Antivirus Blog

The enhanced technology of the internet has brought with it several new conveniences. Nowadays, people can shop online, get in touch with old friends, pay bills, and more. However, criminals have been evolving right along the side the internet, constantly engineering new ways to try to rip people off. Obviously this poses a risk to people that shop or transfer personal information online - especially those that use the internet to do their banking. If you don’t know how to protect yourself, you may be putting your money and credit in serious jeopardy by doing your banking online. So how do you avoid getting robbed in cyberspace?

Protect Your Password
Your online banking password is the key to your bank account. Therefore, crooks spend a great deal of time coming up with clever new ways to get that very piece of information from you. To prevent anyone from guessing your password, it is highly recommended that you use a random combination of letters and numbers. If your online banking platform supports case-sensitive passwords, it also helps to include a capital letter or two. The longer your password is, the better (although there are usually limits). To further protect your password, you should change it periodically.

Do Not Open Suspicious Emails
‘Phishing’ is the practice of tricking the consumer into revealing personal information (such as passwords, account numbers, PINs, etc) by posing as legitimate companies that claim to need the information. These emails may contain the logo of the company they are claiming to represent, but do not be mislead. No legitimate banking institution will ever email you asking for your personal information. If you have an account with them, they already have that information. These emails usually contain a link to a site that is designed to look identical to the institution they are impersonating. If you were to enter your banking information on this fake site, it would be immediately relayed to the criminals. If you’re ever unsure about a website, check the address bar to make sure that the URL of the website matches the official site of the company.

The most obvious indications that such an email is fraudulent and should be discarded are failed attempts at correctly addressing you by name, grammatical errors, or links within the email directing you to domains that you have never heard of. If anything about the format of the email deviates from how emails from your financial institutions usually look, then you should be suspicious. If you are still uncertain of whether or not an email is authentic or if it is fraudulent, contact your banking institution’s customer service to have them verify.

AntiVirus Software and Firewalls

It is imperative that your computer is protected with a high quality antivirus utility. There are tons of antivirus review sites online that can help you make an informed decision as to which antivirus software is best for you.
Communicate with your Bank
Don’t hesitate to contact your financial institution at the first sign of trouble. They deal with identity theft and fraudulent activity all the time and they will be able to advise you in your particular situation. If you accidentally submit your information to a fraudulent website, contact them right away and let them know about it. This will help minimize or even prevent trouble from occurring. Keep your contact information up to date with your bank so that they can get in touch with you quickly if they see any suspicious activity in your account.

Spyware is annoying. There are no two ways about it. On the most severe end of the spectrum, some spyware may be used to steal your personal information and rob you blind or even destroy your credit. In milder cases, spyware is just a nuisance that can prove very difficult to completely remove.

No one in their right mind likes spyware. To remove it, there is no shortage of antispyware software that you can use to locate spyware hiding on your system and effectively remove it. However, this process can also get rather exhausting. It can be pretty frustrating to run your antispyware scanner every couple of months only to find a whole new slew of entries. So, how exactly do people end up with spyware on their system to begin with?

File Sharing
File sharing is one of the worst culprits. Attaching spyware to popular files and then distributing them is one of the most effective ways for the engineers of spyware to get their annoying software out there. Programs like Limewire, Kazaa, and several torrent clients are all notorious for aiding in the delivery of spyware. If you choose to use any of these types of services, make sure you know what you’re downloading beforehand. Torrent sites usually have user comments that will help you determine whether or not what you’re downloading is legitimate, but they can’t always be counted on 100%.

Software
Certain types of software, especially freeware, may come bundled with a variety of spyware. In most cases this type of spyware is just the annoying kind that collects data about your usage and relays it to the company that created it, usually for research. But this type of spyware can still hog system resources and you’re definitely better off without it. However, removing this type of spyware may cause the software it came with to stop functioning. Be sure to read the details in the terms of use of any new software that you install. If there is spyware bundled with it that is required in order for the application to run, it will say so somewhere in the terms.

Web Browsing
Sometimes spyware can be loaded onto your computer simply by visiting a website. This is very common among unscrupulous warez sites as well as some pornography sites. Upon visiting such a site, a malicious code will be loaded by your browser and then saved to your computer, which will then cause you to be infected with their spyware. For this reason, you should always use caution when visiting unfamiliar sites. Google recently implemented a feature that warns its visitors before visiting such a site with the message ‘Warning - this website may harm your computer’.

On top of using your best common sense, another great way to protect yourself from these types of threats is by implementing quality internet security software. Many of the leading antivirus software companies offer total security suites that will offer you a great deal of protection, with regard to spyware as well as just about every other type of malicious threat online. Take a look at the reviews online to help you best determine which security software is right for you.

Today’s internet has become a breeding ground for scam artists along with their clever and sometimes not-so-clever scams. If you are relatively new to the internet, there are a lot of things you need to learn about how things work online in order to protect yourself from such scams. Even those who have been online for a very long time are still not immune to being taken advantage of by scam artists. Scammers are constantly evolving their methods and developing new ways to cheat people online.

On the other hand, the internet is also a revolutionary invention that allows communication and exchange of information at a level far beyond anything that ever existed before. The internet offers several advantages, but in order to safely use it, you need to know how to properly protect yourself.

First and foremost, don’t open emails from unfamiliar senders. This is the most common way that viruses are distributed. Harmful programs are attached in emails and if the unsuspecting user downloads the program, their computer will become infected, at which point their personal information and data may be compromised.
Aside from the distribution of computer viruses, what are some other online scams to look out for?

Whenever you follow a link to a website, always check the address bar to ensure that the address matches the site you thought you were going to. Sometimes crooks design sites to look exactly like a trusted site, such as a banking site, in order to trick visitors into entering their personal information.

Dating scams are also very prevalent online. Con artists pose as singles looking for a partner and lure in unsuspecting victims by chatting with them. The goal is to eventually convince the victim to send money to the con artist, usually by convincing the victim that the money will be used to buy a plane ticket so that they can see each other. Once the payment is made, the decoy then disappears.
Some websites can harm your computer simply by visiting them. Once you visit such a website, a harmful code is executed in your browser and subsequently saved to your computer. Having an up to date antivirus program installed will limit the chances of your computer being harmed by this type of site.

Email scams from countries like Nigeria have gained a lot of attention in recent times. Con artists in Nigeria or other nations where there is little chance of prosecution target people online with an elaborate story about how they have a great deal of money tied up and need an American to help them access it, and of course they are willing to share the expected cash in return for the help. At some point they ask that you send them a few thousand dollars (or more, in some cases) to help cover expenses, after which the con artist disappears.

Another email scam concerns supposed lottery winnings. Emails are sent out to thousands by scammers telling them that they’ve won the lottery, and that all they need to do to claim their winnings is send a check to cover the taxes on the winnings. Surprisingly, several people fall for this scam every year.

Before doing business with any website that you donít absolutely trust, it doesn’t hurt to a little research first. Simply Googling the name of the site should return results that will help you decide whether or not they are a legit company. If a site has been involved with any type of scam activity, you will likely find consumer reports about it. You may also visit the Better Business Bureauís website to see what the companyís rating is.