Nicholas Tan asked:


Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse. For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI’s top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy. The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills. A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons. It’s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a company’s network. They will request a paid amount to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn’t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don’t replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer. Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:

Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.

You have less available memory then you expected

Music or sounds plays randomly.

Files get corrupted

Programs are files don’t work properly

Unknown files or programs randomly appear

System properties fluctuate

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that’s why it’s important to not leave media files in your computer when you shut it down. Fourth is when it connects an unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and new one comes out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs. Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason, such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.



ROY

>.< asked:


Recently I have noticed a man going outside near my house to use his laptop. I think he’s connecting with a local internet connection whenever I’m using the internet on my computer, how can I prevent other laptops or computers from accessing my internet?

RENE

Nicholas Tan asked:


Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse.  For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. 

A computer security risk is any action that could cause lost of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware,   a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cypercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI’s top priorities.  There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are refereed as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy.  The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully.  They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network. The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. 

They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills.  A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons.  It’s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning. The term cyperextortionist is someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a company’s network. They will request a paid amount to not proceed sort of like black mailing in a since. An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge. A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information.

Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice. Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days. When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities.

The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks.  Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation.  A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs o attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn’t need to do that I seems copies to itself and to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth. A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake.  A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms they don’t replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classifies as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harms a computer. 

Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if one or more of these acts happen:

- Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.

- You have less available memory then you expected

- Music or sounds plays randomly.

- Files get corrupted

- Programs are files don’t work properly

- Unknown files or programs randomly appear

- System properties fluctuate

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through four common ways. One, when an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files. Second, is when an individual runs an infected program. Third, is when an individual bots a computer with an infected drive, so that’s why it’s important to not leave media files in your computer when you shut it down.  Fourth is when it connects an unprotected computer to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment. There are literally thousands of computer malicious logic programs and new one comes out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this.

There is no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs.  Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in he drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a bot sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given various on the bot sector can infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer for a particular reason, such as the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.



MARCUS

gerMania asked:


I run a small business and had 2 computers in my office. I used one computer to do all the office work like keeping record & data, letters etc and the other which is connected to internet for email, research, etc. Both computers are sharing same printer. If the computer that connected to internet get attacked by a virus, does my other computer will be attacked too?

LOWELL

jwsiriusjw asked:


My trendcillin program scans the computer routinely for viruses and spyware. This list keeps popping up saying that there are several computers showing up linked to my computer. Does this affect anything and how do I stop it? When I go to do not trust it doesnt remove them from the list saying they are connected!

LESTER

Parabola asked:


And maybe some help on how to control and remove them from my PC
Just got this computer last month

CURTIS

Li asked:


If you had to recommend your top tips to keeping your computer safe and running smoothly, what would they be?

CRAIG

Joanne asked:


I have a Macintosh version 10.2.8 My question is this — how do I set up my computer where others in my household cannot load new software on the computer without entering a password?

GIL

Gfi Software asked:


As with any other year, in 2008 network and systems administrators will have to face challenges which will tax their ability to adequately protect corporate networks. Experience shows that maintaining and improving on security is never easy; hackers, malware creators, spammers, malicious insiders and other, mostly unpredictable, elements all add up to the factors which tend to give these network security professionals many a sleepless night.

Various 2008 threat predictions have already hit headlines. Some mention VOIP and virtualization , others mention malware evolution and Facebook widgets that will be used to distribute malware; However, facts and figures indicate that the challenges faced in 2008 will not stem from technology itself; for in its nature technology is a neutral element that can either be used in a good or in a bad way. The biggest threat for 2008 is the same threat to businesses that has been around for the last 200,000 years – the Human Being himself!. Human beings, their weaknesses, fallacies and inquisition can all be exploited to wreck havoc within organizations.

Human Overconfidence

History shows that we tend to rely too much on the claims which operating system vendors and business software vendors make. New systems sell themselves as being more secure and more fail-safe than their predecessors. While this is undoubtedly true, one must remember that at every release of each operating system and business software throughout the years vendors have all made the same claim, over and over again, year after year. This has never. However. deterred hackers and other malicious individuals from researching and executing attacks against newer systems.

