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Viruses can be annoying and they can be extremely destructive, however they can be fairly easy to prevent. If you have an anti-virus program running at all times on your computer, as well as take great care in opening email attachments, odds are your computer will remain virus free.

The majority of viruses are transmitted through emails. Unfortunately it’s not enough to trust emails only from addresses you recognize. Many email viruses actually will email themselves to emails found in your own address book. This means that an email from a “safe” address could actually contain a virus. You should discard any emails which you don’t recognize the sender, and always virus scan attachments from those that you do.

If you don’t currently have anti-virus software running on your computer your data and entire computer are at risk. If it is cost you are worried about, it is no excuse. Most anti-virus programs will run anywhere from free to $50.

Anti-virus programs work by looking for virus signatures. When you receive any file the software will scan it and alert you should it find a virus signature. Most allow for full system scans at your request or at a scheduled time when you won’t be using your PC. When a virus is found most software will give you several options, such as delete or quarantine.

It is vital that you keep your anti-virus software updated. While virus signatures, or coding patterns, are very similar, they do change and if you don’t have an updated program a virus may sneak by undetected. Most programs will update their databases automatically or alert you when an update is available.

While anti-virus software is the best protection against viruses, it’s not always perfect. Users should take great care when adding files to their computers, via email, downloading, or even CDs and DVDs. Anytime you are taking files from an external source and transferring them to your hard drive you run the risk of also transferring a computer virus. You should always virus scan any files before adding them or immediately after if need be.

Viruses can be annoying and they can be extremely destructive, however they can be fairly easy to prevent. If you have an anti-virus program running at all times on your computer, as well as take great care in opening email attachments, odds are your computer will remain virus free.

The majority of viruses are transmitted through emails. Unfortunately it’s not enough to trust emails only from addresses you recognize. Many email viruses actually will email themselves to emails found in your own address book. This means that an email from a “safe” address could actually contain a virus. You should discard any emails which you don’t recognize the sender, and always virus scan attachments from those that you do.

If you don’t currently have anti-virus software running on your computer your data and entire computer are at risk. If it is cost you are worried about, it is no excuse. Most anti-virus programs will run anywhere from free to $50.

Anti-virus programs work by looking for virus signatures. When you receive any file the software will scan it and alert you should it find a virus signature. Most allow for full system scans at your request or at a scheduled time when you won’t be using your PC. When a virus is found most software will give you several options, such as delete or quarantine.

It is vital that you keep your anti-virus software updated. While virus signatures, or coding patterns, are very similar, they do change and if you don’t have an updated program a virus may sneak by undetected. Most programs will update their databases automatically or alert you when an update is available.

While anti-virus software is the best protection against viruses, it’s not always perfect. Users should take great care when adding files to their computers, via email, downloading, or even CDs and DVDs. Anytime you are taking files from an external source and transferring them to your hard drive you run the risk of also transferring a computer virus. You should always virus scan any files before adding them or immediately after if need be.

It’s pretty common knowledge these days that you need to run some kind of antivirus protection on your computer. But it’s not commonly known that the computers that make up the internet are also at risk. What’s being done to protect them?

Virus attacks aren’t limited to desktop PC’s. The computer servers that operate websites, email and other internet services are also vulnerable.

Many of these servers are really not that different from a desktop PC. They may have more memory, multiple processors and larger hard drives, but they’re still more or less the same type of equipment when you get right down to it.

Most operate much like an individual’s system and are subject to the same kinds of attacks. They can therefore be protected by many of the same means - regular use of reliable antivirus software and being firewall guarded to shut down vulnerable entry points on the Internet.

What Options Do They Have?

Since servers and routers provide services to multiple, sometimes thousands, of user systems they’re more frequently attacked. Users can help administrators of these systems by keeping their own systems clean and refraining from passing on viruses to others across them. Administrators can help themselves by forgoing the temptation to use them as personal computers with full e-mail clients, word processing software, and fully enabled browsers.

By keeping your computer protected by antivirus, firewall and other internet security software you help to minimize the target area for the attacks to hit. It can also help to keep your browser and operating system updated with the latest patches, and possibly even run an alternative browser such as Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

You should also avoid booting from CD’s, DVD’s or USB memory sticks that haven’t been scanned for viruses. If one of the files that was saved on the disk was infected, booting with the disk can cause the virus to spread even faster.

If you use FTP, you should look into switching to a more secure system for file transfers. FTP passwords are sent “in the clear” - there is no encryption on them at all. So when you log into an FTP server, if someone is monitoring your internet traffic, they can easily get your password.

It’s up to all of us to make sure these systems remain secure - not just the system administrators. They have a lot of work on their plate and aren’t always as quick to respond to security issues as they would like.

“Where can I find the the best free antivirus scanner,” is one of the questions I am asked more than any other. My answer is simple, do a search for something like free antivirus software on Yahoo or Google and have a look at the info they provide.

