A Guide to Web Security
Granted we all surf the World Wide Web every day, and every day there is a new virus or trojan or some other form of malware that breaks into an undefended computer and steals an entire life. Every photo, every document, and every bank account, anything and everything that can be created digitally can be stolen digitally.
The idea i just stated should be for most people very scary, but if it isn't imagine this all of your personal data gone. Your entire life is taking pictures with digital cameras, making digital movies, moving dozens or hundreds of files on to and off of your computer yearly, imagine all of that gone because of a moment of weakness were you opened one file that you shouldn't have.
What motivates hackers to hack, it can be anything from greed, jealousy, anger or just plain boredom. How do you stay safe out here in the Wild Web where any email, folder, or zip file could be dangerous? The only way to be safe is to be aware of what your downloading, what websites your on and this alone can save you alot of headaches and loss.
Now that the sermon is over here are some tips to help protect your important data.
1.) Dont ever open an email attachment from some one you dont know no matter how tempting it sounds its more then likely some kind of malware. Also dont download ANY files from some one you dont know.
2.) Dont ever download a file and immediately run it, save it to your desktop or documents and then run a quick scan with your antivirus on that file to verify it is clean and then use the software. Or download a "sandbox" program such as Sandboxie to run it securely with out tampering with your computer. Even on software you trust a hacker could have broken into the website at any time and tampered with the files.
3.) Check your URL (browser bar) where you type in a website link. If you click a link on the web and it leads you to a login page CHECK THE URL it could be an attempt to steal your passwords. If the website name is something other than the official site close the page and go back to what you were doing. An example being facebook, if the link leads you to F4CEBOOK.com then obviously it isn't the right site but hackers will attempt to trick you with simple things like this.
4.) Some common file types to avoid are any files ending in .EXE, .BAT, or .DLL if they are from untrusted sources your computer could be in jeopardy.
5.) In order to not be infected you must be vigilant. Never open files ending in .EXE from some one you dont know or just met online some where, it is probably a virus or malware, especially if they keep trying to coerce you into opening it. Through some moderate paranoia and attention to detail you will probably avoid MANY common tricks of the trade that hackers use.
The idea i just stated should be for most people very scary, but if it isn't imagine this all of your personal data gone. Your entire life is taking pictures with digital cameras, making digital movies, moving dozens or hundreds of files on to and off of your computer yearly, imagine all of that gone because of a moment of weakness were you opened one file that you shouldn't have.
What motivates hackers to hack, it can be anything from greed, jealousy, anger or just plain boredom. How do you stay safe out here in the Wild Web where any email, folder, or zip file could be dangerous? The only way to be safe is to be aware of what your downloading, what websites your on and this alone can save you alot of headaches and loss.
Now that the sermon is over here are some tips to help protect your important data.
1.) Dont ever open an email attachment from some one you dont know no matter how tempting it sounds its more then likely some kind of malware. Also dont download ANY files from some one you dont know.
2.) Dont ever download a file and immediately run it, save it to your desktop or documents and then run a quick scan with your antivirus on that file to verify it is clean and then use the software. Or download a "sandbox" program such as Sandboxie to run it securely with out tampering with your computer. Even on software you trust a hacker could have broken into the website at any time and tampered with the files.
3.) Check your URL (browser bar) where you type in a website link. If you click a link on the web and it leads you to a login page CHECK THE URL it could be an attempt to steal your passwords. If the website name is something other than the official site close the page and go back to what you were doing. An example being facebook, if the link leads you to F4CEBOOK.com then obviously it isn't the right site but hackers will attempt to trick you with simple things like this.
4.) Some common file types to avoid are any files ending in .EXE, .BAT, or .DLL if they are from untrusted sources your computer could be in jeopardy.
5.) In order to not be infected you must be vigilant. Never open files ending in .EXE from some one you dont know or just met online some where, it is probably a virus or malware, especially if they keep trying to coerce you into opening it. Through some moderate paranoia and attention to detail you will probably avoid MANY common tricks of the trade that hackers use.