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Further
Reading ...
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SPAM Laws of 2001
For a law to take effect on the U.S. federal level, both the House and the Senate must pass the bill and then the President of the United States must sign the bill into law. Last year we almost got a SPAM law on the books when House legislators...
The Top Ten IT Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
Want to rise to the top without all the pain and suffering that goes along with it? The following article will help you soar by keeping you from making costly career-ending mistakes.
Working with IT Managers on a regular basis allows me to see...
Buying Used Dell Laptops, PC's and Servers on eBay - How to be successful.
Two years ago I needed a way to refresh more PC's and Laptops at my company without spending more. New Dell laptops were great but expensive and over the years we had accumulated many Latitude C series parts. The C series ran from the CPX C600...
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Business Impact Analysis
Business impact analysis is a critical part of the business continuity planning process. This step quantifies data and gets into the real world issue of potential losses that can negatively impact your business. It is used to understand the most...
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Is "Spyware" Watching You?
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Written By:
Jim Edwards
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Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from a
friend who told me he'd been the victim of a "spyware"
attack that left him shaking at his loss of privacy.
I listened to his horror story with a sympathetic ear, but
I felt secure since I carry anti-virus software and a
firewall (both by Norton).
At his suggestion - and to my surprise - I ran a program
called "Spy Sweeper" and found a veritable minefield of
dangerous and harmful programs lurking on my computer.
"Spyware" is software that gets onto your computer and
literally "spies" on your activities.
The spying can range from relatively harmless use of
cookies tracking you across multiple websites... to
extremely dangerous "keystroke loggers" which record
passwords, credit cards, and other personal data. That data
then gets relayed to the person who put the software on
your computer.
Three primary types of spyware exist to complicate your
online life, including:
1. "cookies"
2. "adware"
3. malicious programs like "keystroke loggers"
Cookies represent mostly a danger of lost privacy.
In theory, someone could use a "cookie" to track you across
multiple sites, combine that data with several databases,
and figure out a lot more information about you than would
make you comfortable.
"Adware" tracks more than just your movement across sites,
it spies on your installed software and computer habits to
then serve up advertising, modify websites before you see
them, and generally do things without your knowledge with
the intention of trying to get you to buy things.
"Keystroke loggers" and other malicious programs exist for
one purpose: to cause personal mayhem and financial damage.
Spyware gets on your computer in one of several different
ways.
First, it rides along with software you download from the
'Net and install on your system.
Second, they come as email attachments (much like viruses)
and automatically install themselves on your computer when
you open the email message.
Third, hackers find an open - continued below ...
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continued ...
port on your computer and use
the "back door" to install basically anything they want.
And fourth, the more malicious types, like keystroke
loggers, can even get installed by someone with direct
physical access to your computer such as an employer,
suspicious spouse, business competitor, or someone who
wants to know exactly what you're doing.
Now, suppose you carry an up-to-date anti-virus program and
a firewall - shouldn't that represent potent protection?
In a word: NO!
I can personally attest that even the most up-to-date anti-
virus programs and firewalls will not (repeat, WILL NOT)
catch all the spyware that can infest your computer.
You need a program that specifically scans your system for
the tens-of-thousands of existing spyware programs along
with the new ones appearing daily.
Check out "Spy Sweeper" from webroot.com - this is the
program I used to discover the spyware on my computer.
One thing I noticed, however, is that this program is a
memory hog, so once I scanned, I turned it off and then
use it 2-3 times a week... not the best strategy, but
I want to give you the "whole" picture.
I also got the following recommendations from numerous
subscribers about 2 programs to specifically help identify
and remove spyware from your system (PC):
1. "Ad Aware" from lavasoft.de
2. "Spybot Search & Destroy" from safer-networking.org
The overwhelmingly recommended firewall suggested by readers
was Zone Alarm Pro from Zone Labs
=> http://www.ebookfire.com/zonealarm.html
The bottom line seems pretty simple (but lengthy) if you
want to protect yourself against this growing threat.
~ Keep your anti-virus program current
~ Install a firewall
~ Carefully screen software before installing it
~ Scan for specifically for spyware weekly
~ Stay current on this growing threat.
About the Author
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist
(http://www.TheNetReporter.com) and is the author of
several best-selling ebooks, information products and
software programs.
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| _Additional Resources ... |
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Cyber Warfare
In these days of all-out combat in Afghanistan, terrorist attacks in New York and Anthrax in Washington, it's easy to lose one's perspective. I know I've become addicted to checking the major news web sites several times a day. I now listen to the...
Email Overload
Email overload is such a big problem that I believe your Site Pro News subscribers would love to read several practical tips for coping. If you wish to publish this article in Site Pro News, please feel free to include it entirely or edit as you...
Email Advertising Doesn't Get Any Cheaper Than This
What is the most powerful marketing tool a web site owner has? I'll give you a hint - it's not banner advertising! It's e-mail - nothing else even comes close. Have you ever really considered just how many people use e- mail? There are millions...
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