The need for strong passwords
With Internet fraud on the increase it is becoming increasingly important to protect yourself and your personal details. One slip up can cost you dearly. One thing you should do for a start is to protect your passwords.
Speak to anyone involved in the Internet security industry and they will tell you it is very important to have different passwords for every major account you log into. Obvious, right? Well yes, it is, and lots of online companies help you out by forcing you to have a complicated password, or even generating one for you. That’s good, right?
Well no, not really. Consider it it this way. You have an email account which you access every day, often from multiple locations. It stands to reason that you log into your email account more than all your other accounts. The more you use it the more vulnerable it is.
You may think that last statement is not accurate, that your password is strong and nobody can know it. You might be right, but the first time you need to use a public computer to access your email, can you be sure there isn’t a keylogger on the computer you are using? Can you be sure their systems are secure so there isn’t someone sniffing your password?
This all sounds a little far fetched, and indeed it is rare, but it does happen. Every day there are many people whose email accounts get compromised. It is by far the most targetted type of user account.
Email accounts are usually targetted primarily so they can be used for sending spam. The second reason they are hacked is because they contain user accounts and password information.
However, this is often not your fault. You sign up for a service, enter your secure password and wait for your confirmation email. You check your email and there is your username and password as a “helpful reminder” in plain text!
If a hacker manages to hack your email account they now have access to your email, as well as the other account you have signed up for. If you happen to use the same password for other accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Bank!) then they may try to gain access to those too.
This is a big problem, and as individuals we can try to stem it by deleting these emails (from the trash too!), but the real issue is companies sending them out in the first place.
As a final word of advice, try to keep to these following rules:
- Keep your email password as secure as possible (letters + numbers etc)
- Use different passwords for all accounts (not even similar)
- Change your main email password every now and then
- Delete emails with passwords in them (and empty the trash)
- Never trust a public computer. If you must use one, change your password asap
- Never use any common passwords
Apply These 5 Points and Enjoy Secure Computing
Do you find that you keep on getting compromised by virus, worms, or trojans although you have the best security tools installed? The following details is comprehensive and practical to the application to secure your system.
You can defend both the system and your computer from almost all threats to your privacy and security, if you have a similar policy or just implement these points.
1. Each and every patches to Windows security for your Windows OS must be updated. All you need is a working internet connection and you will have an always updated Windows OS without any cost.
2. Have the best antivirus software installed. Consult software review for the best antivirus ranking to date. Nowadays, antivirus software solutions are sold at very affordable price; some with limited capablities are even free. Provide internet connection to let the antivirus update itself anytime, and let it run automatically when the computer starts. This can be done automatically by default with most programs.
3. Have a firewall installed and configure it well. A software or hardware based firewall is ok, as long as it is working and set properly. A router, in case you are using it, usually have a firewall already built in it, so that you just need to set the rules to make it work properly and effectively. Software version of firewalls are widely available, even the free ones!
4. Don’t install or run any program, but test them in different system or computer first to be safe. A virtual machine or a virtual computer can do this tricky job with no cost at all and act as a free virus protection.
5. Backup your files regularly, just in case. A best plan includes a way out of the worst. The cost may just be a few DVD’s. If you have a big harddisk to store a backup, there will be no cost at all!
It’s clear that it cost very low and even free if you want to protect yourself from threats.
Get Crucial Patches Using an Online Scan
Computer Security Tutorial - Patch Windows using Panda Security Online Scan
This issue comes up as a new trend in online scan service provided by antivirus software and computer security solution vendors are trending. Should we really take advantage of this service? This question triggers many other questions along, such as:
- Do we need to make use of a free virus scan? At times you need to be sure that your system id free of malware whatsoever, or if a rogue antivirus that can fool you is actually hiding just behind the currently running antivirus. We can take advantage of the always-up-to-date state of an online free virus scan database, in case it can detect an otherwise undetectable virus, due to its state of update and possible different algorithm used.
- Is an online free virus scan really effective? Although this depends on the state of update of the database being used, chances are that an online scan tends to use the latest virus definition database. Chances are that it always uses the latest technologies in the engine. Regardless of that, not knowing the previous condition that the system is in can lead to uselessness of the scan, if for instance the system is already compromised by a virus.
What is it like? The usual procedure that an online free virus scan follows is: (1) download; (2) install; (3) update; (4) scan. The procedure sequence resembles a typical program installation steps of any regular free antivirus software. But it actually differs in that what it installs is only the scanner portion and not the whole antivirus program. After the scan is complete, should any infections be detected, some online scan service will try to disinfect right away, while some will only notify us about this findings and suggest on running a more comprehensive antivirus scan instead, to completely remove any existence of malware.
- On what occasion will we need to use an online virus scan? Right when it is time that we should take the risk of being compromised or let our system be infected by trojan, worm, or a virus. If the running security system remains inert, chances are some other scan software can still point out what has been missed.
- What’s in a free virus scan that’s not there in our regular antivirus software? That is the varying services of each vendors; the capability of scanning on the fly; and also the vast availability. Put that aside, I don’t think there is any.
- How effective is it? If we are to use this service as a preventive measure, the ineffectiveness is obvious. This is really a best choice for systems without any antivirus installed. For some reason, I fall into this category of PC users. Every now and then we should run a scan to check if any virus has contracted any files.
In the end, what should we decide?
The judgement is completely up to you to decide. To me, for the readiness upon request and minimum installation requirements, an Online Free Virus Scan is rather effective, being a virtual system user as I am. Nevertheless, should I survive the computing world without virtual computer, I wold rather go with an antivirus. (I currently insist on using a clean system, without any antivirus software installed. It’s LIGHT 
, and preserves the world)