(This information was correct at time of
posting)Viruses, and virus hoaxes for that
matter, cause a great deal of wasted time, money and resources.
Not only are we faced with the possibility of losing all our
data, having to buy a new hard drive and install our programs
again but we also can have a lot of internet bandwidth wasted on
people emailing all their friends and warning of fictitious
viruses and that slows everyone down. It’s said a new computer getting onto
the web for the first time has an attempted attack within 7
minutes. An up-to-date virus program is the only
way to protect yourself. Pattersons Computer Services recommend
CA Anti-virus 2007. The program is extremely simple to install,
updates itself automatically whenever an
internet connection is present and is very affordable at $50.87
(at time of posting). This is very reasonable compared to
others and I believe easier to use than most.
Click here for their website. This link will take you to Computer
Associates Website and a list of Newly Discovered Virus threats
and/or hoaxes (courtesy of Computer Associates).
To see the latest click here. Another form of protection which is free
is AVG Anti virus by Grisoft.
This program is a little clunky in it’s
updating but Hey! It’s FREE!!
Click here to go to their website.
Periodically
people try a scam called “phishing”
whereby they ask you to confirm your banking details during
which you are asked to enter your username and password. During
the reply process they have the ability to capture your normal
login and password and can then use these to access your
account(s). ** NEVER REPLY
TO THESE ** Your Bank (all have been documented as saying they
NEVER ask customers to confirm or reply to these types of
emails, contact is usually by mail only). Should you
wish to check on the validity of any
message:
Contact your
bank directly using the normal method/login and NEVER by a link
which has been supplied in any email you’ve
received.
phishing
(fish´ing)
(n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely
claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an
attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information
that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the
user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal
information, such as passwords and credit card, social security,
and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization
already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to
steal the user’s information. For example, 2003 saw the
proliferation of a phishing scam in
which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that
the user’s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked
on the provided link and updated the credit card information
that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively
simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations
site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people
being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted
by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update
their account information. By spamming large groups of people,
the “phisher” counted on the e-mail
being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed
credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.
Phishing,
also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is
a variation on “fishing,” the idea being that bait is thrown out
with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will
be tempted into biting.
