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A Peek Into the Near Future of Electronics Technology
How long do you think DVDs have around? 20 years? 10 years? Actually, they have only been around for about eight years, but it seems like they have been around much longer. Many of us can hardly remember life before DVDs. That can be attributed...
Gone Phishing
Gone Phishing…
Phishing, the practice of luring unsuspecting victims to disclose sensitive information online, usually through harmless appearing e-mails, has quickly become the fastest-growing security threat to Internet users. The following tips...
Top Model Ashton Gray Launches Live Video Chat Site
Montreal (PRWEB) May 26, 2004 -– A busy 12 months for Canuck model Ashton Gray culminated recently with her new venture: www.ashtongrayslivemodels.com, a web site featuring Gray and other models in a live video chat environment. In the year before...
VOIP: A Basic, Basic Intro
What is it?
Most people are familiar w/ NetMeeting and other software that let you talk to others over the internet. VOIP is similar. However, it also uses your phone - the interface we're all familiar with.
Instead of connecting your phone...
What Is VOIP and Why Does It Matter?
One of the latest services available online is called Voice Over IP, or VoIP. Its also sometimes called internet telephony or broadband phone service.
VoIP lets users make phone calls using the Internet instead of the regular telephone...
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Protecting Yourself Against Spyware
Spyware is a category of malicious software that secretly obtains information about a computer user's and sends it to a third party without the user's consent. For example, a piece of spyware running on an infected computer can obtain the user's bank account number when online banking, user's username and password when online trading or the user's credit card number when shopping online.
No computer user is 100% safe from spyware, however it is primarily a concern for users of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The safest bet to avoid being a victim of spyware is to use an alternative operating system like Linux or Mac OS X, however if you are unable or unwilling to leave Windows, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself.
Ditch Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer contains a technology called ActiveX that allows malicious web sites to install software on the browser's computer without the user's consent, this ability has been a boon for spyware writers and distributors. Alternative browsers include Firefox and Opera.
Ditch Outlook Express
Outlook express contains several security vulnerabilities spyware distributors use to infect computers. Instead of Outlook express you
can use an online email system like GMail or Yahoo mail, or install an alternate email client like Thunderbird.
Install Anti-Spyware Software
There are some tools that will scan your computer and detect and remove spyware. Some of the most popular ones include Spybot-Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware.
Install a Firewall
Hardware firewalls can be obtained for a reasonable price these days, most routers (both wired and wireless) provide firewalls in addition to their primary purpose of allowing multiple computers to share broadband internet connection. Software firewalls can be installed on Windows computers as well.
Conclusion
While nobody is completely safe from spyware, by taking these simple measures the risk of getting infected are greatly reduced.
About The Author
David Heffelfinger is a software engineer with over 10 years of experience developing enterprise software applications. He is editor in chief of Ensode.net, a technology web site providing information about Java, Linux and other technology topics. He can be contacted via email at dheffelfinger@ensode.net.
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