently search the Internet the chances of being they stumble into an adult site, are more. The solution is to keep a watch on their each and every activity, which is next to impossible.

The Internet is gift for knowledge hungry people; it’s also a good tool for communication and learning. If you use the Internet for doing research & study then it’s a gift for you but if you use Internet for surfing pornographic sites or chatting with anti-social elements, it will become a curse for you especially for your unescorted children.

Internet is an essential resource for your children to learn, read, write and to get knowledge. But as I said earlier there are some risks to our children when they are using the Internet hence parents need to be aware of those risks.

Previously the biggest threat for parents was the pornography but the latest threat is live chat rooms. The live chat rooms are the main media where sex hungry people target children in search of satiating their unnatural carnal needs. The online anonymity helps such people to deceive children easily. The children need to be careful when chatting online with stranger. Children can easily trust anybody. The parents must educate their children for what can happen in live chat since kids may innocently trust on any stranger online.

Read following tips carefully & protect your kids…

· First you need to teach yourself the use of the Computer and the Internet. Generally school children have more operating knowledge of computer and Internet than their parents.

· Openly communicate with your children and know their expectations from the computer and the Internet

· Never keep the computer in kid’s bedroom, keep the computer in a room where it’s easily accessible by parents.

· Closely watch kid’s online activities.

· If every time it’s not possible to keep close watch on your kid’s online activity, use filter or parental control software that can block the porn sites and control the chat room activities of your child.

· Monitor the kid’s inbox and keep close watch on emails they receive. If it’s not possible, I will recommend you to use the parental control with email monitoring software.

· Educate your child about the importance of online privacy and prevent them from revealing the personal identity (name, address, and phone number etc.) to online strangers while chatting.

· The most important thing is to give more time to your kids so that they will not become the victims of online predators.

The unescorted children are the popular targets of predators. The lack of parental supervision tends the children to easily fall in the hands of online anti-social elements. I hope that above article will help you to protect your kid’s privacy while surfing the Internet.

Krishna Pai is a webmaster and a writer. Get Computer Tutorials, reviews, Hardware & Software Tips, How to guides at http://www.cheapest-computer-hardware-software.com/.

For more Computer tips join his "Build Computer ezine" at http://www.cheapest-computer-hardware-software.com/build_computer_ezine.html.

Every single time you access a website, you leave tracks. Tracks that others can access. If you don’t like the idea, find out what software can help you cover them.

Anti Tracks

Anti Tracks is a complete solution to protect your privacy and enhance your PC performance. With a simple click Anti Tracks securely erase your internet tracks, computer activities and programs history information stored in many hidden files on your computer. Anti Tracks support Internet Explorer, AOL, Netscape/Mozilla and Opera browsers. It also include more than 85 free plug-ins to extend erasing features to support popular programs such as ACDSee, Acrobat Reader, KaZaA, PowerDVD, WinZip, iMesh, Winamp and much more. Also you can easily schedule erasing tasks at specific time intervals or at Windows stat-up/ shutdown. To ensure maximum privacy protection Anti Tracks implements the US Department of Defense DOD 5220.22-M, Gutmann and NSA secure erasing methods, making any erased files unrecoverable even when using advanced recovery tools.

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/antitracks.htm

East-Tec Eraser

East-Tec Eraser goes beyond U.S. Department of Defense standards for the permanent erasure of digital information and easily removes every trace of sensitive data from your computer.

Completely destroy information stored without your knowledge or approval: Internet history, Web pages and pictures from sites visited on the Internet, unwanted cookies, chatroom conversations, deleted e-mail messages, temporary files, the Windows swap file, the Recycle Bin, previously deleted files, valuable corporate trade secrets, business plans, personal files, photos or confidential letters, etc. East-Tec Eraser 2005 offers full support for popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, America Online, MSN Explorer, Opera), for Peer2Peer applications (Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, iMesh, Napster, Morpheus, Direct Connect, Limewire, Shareaza, etc.), and for other popular programs such as Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, etc. Eraser has an intuitive interface and wizards that guide you through all the necessary steps needed to protect your privacy and sensitive information. Other features include support for custom privacy needs, user-defined erasure methods, command-line parameters, integration with Windows Explorer, and password protection.

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/eastteceraserstandard.htm

Ghostsurf Platinum

GhostSurf Platinum ensures your safety online by providing an anonymous, encrypted Internet connection, and GhostSurf stops spyware, eliminates ads and erases your tracks. GhostSurf lets you customize your privacy level in real-time to suit your surfing needs. A variety of options enable you to block personal information, mask your IP address, route your data through anonymous hubs and even encrypt your Internet connection. GhostSurf’s Privacy Control Center allows you to see and block every piece of data that your computer emits over the Internet, preventing even your Internet Service Provider (ISP) from creating a profile on you.

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/ghostsurfplatinum.htm

CyberScrub Pro

Sensitive data can easily fall into the wrong hands. And because Windows is not capable of deleting information beyond recovery, you are at risk!

Passwords, financial documents, even those "about last night" e-mails are fair game for the IT professional, computer technician or hacker.

CyberScrub allows you to purge, wipe and erase data with methods that far exceed US Department of Defense standards for file deletion (DOD 5220.22).

CyberScrub Erases:

* Selected Files/Folders beyond recovery

* Cookies

* Cache (Temporary Internet Files)

* All traces of Peer2Peer activity (16 popular apps)

* Website History

* Chat Room Conversations, Instant Messages

* Pictures viewed

* Email & "previously deleted files"

* Recycle Bin, Recent Documents

* Swap and other "locked" files that contain sensitive data

* Peer2Peer Applications activity

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/cyberscrubprofessional.htm

John Deprice owns and operates http://www.deprice.com

You’d better learn news from media, not from emails, security experts warn us users again.

Numerous emails with "breaking news" in subject lines are appearing in users’ inboxes. If you got one, don’t look into such a message — delete it straight away. Don’t open its attachment. Those who distribute malicious code take advantage of our curiosity. They use especially effective social engineering techniques to lure users into opening attachments and following links.

Is there anybody who wouldn’t like to be the very first one to learn breaking news or see something really exciting? For example, something like:

"Osama bin Laden caught",
"Saddam Hussein has died",
"Michael Jackson tried to commit suicide".

Would you like to open a message with such a subject line and learn what’s in it? You’d better not. There are malicious programs inside these "news" waiting for you to click.

These (and similar) tricks are usually called social engineering. Online criminals have become good psychologists. They are ingenious in finding new ways to make people do what they want — open an attachment or click on a link to visit a certain website. For these unprincipled rogues it’s all right to profiteer from human tears and blood — they actively use news about tragic events as a bait.

One of the latest, detected by Trend Micro in mid-July, was a spam e-mail with "TERROR HITS LONDON," subject line. It mimicked a CNN newsletter and asked the recipients to "see attachments for unique amateur video shots." When a user opened the attachment, his PC gets infected with the Trojan horse program named Troj_DonBomb.A

On August 5th another one was reported by Sophos– an email disguised as an alert about the death of 140 US marines in Iraq. The email claims to contain a breaking news report from Guardian Unlimited and has a link to the "full story" which leads users to a bogus web page with two Trojans built in.

Cgab-A and Borodr-Fam Trojans slip through unpatched Internet Explorers. These Trojans will allow the criminal to take full control over the infected PC; they also be collecting the user’s personal information and using his computer to send more copies of thesmselves.

It’s not the first time these emails are disguised as news alerts — there were outbreaks when infected spam posed as CNN news. It seems that spoofing legitimate news agencies to infect more PC users by means of bogus "news alerts" has become a popular social engineering technique. And by all means there will be more of them in future.

So, it’s better not to learn any news from e-mail messages. Try to resist the temptation to open email with some REALLY BREAKING NEWS.

Don’t open, don’t click. And patch your browser.

Alexandra Gamanenko currently works at Raytown Corporation, LLC — an independent software developing company that provides various solutions for information security. The company’s R&D department created an innovative technology, which disables the very processes of information capturing — keylogging, screenshoting, etc. It makes the company’s anti-spy software truly unique: it doesn’t detect spy programs or information-stealing Trojans one by one — they all simply can’t work.

Learn more — visit the company’s website http://www.anti-keyloggers.com

When it comes to a secure website and passwords it is all in your hands to create a password that a hacker simply cannot crack. However, this will require that you be creative and use everything at your fingertips to create the strongest password possible for a secure web site.

Tip #1 - Use All Spaces

No matter how many characters are available for your password you should be sure to use every one of them. The more characters available for your password and the more you use makes it that much harder to figure out the combination. Always make use of all characters available for a strong and secure password.

Tip #2 - Obscure not Obvious

Personal information such as names, birthdays, nicknames, pet’s names, social security numbers, and the like should never, ever, ever be used because these are way too obvious and too easy to crack. The more you avoid using things like this as your passwords, the more secure your login areas will be.

Tip #3 - Non-Alphabet

Never use just the alphabet to create your password. If you include numbers, hyphens, dashes, and other symbols or characters, you will have a more secure password which is increasingly harder to crack with every different symbol or number you add.

Tip #4 - Don’t Write Your Password

This tip you should already know, but once you have created your super secure password to protect your website, commit it to memory, never share it with anyone, and never, ever write it down. No matter how secure you think the location is, if you write the password down you are decreasing the security of your website.

Tip #5 - Case

Also, make sure you use upper case as well as lowercase in your password if the password is case sensitive. This will add even more variables to your password that will increase security.

Tip #6 - Create a Word

You do not have to use a word that already exists, you can actually create your own word with a mixture of numbers, cases, and symbols and before you know it you will have a secure password that nobody can crack!

Tip #7 - Multiple Passwords

As tempting as it might be to use only one password for all of your web sites logins you should never ever do this. To maintain security at all website logins you should create a special system for creating passwords on different sites and stick to that system. This way, you’ll always know the passwords but they will differ from site to site.

Tip #8 - Logout

Always logout! For some reason people think when they have finished their business they can just continue on about the Internet without logging out. This decreases your security level and if you are logged in anyone can access your account. Because of this you should always logout.

Tip #9 - Close the Browser

TO be even more sure that your password and personal information are protected you should always close your browser. This is the safest practice and one you should always engage in.

Tip #10 - Manage Your Passwords

If you have problems managing all of your passwords or remembering them, consider using a password manager. This will help you keep your login information safe and secure without having to remember all of the difficult passwords you created.

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