Intercepting Viruses, Spyware and Hoaxes

You have a website. You do lots of email. Make sure you use a Virus Checker program. If you don’t, you’re just asking for trouble.

I get a moderate amount of email – maybe 200 to 300 messages a day. Every day, I get viruses in my email. And it’s not that your senders are being malicious. Not at all. Lots of viruses are written in such a way that they send email to people in your address book –- without you even being aware of it. I used to notify any sender whose email has a virus in it. (But there's just too many emails nowadays.) Nine times out of ten, they’re shocked to discover this.

I use the AVG Anti-Virus system myself. It’s well-known and solid. And free! But there are many others, too, such as:

McAfee   www.mcafee.com   (Although I've seen bad reviews...)

Anti-Virus Now   www.antivirusnow.com

Panda Security    www.pandasecurity.com   (Good reputation...)

Trend Virus Information Center  www.antivirus.com/vinfo

Microsoft's Security Pages:  www.microsoft.com/security

You'll notice I didn't mention Norton Anti-Virus.  That's because I used to use it. And it screwed up my computer too many times. I was getting system crashes, left and right.  When I uninstalled NAV, the crashes went away.

 

In addition to anti-virus program, you need anti-spyware programs. Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without the user's knowledge which gathers information about that user for later retrieval by whomever controls the spyware.

Surveillance software includes key loggers, screen capture devices, and trojans.

Advertising spyware is software that is installed alongside other software, usually without the user's knowledge, or without full disclosure that it will be used for gathering personal information and/or showing the user ads. Advertising spyware logs information about the user, possibly including passwords, email addresses, web browsing history, online buying habits, the computer's hardware and software configuration, the name, age, sex, etc of the user.

For removing spyware (which is practically guaranteed to be on your computer,) I recommend Spybot - Search and Destory at http://www.spybot.info

 

If you have had your homepage hijacked or if you've been stuck with a browser toolbar you didn't ask for, you can go to the following site to download tools for deleting these unwanted items: HIJACKTHIS:

If you’re not using an anti-virus program or anti-spyware program, stop right now. And go install one. It’s like driving a car without brakes. It may look like you’re going along just fine, but there’s a reckoning coming.

 

Hoaxes

What’s this about hoaxes? I include this here because people love to forward email to their friends warning them of the current, highly destructive virus going around. And you know what? Most of those warnings are completely bogus. People who would distribute a virus are the same type of people who love to distribute hoax messages.

Whenever you get any kind of story in your email, and you’re not sure if it’s a hoax or not, go to www.snopes.com

This is the Urban Legends Reference Page. It has a search engine (yes!) where you type in a few descriptory words from the email you’ve received, and voila! You’ll get the history of that email going around.

For example, I get emails talking about the dangers of the SULFNBK virus. When I type "SULFNBK" into the search engine at www.snopes.com, I get this:

"This email message is just a HOAX. The details of this HOAX message are not based on actual events. We are advising users who receive the email to delete the message and DO NOT pass it on as this is how an email HOAX propagates."

OK? Now you never have to wonder if an email is authentic or not. Just go see Snopes.