Keep your computer protected with anti-virus software. These days, anti-virus software can protect on many fronts, such as malware, phishing, spam and traditional virus infections from infected files downloaded from the internet or from a USB memory stick.

 

Getting spam or a virus is more than annoyance, it can cause downtime, inconvenience and worst of all, loss of earnings. But it isn't easy to spot these problems. There are a multitude of different reasons why your computer is not performing at its best and worse still, a multitude of infections! These include:

  • Viruses 
    • Viruses are often transmitted via email these days. Normally they are sent to an unwitting recipient who opens up the attachment of an email that they believed to be legit or from someone they know. The attachment then delivers what is known as its 'payload' and your computer becomes infected. Normally this payload is a small invisible application that runs in the background and systematically uses your internet connection to send email either via your email software, such as Outlook Express or Apple Mail, or it installs its own little 'mail server' meaning it busily sends emails in the background - the only obvious evidence that you might be infected is a slow down (or halt) of your internet connection. In fact, it will send itself to most, or all, of the contacts found in your mail application, so basically anyone who has ever sent you an email, or indeed you've sent an email, will automatically receive an email from your computer. And worse still, the virus will make sure it looks like it was *you* who sent the email, thus tricking more people into opening emails they think are legit.
  •  Spam
    • Spam is a different kind of beast - sometimes a virus can distribute spam, instead of a copy of itself. Normally the spam relates to the sale of pharmacetical drugs or cheap jewellery. The reason for this is that the virus writer, or the spam sender, will  receive comission on any referral business, regardless of how this business is found. And as long as there is a tiny percentage of 'suckers' (<0.01%), the system makes money and spam will continue to flow!
  • Spyware
    • Spyware can take several forms. Most commonly though it's the kind of thing that hijacks your web browser and takes you to pages you never intended to visit in the first place. And of course these pages are all trying to sell you something, with the same end result being that the creator of such software will gain a small comission on not only sales, but simple page impressions. That is, he might get 1 cent each time someone simply opens that website! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that money can be made easily this way by the canny and ruthless spyware writer.
      More malicious spyware includes what is known as 'key readers', these pieces of software will run silently and invisibly in the background and record every keystroke you issue on your keyboard, then periodically 'phone home' to the author with a complete history of your typing. This can of course include credit card details if you happen to be purchasing online at that particular moment.
  • Phishing
    • Phishing is an amalgam of most of the problems listed above. They tend to be sent much like spam, but the content normally relates to banking institutions or online payment gateways that try to trick you into thinking that your bank is 'updating your account' and requires you to visit their 'site' and enter your account details once again to verify your identity. This is to the unwitting user an invite to fraudsters to plunder your bank account if you are foolish enough to heed the advice of such emails. Rule of thumb: NO bank has ever, or ever will, request personal information from you in the form of an email. If you get an email from your 'bank', it is likely to be fraudulent.

I hope this information has enlightened you and offered you an insight into the murky world of online fraud, crime and viruses. To help you combat these problems, above are links to anti-virus software creators who will help towards making your online experience a safer one: