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How To Protect Yourself From Computer Hacking

When the internet became the main source for information in the world, there have been those that have sought to gain illegal profit from such things. This is the way of the world and people all over the world are now the target of the many computer hackers that are around. Unlike the bulk of people who are living in the virtual world, these hackers seek to gain access to the personal and private information that one has stored on their computer.

With this information they...

computer,hackers

When the internet became the main source for information in the world, there have been those that have sought to gain illegal profit from such things. This is the way of the world and people all over the world are now the target of the many computer hackers that are around. Unlike the bulk of people who are living in the virtual world, these hackers seek to gain access to the personal and private information that one has stored on their computer.

With this information they will work to steal money, and the identity of the person. This is all done without having to leave the home and can be performed with a vast knowledge of how computers work. Many people believe that this sort of crime will never happen to them and that is not the case. The hackers of the world are very clever and work to make sure that they have access to the entire bulk of information on the internet and ways to use that information to their benefit.

The most common form of hacking is the password grabber. With this form you get a program that works to guess the password that you have set up on the many protected areas of the web. Lets say that you do all of your banking online and your bank protects your account by way of a username and password. The hackers will gain access to the user name in one way or another, most often by an intercepted email over a server that is not encrypted. With that they can then put into operation a password program that will guess hundreds of different combinations every hour until the machine has discovered the password.

They will then gain access to your bank and promptly drain it. The best way to protect yourself against such theft is to make sure that you use a password that is not specific to you, such as your birthday, and also make sure that it contains numbers along with the letters. The password software will not be able to gain access because it can only guess either letters or numbers, not a combination of both because the choices are way too vast to compute.

The other most common form of hacking is the direct email scam. These are often times referred to as spoof emails. The email will come in looking very official and proper from a company that you have an account with. Then the email will most likely tell you that your account has been suspended and you need to login to correct the problem. It will instruct you to click on a link to login and will take you to a page that looks exactly like the actual company page. Once you login you have given the hacker all of your account information.

The way to protect yourself in this case is to make sure that you are getting the email from the company. Most often you will find that these companies will never ask you to follow a link to login and they will never ask for your information in an email or other communication. Forward the emails to the company so they can start to track the problem and maybe shut the hackers down before someone falls victim.

 

How To Protect Yourself From Computer Identity Theft

The FTC estimates that over nine million Americans have their identities stolen each year. This crime has a huge potential to disrupt your life, you might be denied a loan for education or housing, you may miss job opportunities, or in extreme cases, you might be arrested for a crime you did not commit.

One of the most common types of computer identity theft is called phishing. This is when you receive an email requesting your personal information from someone pretending t...

computer identity theft

The FTC estimates that over nine million Americans have their identities stolen each year. This crime has a huge potential to disrupt your life, you might be denied a loan for education or housing, you may miss job opportunities, or in extreme cases, you might be arrested for a crime you did not commit.

One of the most common types of computer identity theft is called phishing. This is when you receive an email requesting your personal information from someone pretending to be a financial institution. The email appears to be from a business or agency that you may have had a reason to do business with in the past, such as the IRS, a credit card company, or EBay. The email explains that there has been a problem with your credit card, or there is a pending audit, and you need to reply to the email with the correct credit card information, or social security number to correct the problem.

As soon as you respond with the requested information, the computer identity theft begins. Your information could be sold online, or the scammer may use your identity to make online purchases, apply for loans, or to clear out your bank account. They might have the bills sent to a different address, so you won't even realize there is a problem until your good credit is ruined. They could use your name to get utilities such as telephone, heat, cable TV, or use your information to access your wireless internet account, and run up your charges. Your name could be used to file a fraudulent income tax return, or to obtain government benefits. The list of ways that computer identity theft can affect your life appears to increase daily.

Awareness is the most effective way to fight online identity theft. Share the knowledge that you need to protect your personal information and the potential for this type of crime with your friends and family. You should become familiar with anti-spy software programs for your computer. Research different types, and invest in one that works best for you. Run the program before you do any online financial transactions.

Don't open emails from people you don't know. If you receive an email from a financial institution that you do business with, go to their website, and check for any warnings about unauthorized emails being sent. You could also phone the institution to see if the email is legitimate.

Lastly, only do business online with secure sites. They will usually have a small symbol in the bottom right corner of your browser to show it is secure. Never use your social security number on the internet.

Following these tips will help you to protect yourself against computer identity theft. Unfortunately, it is becoming far too common; don't let yourself become the next victim.

 

How To Protect Yourself From Computer Viruses

It’s a dangerous internet out their kids. There are many unscrupulous individuals who work hard every second of their waking lives to destroy your computer, erase your hard drive and steal your bank details (you better lock up your daughters too).

What can you do to combat these nefarious evildoers? If you have a computer, and I presume you do, there are two things you must have in your armory. They are: a virus scanner and a firewall. These two items are you sword and shi...

virus, computer, spyware, malware, badware, internet, firewall

It’s a dangerous internet out their kids. There are many unscrupulous individuals who work hard every second of their waking lives to destroy your computer, erase your hard drive and steal your bank details (you better lock up your daughters too).

What can you do to combat these nefarious evildoers? If you have a computer, and I presume you do, there are two things you must have in your armory. They are: a virus scanner and a firewall. These two items are you sword and shield in the ongoing battle of good against evil. But, how do you use them to protect yourself?

First things first, if you don’t have a firewall, go get one. There are many free ones out there that will do the job. Make sure the one you get can block both incoming and outgoing connections from your computer. If you are unfortunate enough to receive a piece of software which is up to no good on your system, the firewall will alert you when it tries to use the internet to contact it’s mother ship. If you are ever in doubt about the aims of software when they’re trying to access the internet, just block them, you can always unblock later when your web browser stops working.

The sword will be our trusty virus scanner. Once again, there are many free ones around that will do quite nicely. They will sit there on your machine, tirelessly scanning your storage areas for nasty bits of code you may not know about, but are there to cause mayhem and untold damage. When found, the scanner will work magic to delete the infected items and remove the source before the damage becomes too great.

Another tool that virus-free knight shouldn’t be without is the spyware scanner. This handy utility can be fired up once a week to perform a scan to check whether any devious miscreants have slipped through and are ruining our web viewing experience with annoying pop-ups.

So, you see, it’s quite easy to protect yourself. There are decent programs out there, produced by people in shiny castles, which will help you sleep at night. And, best of all, they’re so cheap they’re free!