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What
are Viruses - Worms - Adware - Identity Theft
Spyware - Hackers - Spam - Pop ups?
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What are viruses?
Viruses - A virus is a software
program that is capable of replicating with little or no user
intervention, and the replicated programs also replicate further.
Viruses piggyback on real programs.
For example, a virus may attach itself to a program such as a
spreadsheet program. Each time the
spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs as well, and it has the
opportunity to reproduce by
attaching to other programs. The purpose of a virus can be anything
from erasing files, formatting
your hard drive, to replacing text in your document Viruses are often
disguised as games or images
with clever titles such as "Pictures of ME". E-mail Viruses -
An email virus moves around in e-mail
messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself
to the people in the victim's
e-mail address book.
Worms
A worm is a virus that spreads by
creating duplicates of itself on other drives, systems, or
networks. Worms may send copies of themselves to other computers across
network
connections, through e-mails, through infected web pages, or through
instant messages. Trojan
Horses - This program may claim to do one thing (such as claiming to be
a game) but instead does
damage when you run it. Trojan horses are not technically viruses,
since they do not replicate.
What is adware?
Adware is added to your computer
generally without your knowledge when you download anything
free over the Internet. This method of downloading is known as
"stealth software" or "drive-by
downloads". Your computer could have been infected by mal-ware
during online activities such as
downloading music, pictures, shareware programs like screensavers and
animated cursors, popup
ads, email attachments or by even visiting some websites that use
Active X coding to insert
parasites onto your computer. Pay particular attention to the fine
print when downloading anything
over the Internet. Some programs include brief information in the Terms
and Conditions related to
serving you targeted ads based on your shopping habits.
What is identity theft?
Adware programs gather information
from your computer for marketing purposes. The information is
used to decide, for instance, which advertisements to display when you
are on a specific Web site
or which advertisements to display in pop-up windows on your
desktop.
What is spyware?
Spyware is software that gathers
user information through the user's Internet connection usually
without his or her knowledge, typically for advertising purposes.
Spyware is downloaded through the
Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the
Internet and transmits that
information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather
information about email
addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
What are hackers?
Firewalls keep people from
accessing your computer with malicious intent when you are
connected to the internet. A firewall allows "good" data
traffic and will block all "bad" data traffic.
An example of good traffic would be surfing the web, downloading
reputable files, chatting, etc. The
things you enjoy doing on your computer. The bad traffic is what
hackers enjoy doing on your
computer such as stealing files, using a Trojan to control your
computer, and disrupting your
connection or network. Each computer contains ports which are entrances
for hackers to invade
your computer. A firewall goes to each of these ports and monitors
everything that is going in and
out of your computer, it makes sure that the proper ports that allow
the "good" data are opened,
and it closes the ports to "bad" data.
What is spam?
Spam is unsolicited email, not
unwanted email. If you have signed up for an email list and receive
an email that is not spam. If you unsubscribe to that list and continue
to receive emails then that
becomes spam. While spam is annoying it is generally not dangerous to
you or your PC. In
January of 2004 the federal Can Spam law took effect with broad
reaching requirements and
penalties. Tip: if you see a company name and address at the bottom of
an email, that generally
means you can use the remove link and it will be honored as they are
following the Can Spam law.
If you do not see an address and only a remove link, then it is not a
good idea to use that link as
that would indicate a live email address to the spammers.
What are popups?
Popups There are two distinct
typeds of popups. Browser based popups - when you are visiting a
website and the website generates a popup. Adware based popups - when
you are not
"moving around" the internet and just start getting popups.
Both tend to be annoying but may not
be dangerous.
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