Most companies that operate online offer a free version of their antivirus software alongside a trial version of their paid software. The important thing to keep in mind is that like nearly everything else some are excellent, some are average and some should be avoided like the plague.

AVG is one of the most reputable and better known internet security providers online. In my humble opinion they offer one of the best security suites out there, and it’s completely free. Version 8 provides a multi faceted approach to online security with your web browser even alerting you to dodgy websites!

The web surfing protection is very useful as it can alert you to websites that it deems could be a security threat. This is accomplished by showing different graphics merged into your web browsers search window. Specific graphics or icons informs you if caution is required or that site is ok to visit.

Problem is many sites are offering what is termed, “rogue software.” Basically what this means is that if for instance you were trying to remove some spyware on your laptop and downloaded one of these so called “spyware removers, then installed it on your PC, some of them may actually install malware onto your system instead of removing it.

AVG’s safe surfing software can or should alert you to websites that may be offering this kind of sofware to you as a free download thus helping you to avoid installing it in the first place.

I first used it when the security company McAfee bought it and started to offer it online for free. As you can probably tell I’m a big fan of AVG security software. This by no means is the only reputable company out there.

At this time I haven’t had the time to test as vigorously, other software programs offered by companies like Avast and Avira. Although I can’t attest to it personally, they do seem to have built up a good reputation in the internet security software arena.

So the solution to the question, “where can I find free antivirus software.” Do a quick search on Google to find one that suits you and you know to be reputable and install on it your PC. Even quicker is to take my advice and head straight over to the AVG site download their latest version and your good to go.

Spyware is more than just annoying - it can cause other programs to not work properly and can cause your computer to become quite unstable. Not to mention the privacy issues it brings up.

Spyware is often installed without your knowledge or consent and in many cases can’t be removed from your computer without specialized software tools. When the people that distribute it need to resort to tricking you into installing it, there’s obviously very little there to warrant your trust.

The first line of defense against spyware is to be careful installing software. Know what’s being downloaded. A large percentage of freeware or shareware programs have spyware embedded in them. Sometimes that’s disclosed in the user agreement, but often not.

Before downloading any new software, look for guarantees that it’s spyware free. Even so, be on your guard - the file-sharing program Kazaa has been claiming to be spyware-free for years. Anyone who installs this software soon has an opportunity to test this claim.

What are the signs of a spyware infection? Odd pop-up advertising, a new homepage when you didn’t change it, new toolbars that you didn’t install or your computer is responding slowly or rebooting randomly all of a sudden, to name a few.

If you find your system bogged down with spyware, don’t give up hope. There are several utilities specifically designed for removing spyware from your computer. They rely on frequently updated databases which contain signature files of all known spyware and adware. They scan all the files on your hard drive and alert you if ‘uninvited guests’ are found.

Some of these programs are free while others will cost. The paid versions sometimes have additional features, such as automatic scheduled scans. None of them are 100% foolproof however, so it’s a good idea to run more than one of them.

Some types of spyware are exceptionally hard to get rid of. They can make changes to settings on your computer that help to “protect” the spyware from being removed. In some cases, you need to manually delete the files to get rid of them for sure.

Obviously, this is something that you should only attempt if you are quite knowledgeable. You wouldn’t want to remove something that is critical for your computer to operate.

Once the spyware has been removed from your system, you should run scans on a regular basis to keep it clean. Whether you do this manually or use a program that does it automatically on a schedule is up to you (and your pocketbook).

And, of course, beware those tempting looking free offers. You may get more than you bargained for.

Social networking sites, MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, and have climbed in popularity recently. They allow users to keep in contact with their friends and meet new ones, but they can also expose them to viruses, spyware and other online dangers. As the use of Web 2.0 applications, like wikis, blogs and social networking sites increases, they attract the attention of cyber criminals. Many of the people who use these sites are relatively new to the Internet and they can lack experience in dealing with online threats.

All of the threats described in this article have now been eliminated by site owners, but new ones will inevitably arise as attackers develop their techniques in response to increased security measures. Social networking sites are attractive targets as their interactive nature allows them to spread threats very quickly. Many of these threats exploit the trust people have in their friends, emphasizing the fact that it is important to treat electronic communications with care, no matter who they appear to be from.

As with other aspects of Internet use, threats fall into two categories: behaviour-based and technology-based.

Threats Posed by Behavior

Behaviour-based threats arise largely because users are careless regarding the personal information they share online. This can leave them vulnerable to phishing attacks and identity theft. Users often publish details of their friends, their likes and dislikes, hobbies and jobs, without realizing that this information can be invaluable to identity thieves as it can help them appear more credible.

Research carried out by IT security company Sophos on a random sample of Facebook users showed that 41% were prepared to divulge personal information like email address, date of birth and phone number to a complete stranger. The research involved creating a fictitious Facebook profile for a green plastic frog named Freddi and sending out 200 friend requests to randomly-chosen users throughout the world. 87 of the users contacted responded and 82 of them supplied personal information, including email addressed, date of birth, details about their education or workplace, address and phone number, as well as photos of friends and family and information about spouses, likes and dislikes and hobbies.

