Under Attack

If you are on the Internet, your computer is under attack, constantly.

By viruses, adware, spyware.

All of these pests are computer code designed to seek vulnerable machines and imbed themselves in their victims.

Once there, the possibilities are endless, from harmless pranks to destructive mayhem.

Viruses replicate and spread from computer to computer.

The code is downloaded onto your computer, does its thing and then infects others.

Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don’t know or one you are not expecting.

Most often viruses come through downloading attachments to e-mails, although they can enter your computer through illegal music sharing programs such as BearShare.

BearShare creates a giant network. The software allows you to search the hard drive of anyone connected to the BearShare network and download a requested song.

The flipside is that thousands of users can also search your hard drive.

You can imagine the possibilities for mischief.

You might as well invite a thief into your home and sit him in front of your computer.

If you use BearShare long enough, your computer will be infested with crud. A complete restore is often the result.

Hopefully, any valuable data is backed up.

An antivirus program is an absolute must for any computer on the Internet.

Adware does not replicate like viruses. It jumps on your computer from a website, often without your even knowing that you are downloading something.

Its purpose is to pop up ads when you go to certain sites on the Internet. It tries to get you to buy products.

Suddenly pop-up windows appear out of nowhere. These bits of code reside in ram memory and as they accumulate, your computer runs slower and slower.

Sometimes an adware program can remove them. Often, to get your computer to run like it should, a restore is in order.

Hope you are backed up.

A good adware program such as AdAware or Microsoft Antispyware is a must.

Spyware is another way of attack. Code gets in your computer and tracks where you are going in order to learn your habits.

The code can allow a hacker to enter your computer through a backdoor.

Even though this sounds bad, rarely, it seems does a hacker actually take over your computer.

Microsoft AntiSpyware is one of the best programs for combating this disease.

There are other precautions to take.

Be very leery of e-mail attachments or of any download. Remember, downloads go directly on your hard drive.

Do not allow any music sharing software on your computer.

This does not include legitimate sites that sell music by the song.

Keep your protective software up to date. If you do not update to the latest definitions, the newest pests could find their way to your computer.

Hundreds are created each day.

Why would intelligent techs attack anonymous users, spreading havoc throughout the Web?

The challenge, anger at society, to get back at their boss or co-worker, peer pressure.

There are actually groups of hackers and even websites which spread information amongst each other on how to create viruses.

It’s fun.

However, as bad as it sounds, with protective programs and common sense, you can still surf the net safely.

Just be cautious and suspicious.

Backup any valuable data and your computer tech can get you back up and running if something bad happens.