A case in point is Microsoft Windows Vista, which by end 2007, will hit the 10% market share, with a projected 30% adoption rate expected by end 2008. Microsoft Windows Vista does not only equate to a new operating system, it also equates to a new user expierience. While this system is much more secure than its predecessors, its users are still the same as before, and therefore they are the path of least resistance to the average network environment exploit. Through social engineering, security features such as the new user access control can be easily circumvented, duping users in installing software which is insecure or tainted with malware.

Humans’ misplaced trust

Trust should be earned and not automatically afforded. Dangers to business do not only lie outside of the business perimeters; recent history shows that insider attacks to businesses cost as much, if not more, than attacks originating from the outside. Insiders have their own advantages for they have an intimate knowledge of your network and its inner workings. In 2008, an ever increasing proliferation of portable storage and communication devices (iPods, USB drives, USB WiFi cars, etc) will highly facilitate data theft, logic bombs and other forms of sabotage that can throw your business back to the Stone Age. Yet again, while it might be easy to put the blame on such devices it’s not these devices that are at fault; once again, technology is a neutral entity. The main fault here is the use made of such devices – banning them will simply not work because you simply cannot rely on voluntary compliance, supervision is too laborious, the devices can be easily concealed and you’ll just create dissent.

Human lack of knowledge

When it comes to network security, ignorance in neither bliss nor excuse. In 2008, a lack of basic security principles and a lack of knowledge in the trends that malware, spyware, spam and other malware are taking will greatly contribute to the downfall of network security. This most often is due to lack of time or resources to research security principles and trends; an issue that translates into a firefighting approach to network security: reacting to incidents after being hit.

This is, once again, a human issue. Malware does not evolve on its own, in a vacuum. The reason why malware evolves is greed – Hackers and other malicious individuals today create targeted attacks not to create havoc but for financial gain. Targeted exploits that attempt to address the inquisitive human nature to make them click on a tainted link will become more and more commonplace. This makes them much more dangerous than ever before, making the issue of lack of knowledge even more critical. Limiting human inquisitiveness through a blanket ban on access to resources will also backfire since it will create both dissent and boredom, all of which hamper productivity.

Human gullibility

Being gullible does not only make you the **** of jokes but also exposes you to myriad network security threats. In 2008, targeted email spam will continue in its evolution with newer and novel attempts to breach network defenses using social engineering. These will extend beyond email and attempt to, for example, compromise VOIP infrastructures through denial of service attacks, SIP vulnerabilities and Spit (Spam Over Internet Technology) attacks. In 2008, an increase in the number of attacks targeted at specific individuals or businesses is also expected, and it is highly plausible that the perpetrators of such attacks will use social engineering to gain access to confidential information that enables them to gain access to your systems.

As with malware, social engineering attempts at exploiting human gullibility evolve for financial gain. No one will be calling anyone up asking for passwords; more subtle methods such as targeted attacks on social networking sites (myspace, facebook, etc) where users are duped in exchanging personal information for virtual goods empower hackers and other malicious individuals to gain unauthorized access to networks.

Conclusion

In 2008, network and security administrators will have to wear more hats than ever before and employ all sorts of defenses against attacks directed at the human nature – overconfidence, trust, lack of knowledge and gullibility will all be decisive factors in how successful network security will be. More than ever before it will be a question of managing the risks that humans pose to businesses; for even if the risks humans pose are the same risks as before, the motivation behind attacks in 2008 is changing and becoming much more dangerous. The best way to defend infrastructures from potential threats is for administrators to implement methods to:

• Monitor the user’s activity 24 x 7 x 365

• Control access to network resources

• Safeguard all the business information

• Backup all communications to, from and within the business

• Enact technological barriers that permit device use according to a clear and defined policy.

• Train network resource users in both network security and information disclosure policies.

In 2008, systems administrators will have to find the fine balance that suits and encourages the human inquisitive nature - without becoming the dreaded medieval Inquisitors!



CURT

my_bent_cue asked:


how can i do it so it asks for a password b4 it lets u install,i have a admin account but its the guest account to stop them installing anything
how can i do it so it asks for a password b4 it lets u install,i have a admin account but its the guest account to stop them installing anything,windows xp,users and groups isn`t their

JIM