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Computer Protection Tips
But I don’t do anything, how did I get in trouble and how
can I stop bad things from entering my computer again?
Virus Protection
99% of the time, a virus will transmit itself and infect
computers through email attachments. Here are some general email rules
you should follow:
1. Always look at who an email comes from before opening
it. Your email program will also indicate if the email has an attachment or
not. If you do not recognize the sender and there is an attachment, chances
are IT IS a virus being sent to you. Delete any
email from someone you don’t know when it has an attachment. Do not open it
out of curiosity! Viruses count on your curiosity.
The latest email virus MO... enter a PC through
an email attachment, user clicks on the attachment which then runs the virus
program which infects the PC, virus then uses your email address book to begin emailing
copies of itself out as an attachment to each individual listed in the address book,
virus changes the "from" name to someone else in the address book
before sending. This covers its tracks so you don't know who's PC is
infected.
2. NEVER save or run an attachment which has an "xxx.exe",
"xxx.com"
or "xxx.pif" extension if you were not expecting it to be emailed to you.
The .exe or .com extension means this is an executable program which can be
run on the PC. The .pif extension is a personal
information file which will change settings in your computer. Remember,
viruses can be transmitted in emails from trusted friends who are unaware
they have a computer virus. Only exchange files if you have an anti-virus
program
or the sender does. Keep your virus program updated!!
Internet Protection
The majority of Trojans, worms, malware and spyware enter your PC
by simply surfing the internet and visiting a web site which exploits an
OS vulnerability to enter. Protecting yourself is much more difficult in
this case since you can go anywhere in the world on the internet and have no
idea which web site has bad stuff until you visit it and get it. Here are
some tips which can help...
1. First learn what a search engine such as Yahoo or Google
is and what the displayed search results mean. A search engine's main job is
to continually scan the internet 24/7 for web sites. When a site is found, each page of
the site is completely
scanned for content which is then saved in the search engine's
massive database. Now, when you visit to the search engine's web site and enter a
search keyword, a list of every internet web page which contains a match to
that keyword is listed on your screen. The matches are displayed in a color coded
sequence. The first line is typically blue and is the title to the web page which
contains the keyword somewhere within it. The first line is also a hyperlink to that
specific web page meaning if you click on it, you will be transferred to
that specific internet web page. (This means your PC will stop talking to
the search engine's PC and begin talking to the PC which contains the web
page where ever in the world it is located.) The search engine then lists a small
portion of the sentence which contains the keyword on the matching web site. And
finally the last line is the actual internet address of the web site. Pay
careful attention to this line as it indicates where the web site is located
and what type of PC it is i.e. company, government, organization, etc.. The
location is the important part and is indicated by a .xx after the web site
address as shown in the example below. The .xx represents the country where
the web site PC is located and can be looked up in the Internet Country Code
Table listed at the end of this page. If there is no .xx shown, then the PC
is located in the US. Places you DO NOT want
to go are .de (Germany) or .ru (Russia) or .ca (Canada). Web sites in these
countries are generally not nice places. The example below is the result of a
Google search for the keyword "Adobe crack". The first line,
www.vollsuche.de,
indicates
the title to the web page,
vollsuche,
and the location .de
which is Germany. The
next two lines are two partial sentences from the web page which contains
the search
keyword "Adobe" and "crack". Notice the keywords are the only
words displayed in bold.
Example:
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Adobe premiere 6.5 crack
www.vollsuche.de
Suchergebnisse: Adobe premiere 6.5 crack. [ Winace serial ] |
[ Adaptec ... Vampire
Aktionswoche: Adobe premiere 6.5 crack. Download Adobe
...
www.vollsuche.de/adobe_premiere_6.5_crack.html - Similar pages
[ More results from
www.vollsuche.de ]
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2. Next understand what a web page, such as the page you
are reading, is. A web page is
a sequence of computer codes called hyper text machine language (html). This
code is transferred over the internet using hyper text transfer protocol (http) which
is code your internet browser understands. When you
go to a web site by clicking on a link, the site’s html web file code is
transferred into your PC from the PC hosting the web page. The html file contain commands, text information,
fonts, background colors, pictures and so on which tells your internet browser
how to display the web site on your screen. Now here is where the bad guys
and advertisers have fun, html also supports what is called scripts. Scripts
can tell the browser to open up a new window, go to another web site,
download something, insert new favorites into your browser, pop-up an
advertisement and so on. Scripts can be easily be stopped by disabling the
script function in the browser however sites which utilize scripts for
constructive purposes will not be displayed correctly. In any case, you may
want to consider running with scripts disabled and enabling it when
necessary as this is far safer than leaving scripts enabled.
3. Last understand a very important trick used by many
web sites. How many times have you seen a window pop-up saying you’re a
winner or a pop-up offering something. When this happens, you are typically
faced with three choices YES, NO, or click on the upper right hand corner X to close the window. Two
of these choices might get you into trouble at a bad site. First remember when you click
on a button, the button does what the programmer says it does. This means a
programmer can display a "NO" button which executes YES code when clicked
on. So you
can click on YES if you want to see what it is and risk installing something like spyware or you can click
on NO and risk that no means no and not yes or you can click on the little "X"
in the top right hand corner of the window which terminates the pop-up
window. Clicking the "X" is always the safest thing to do. However, another trick with pop-up windows is they may not really be
a true pop-up window
which can be terminated. Instead the pop-up is embedded within the web page as a graphic which
looks EXACTLY like a pop-up window. This means the "X" is now a web button
and NOT a windows terminate! This can be detected when the mouse pointer
is moved over the little "X", it won’t be an arrow but a little hand with a
finger which tells you it’s NOT a real pop-up!! DO NOT click on the "X"
in this case. Use you browser arrows and just go somewhere else on the internet, this is not a web site you
want to be at anyway if they do this sort of thing.
