Psychological Way of Contagion – Computer Virus

September 12, 2009 · Filed Under Security · Comment 

I guess you have been in a situation where you are convinced to buy certain goods but regretted later when you’ve got home. I have. I usually categorize that kind of marketing as high pressure psychological selling, because the salesman usually applies high level of psychological pressure on the prospect to finally succeed in selling the goods. Trojans and worms are more and more into these practices of iplementing psychological pressure in order to compromise a victim. Such techniques implements but not limited to the exploitation of human basic psychologies: Curiosity, Greed, and Fear. How can we tell when a virus or a malware is psychologically pressing us and attempts to get into our system? These are things to beare of to help us tell just prior to their attempts to compromise our system: 1. Is it forcing us to run or download something, for fear of something such as getting our computer infected by a trojan, computer virus or worm? If it is while it’s not at all the active running antivirus software we have installed, we can say that it is definitely a virus, malware, or even a worm. 2. Is it offering some software solution that looks like it’s too good to be true and free at the same time? At times, it can be just a marketing hype, but it’s a best practice to beware about the urge to download or agreeing on something it is offering. Downloading a program or just opening a page containing java script or flash application would be enough to get our computer compromised by a computer virus, malware, or trojan. 3. Are we aware of the brands (if any)? Is it a rather famous antivirus brand, or just some very popular one, but not an antivirus? At times the viruses take advantage of well known brand names only to trick uncautious people. Do you remember the “XP Antivirus 2008″ virus disguising Antivirus Software Downloads? Its high success rate really was boosted by the “XP” brand, riding on Windows XP’s brand. Lately, a brand new release of the virus is already spreading, one that we know as “XP Antivirus 2009″. 4. Always best to double-check weather the URL or domain name we type is right to make sure it is safe. This must be done if you want to avoid deliberately entering into a phishing site, which is way worse than simply contracting virus. A rogue site is an latest psychological scam in that it tricked visitors into thinking that it’s the right site they’re searching to visit. Everything they have on the page would in turn then be taken for granted by unsuspecting visitors. 5. If you are uncertain of those that I have mentioned, talk to a friend that knows more about this matter. There should be at the very least something certain about it, like a popular brand name of antivirus or computer security software solution, the exact URL or at least domain name of the target site, what should be classified into being too good to be true and what not. The success rate this way of contagion has is surprisingly high, assuming the wide availability of legitimate computer security software and antivirus or Internet Security Software available in the market. This is why I always urge everyone that asked for my opinion on computer security to continuously learn about it, even for just a small bit of knowledge. Because with knowledge only although a tiny bit, that we can really sustain our safety against malware.

Why Using An Adware and Spyware Unilnstaller is Necessary

January 16, 2009 · Filed Under Computer Software · Comment 
by Ed Lathrop

In the last few years, spyware has become very sophisticated. The sick people who write this software, do so to steal information about you. They are out to get your social security number, passwords, banking information and more! Viruses are another concern and although they don’t spy on you they can get so deeply into your hard drive, only a reformat will make it usable again!

In the most basic sense, virus cleaners and spyware cleaners are the same thing. So, if you have a good virus scanner or a good spyware cleaner installed on your computer, you don’t need to install the other kind of program to protect your computer against spyware and viruses. The fact of the matter is a virus protection program and a spyware protection program together on the same PC, don’t work out too well as this arrangement will slow down routine operations.

This article points out which viruses and spyware it is mandatory your spyware or virus cleaner is able to clean off your hard drive. Also, we’ll discuss what this awful stuff is capable of doing to a computer and even your financial well-being.

Spyware and Adware

Spyware and adware are similar in the fact they fact the are able to watch what you are doing on your own computer. Adware is more interested in getting information on you as a customer, so that the people who are using it will know how and what to sell to you. Spyware, in many cases, truly spies on you and can find out a lot of very sensitive information such as your social security number.

The word “malware”is a contraction of the words malicious and software. Some malware are viruses and others are types of spyware that are malicious. Some examples of malware are: trojans, keyloggers, browser hijackers, worms, phishing software, rootkits, and bots. You should be sure your spyware or virus remover is capable of getting rid of all of these.

Rootkits, worms and trojans are types of viruses. Keyloggers, browser hijackers, phishing ware and bots are types of spyware. It is spyware that is most times is interested in stealing your personal information.

Sometimes a virus and spyware will team up on a computer or worse, the computer owner. For instance, a worm will be attached to a rootkit. The rootkit is capable of working its way into your computer’s operating system and then the worm will unleash its terror on your computer.

A Final Word About Removing Spyware

So, now we know we don’t need both spyware removers and antivirus programs installed on our computers. This leads us to believe we need a total one program to keep our computers running in tip top shape, but really there is one more piece of software we should have. When we remove spyware and/or viruses from our computers, we leave registry corruption in its wake. There are many other sources that create registry corruption, but this is one.

This means every computer should have a registry cleaner installed on it because when left alone, registry corruption will make your computer act a lot like some viruses and spyware make a computer act. This means the computer will lose speed and may crash frequently. A good registry scanner should be run once a month or so and after any malware has been removed.

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