In a recent study, researchers found that more than 80% of all computers on the internet are infected with something or other. They found that people generally don't understand how their computer is at risk, the magnitude of that risk, or how to protect their computer.
This is an effort to correct that here at Juventuz.
Viruses
A virus is a malicious piece of software. They damage your computer by destroying files. How do you stop them? Use an anti-virus programme. A good free one is AVG.
Adware
Adware is, in my opinion, disgusting. People who write and spread viruses are just malicious, but adware is a cynnical attempt to make money. It can change your browser's homepage to some odd search engine (they make money from the links in them). It can make pop-ups appear to advertise something, no matter what website you're on. They are invasive, and an unwelcome drain on your computer's processing power. You can fight them with anti-adware stuff. Ad-aware would be my recommendation.
Please note that popular choice, Spybot has recently done rather badly in some benchmarking tests, so I have to advise against it.
Trojans
Not just the guys who lost the ten year war, but programmes that appear desirable but actually contain something harmful; "the contents of a trojan can be a virus or a worm".
Most virus scanners are not very good at detecting these. One decent attempt to keep them at bay is http://www.ewido.net/en/.
A really useful extra is a firewall. A firewall is a security scheme that prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer and monitors transfers of information to and from the internet. Zonealarm is a very good free one, comparable to a lot of commercial ones. Zonealarm pro (their non-free one) gives much the same protection, but with more features. The great thing about a firewall is that it prevents remote access of your pc by hackers, making it much harder to place stuff you don't want on your computer.
Please remember that no single product, free or commercial, is completely secure. At the very least, you should have an anti-virus programme, a firewall and an anti-spyware programme.
Yes and no. Yes they exist, no they're not any good.
Two other measures you can try:
1. Use Mozilla/Firefox. Internet explorer is hugely popular (by default, as it comes with all Windows-equipped computers), which means it is targeted by the kind of people you don't want targeting you (other than snipers, that is - though if I was a sniper, IE would certainly count as a deserving target in my book
). It also happens to be pretty insecure at the moment, and not in the way that makes shy people blush. No, more in the way that a small cottage painted a luminous yellow and placed in no-man's-land is insecure.
2. Switch to Linux. This is more secure than Windows for the popularity reason, and the crap security reason. I'm noticing a Microsoft-related pattern here... Linux may be a step too far for a lot of you, but the rest of that stuff is just a matter of downloading some stuff and clicking on the self-installer.
Some general advice from http://www.staysafeonline.info/
Stay safe.
Mikhail
This is an effort to correct that here at Juventuz.
Viruses
A virus is a malicious piece of software. They damage your computer by destroying files. How do you stop them? Use an anti-virus programme. A good free one is AVG.
Adware
Adware is, in my opinion, disgusting. People who write and spread viruses are just malicious, but adware is a cynnical attempt to make money. It can change your browser's homepage to some odd search engine (they make money from the links in them). It can make pop-ups appear to advertise something, no matter what website you're on. They are invasive, and an unwelcome drain on your computer's processing power. You can fight them with anti-adware stuff. Ad-aware would be my recommendation.
Please note that popular choice, Spybot has recently done rather badly in some benchmarking tests, so I have to advise against it.
Trojans
Not just the guys who lost the ten year war, but programmes that appear desirable but actually contain something harmful; "the contents of a trojan can be a virus or a worm".
Most virus scanners are not very good at detecting these. One decent attempt to keep them at bay is http://www.ewido.net/en/.
A really useful extra is a firewall. A firewall is a security scheme that prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer and monitors transfers of information to and from the internet. Zonealarm is a very good free one, comparable to a lot of commercial ones. Zonealarm pro (their non-free one) gives much the same protection, but with more features. The great thing about a firewall is that it prevents remote access of your pc by hackers, making it much harder to place stuff you don't want on your computer.
Please remember that no single product, free or commercial, is completely secure. At the very least, you should have an anti-virus programme, a firewall and an anti-spyware programme.
Yes and no. Yes they exist, no they're not any good.
Two other measures you can try:
1. Use Mozilla/Firefox. Internet explorer is hugely popular (by default, as it comes with all Windows-equipped computers), which means it is targeted by the kind of people you don't want targeting you (other than snipers, that is - though if I was a sniper, IE would certainly count as a deserving target in my book
). It also happens to be pretty insecure at the moment, and not in the way that makes shy people blush. No, more in the way that a small cottage painted a luminous yellow and placed in no-man's-land is insecure.2. Switch to Linux. This is more secure than Windows for the popularity reason, and the crap security reason. I'm noticing a Microsoft-related pattern here... Linux may be a step too far for a lot of you, but the rest of that stuff is just a matter of downloading some stuff and clicking on the self-installer.
Some general advice from http://www.staysafeonline.info/
Stay safe.
Mikhail
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