Common Internet Address Extensions
xxxx.COM Commercial Company
xxxx.EDU Education
xxxx.GOV Government
xxxx.INT International
xxxx.MIL Military (U.S.)
xxxx.NET Network
xxxx.ORG Non-Profit Making Organisation, usually a
charitable organisation or club
Internet Country Code Table
AD Andorra
AE United Arab
Emirates
AF Afghanistan
AG Antigua and
Barbuda
AI Anguilla
AL Albania
AM Armenia
AN Netherlands
Antilles
AO Angola
AQ Antarctica
AR Argentina
AS American
Samoa
AT Austria
AU Australia
AW Aruba
AZ Azerbaijan
BA Bosnia
BB Barbados
BD Bangladesh
BE Belgium
BF Burkina Faso
BG Bulgaria
BH Bahrain
BI Burundi
BJ Benin
BM Bermuda
BN Brunei
Darussalam
BO Bolivia
BR Brazil
BS Bahamas
BT Bhutan
BV Bouvet Island
BW Botswana
BY Belarus
BZ Belize
CA Canada
CC Cocos
(Keeling) Islands
CF Central
African Republic
CG Congo
CH Switzerland
CI Cote D'Ivoire
CK Cook Islands
CL Chile
CM Cameroon
CN China
CO Colombia
CR Costa Rica
CS
Czechoslovakia
CU Cuba
CV Cape Verde
CX Christmas
Island
CY Cyprus
CZ Czech
Republic
DE Germany
DJ Djibouti
DK Denmark
DM Dominica
DO Dominican
Republic
DZ Algeria
EC Ecuador
EE Estonia
EG Egypt
EH Western
Sahara
ER Eritrea
ES Spain
ET Ethiopia
FI Finland
FJ Fiji
FK Falkland
Islands
FM Micronesia
FO Faroe Islands
FR France
FX France,
Metropolitan
GA Gabon
GB Great Britain
(UK)
GD Grenada
GE Georgia
GF French Guiana
GH Ghana
GI Gibraltar
GL Greenland
GM Gambia
GN Guinea
GP Guadeloupe
GQ Equatorial
Guinea
GR Greece
GS S. Georgia
Isls.
GT Guatemala
GU Guam
GW Guinea-Bissau
GY Guyana
HK Hong Kong
HN Honduras
HR Croatia
(Hrvatska)
HT Haiti
HU Hungary
ID Indonesia
IE Ireland
IL Israel
IN India
IO British
Indian Ocean
IQ Iraq
IR Iran
IS Iceland
IT Italy
JM Jamaica
JO Jordan
JP Japan
KE Kenya
KG Kyrgyzstan
KH Cambodia
KI Kiribati
KM Comoros
KN Saint Kitts
and Nevis
KP Korea (North)
KR Korea (South)
KW Kuwait
KY Cayman
Islands
KZ Kazakhstan
LA Laos
LB Lebanon
LC Saint Lucia
LI Liechtenstein
LR Liberia
LS Lesotho
LT Lithuania
LU Luxembourg
LV Latvia
LY Libya
MA Morocco
MC Monaco
MD Moldova
MG Madagascar
MH Marshall
Islands
MK Macedonia
ML Mali
MM Myanmar
MN Mongolia
MO Macau
MP Mariana
Islands
MQ Martinique
MR Mauritania
MS Montserrat
MT Malta
MU Mauritius
MV Maldives
MW Malawi
MX Mexico
MY Malaysia
MZ Mozambique
NA Namibia
NC New Caledonia
NE Niger
NF Norfolk
Island
NG Nigeria
NI Nicaragua
NL Netherlands
NO Norway
NP Nepal
NR Nauru
NT Neutral Zone
NZ New Zealand
OM Oman
PA Panama
PE Peru
PF French
Polynesia
PG Papua New
Guinea
PH Philippines
PK Pakistan
PL Poland
PM St. Pierre
and Miquelon
PN Pitcairn
PR Puerto Rico
PT Portugal
PW Palau
PY Paraguay
QA Qatar
RE Reunion
RO Romania
RU Russian
Federation
RW Rwanda
SA Saudi Arabia
Sb Solomon
Islands
SD Sudan
SE Sweden
SG Singapore
SH St. Helena
SI Slovenia
SJ Svalbard
Islands
SK Slovak
Republic
SL Sierra Leone
SM San Marino
SN Senegal
SO Somalia
SR Suriname
ST Sao Tome and
Principe
SU USSR (former)
SV El Salvador
SY Syria
SZ Swaziland
TC Turks and
Caicos Islnds
TD Chad
TF French South
TG Togo
TH Thailand
TJ Tajikistan
TK Tokelau
TM Turkmenistan
TN Tunisia
TO Tonga
TR Turkey
TT Trinidad and
Tobago
TW Taiwan
TZ Tanzania
UA Ukraine
UG Uganda
UK United
Kingdom
UM US Minor
Outlying Isles
US United States
UY Uruguay
UZ Uzbekistan
VA Vatican City
State
VC Saint Vincent
VE Venezuela
VG Virgin
Islands (British)
VI Virgin
Islands (U.S.)
VN Viet Nam
VU Vanuatu
WS Samoa
YE Yemen
YU Yugoslavia
ZA South Africa
ZM Zambia
ZW Zimbabwe
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