Internet Safety website Get Safe Online found in 2007 that one in four British social networking users had posted confidential personal information, such as their address or phone number or on their profiles. 13% of users had posted information or photos of other people online without their permission. This figure increased to an alarming 27% among 18-24 year-olds.

Phishing isn’t the only threat to be found on social networking websites. Eleven students at a high school near Toronto were suspended for posting comments about their principal on Facebook after the school imposed a ban on electronic devices and implemented a uniform policy. A school spokesman described the comments as vulgar and profane and claimed that they amounted to amounted to cyber-bullying.

There have been several stories claiming that young girls have been raped by older men who encountered them via MySpace or Facebook, but none of these appear to have been conclusively proved. The real problem is that social networking sites offer an opportunity for men to meet young girls in an unsupervised environment, something which should be of grave concern to parents.

Technology-Based Threats

Social networking sites can also be a source of technology-based threats. They allow millions of people to post content, so it’s inevitable that some of these will be malicious individuals attempting to post malware.

More than three million Facebook users were infected with spyware in less than four days at the beginning of 2008. A Facebook widget called “Secret Crush” or “My Admirer” is believed to have been downloaded by one and a half million users. It claimed to tell users who had a secret crush on them, but in reality fooled them into downloading the notorious Zango spyware. It spread by asking users to forward it to five friends.

Anti-virus vendor Symantec has claimed that vulnerabilities which could be used by hackers to snatch control of Windows PCs have been found in ActiveX controls offered to users by both Facebook and MySpace for uploading images to their pages via Internet Explorer (IE). The insecure controls are based on an ActiveX control named Image Uploader, produced by Aurigma Inc.

Late in 2005, 19-year old Samy Kamkar wrote a worm that infected over a million MySpace users and caused a complete shutdown. The Samy worm added a million friends to his profile in only a few hours, adding the string “but most of all, Samy is my hero” to all their profiles. Kamkar was given a sentence of three years probation and 90 days of community service.

The biggest privacy breach to date on a social networking site took place in January 2008 when a 17-gigabyte file containing more than half a million pictures obtained from private MySpace profiles appeared on BitTorrent, a well-known peer-to-peer file sharing service. A security flaw, first reported in Autumn 2007, allowed hackers to access the photo galleries of some MySpace users who had set their profiles to private, the default setting for users under 16 years old. This allowed pedophiles and voyeurs to target vulnerable 14- and 15-year-old users.

Brazilian users of Google’s Orkut application were attacked in December 2007 by a worm that attempted to take control of their computers and steal their bank account details. It spread via booby-trapped links placed on the personal page of Orkut users and infected users when they viewed messages that came from friends who had already been exposed.

This loophole was closed quickly, but another worm, called Scrapkut, appeared on Orkut early in 2008. It seemed harmless at first, but it was soon discovered that it could intercept login sessions at several Brazilian banking Web sites and replace components with a fake authentication prompt which could capture the users’ logon credentials.

YouTube has also been used indirectly to spread malware. There was a spate of spam messages which asked users to click on an attached YouTube video clip. The link took them to a false YouTube site where they were told that they needed to install Adobe Flash Player to play the video. Clicking the supplied link caused a file called install_flash_player.exe to be downloaded. This is the same name as the real Flash installer, but it actually installed a Trojan known as Trojan-Dropper.W32/Agent.

Fighting Back

We’ve looked at some of the dangers you need to guard against on social networking sites, but what can you do to protect yourself against them? Technology-based attacks can often be repelled by the usual software defenses, ie: anti-virus software can prevent infection by viruses, trojans and worms, and anti-spyware programs can protect you against spyware and adware. A top-quality firewall (remember that the one supplied with Windows XP is fairly basic) can protect you against hackers and Internet safety suites can offer protection against a range of threats.

Behavior-based attacks, which rely on tricking users into behaving unwisely, are harder to deal with as they can only be tackled by a change in user behavior. Get Safe Online provides a number of guidelines for networking safely, including the following:

Don’t let peer pressure push you into doing something you’re not comfortable with.

Avoid posting information that can identify you, such as telephone or mobile numbers, photos of your home, workplace or school, your address, date of birth or full name.

Avoid including personal information in your username, eg: use laughing_boy33, rather than jim_brown.

Set up a throwaway email account (eg: Hotmail or Yahoo) that doesn’t resemble your real name and use that to register and receive mail from the site.

Use a strong password with at least eight characters.

Avoid saying anything or publishing pictures that could embarrass you later.

Use the site’s privacy features to restrict access to your profile.

Beware of phishing scams.

If you ensure that your software defenses are strong and up-to-date and follow the above guidelines you should be able to enjoy surfing on social networking sites without problems.

Parents of young children should ensure that they are not allowed access to the Internet in an unsupervised environment. Even with older children they should try to keep an eye on their Facebook or MySpace profiles and watch out for any changes in behavior which may indicate that they are encountering online problems.