For all of you owners of a new computer - whether you were lucky enough to receive one as a gift under the tree or you sprang for a shiny new PC to start off the New Year - a top priority is to keep that fresh machine running efficiently, safely, and securely. How do you do that? Here are five basics to start with -
It's the time of year for sweeping summaries of the past 12 months and predictions aplenty for the next ones to come. While we may see a few too many of these analyses and list-making as we come to the close of another year, they can provide us with an interesting look at the months gone by, which in turn can open up some insight into the coming year.
Have you made any recent purchases to be delivered by the postal service? With the holiday season upon us, chances are good that you have. If so, there's a common spam scam that may try to catch you off guard in order to infect your system with malware. Here's an example of a subject line and e-mail message to be on the lookout for this holiday shopping season, and beyond -
Subject: [NO-REPLY] UPS Tracking Number 21263130
Since it's Cyber Monday, the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season, we'd like to take a few minutes to give all of you online shoppers some important security news you should know as you scour the Web for the best deals today.
...they snatch their "presents" from gullible computer users!
As the holidays are quickly approaching, many people around the world plan to do some serious shopping for Christmas presents. Unfortunately, this time of year also means a peak in cyber crime activity. In shopping malls - and other crowded places - thieves are lurking around, waiting to get their hands on people's well deserved earnings. One mistake, one lost moment, and your wallet may be gone forever.
These days, most of us are familiar with the term "phishing." But that doesn't mean it's always easy to tell when a scam lands in your inbox.
Research shows that, while the methods used have not drastically changed, phishing scams are growing increasingly sophisticated.
Rogue software on the web is rising at record rates. Judging from the "Ballot Box" poll on our homepage, where a clear majority of respondents admit being the victim of rogue security and anti-malware software, it's growing increasingly difficult for consumers to tell the difference between legitimate and rogue software.
On that note, here are 6 simple tactics we've compiled to help keep you from falling for fakes:
A word of caution as you look to update your PC with the latest security patches from Microsoft - attackers are taking advantage of Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday to try to con users into downloading bogus patches and infect them with malware.
To followup on my last post on cyber security awareness - the results of two recently released surveys show us that not only are security concerns a cause of worry for the majority of Internet users, many are not as secure as they might think.
The Internet has a dark side that can put each of us in harms way - browse the news, and you'll see headline after headline about record numbers of viruses, along with the latest phishing attempts, malware attacks, and other cyber thievery. Seeing how rapidly cyber crime is progressing can become pretty depressing, not to mention discouraging, for all of us who depend on the Internet as a daily part of our lives.
The Internet has become a major scene for sharing all sorts of media files. These files may have been compressed using different codecs, some free and some commercial. What is a codec? A codec, in this case, is used to decode compressed data streams in order to make them viewable and audible in a proper player. Watching an AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) video and audio file with compressed data, or other compressed movie formats, may require a proper codec. The amount of codecs out there amounts to a level that makes it hard for common users to find and install the correct one required to play an eagerly awaited sequence of images. The situation gets even more complicated considering that unscrupulous individuals want to transform the common codec-eagerness into cash in, one way or another, by offering fake codecs. Read more below about false codec lures, codecs in general and possible ways to avoid getting scammed-
A word of caution as you browse the Web: even reputable sites are not immune to being compromised in order to be used as a means to infect visitors with malicious content.
This past week, the news magazine, BusinessWeek, became the latest trusted site to fall victim to SQL injection attacks, according to reports.
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