First for the Bad News:
There are many risks attached to connecting to the Internet. The
only way to keep one hundred percent safe is by not connecting!
But who wants to do that especially if one?s in business?
It is a fact that when you connect to the Internet you will be
wide open to attacks. In essence you open up a highway that
connects you to it and it to you. Thus anyone on the Net can
come directly to your computer.
With some trickery and exploitation of the trade,
vulnerabilities that exist in Microsoft Windows can let
outsiders access your data and cause havoc right in the privacy
of your own computer.
Such malicious things as viruses, worms and Trojan horses are
rapidly increasing and rendering millions of computers easy prey
to hackers looking for credit card information, banking
passwords and other personal identifications, or to blatant
vandals looking to delete files, trash hard drives and do any
damage they can ? just for the fun of it.
The scary thing is that many of these invaders don?t even leave
a trace. You don?t even know they?re there or they?ve come to
your station!
For your computer to be ?attacked?, intruders first need to
locate your IP address. Using some specialized software programs
? readily available on the Web -- they can scan and find and
invade your computer.
Hackers can get to your computer through a variety of ways,
including eMail, chat/messaging services, HTML-based emails with
hidden image tags, etc., etc.
But, enough of the bad news?
Now for the Good News:
You can protect yourself. And you can check out your computer
for vulnerability levels.
All you need is to spend some time getting familiar with what
the weaknesses are and how you can protect your computer against
them.
For a non-technical person like myself, what that means is of
course researching and getting information from people who do
know what they?re talking about. And that?s the hard part: to
come across someone you can trust.
That?s what I did. And I was blessed to come across a product
that tells and shows how to keep hackers, worms and other germs
out of your PC, and how to set up a high level of security
against unwanted invasions.
What I did learn in the first instance is that you can go to a
web site that will give you free tools to test your computer.
That?s the first thing you need to do. Well, to my surprise, I
found that my security system was pretty good. So that gave me
peace of mind.
And I found that the reason for this was that I had both a
router box and an anti-virus product installed. Each has certain
protective characteristics that together make your computer
safer.
And with my continuous research, I'm also finding other areas
for improvement that keep adding to my arsenal of knowledge.
So I?m off to read some more about PC security.
About the author:
Diane M. Hoffmann owns www.build-your-internet-business-now.com
which provides information and tools on starting and operating
an Internet Business, and which offers the product referred to
in this article on How to Protect Your Computer, Boost its
Speed, Multiply its Performance and Get Rid of Annoyances That
Plague Your PC Sessions. To read about this important book, just
browse to http://www.KeyOffer.com?alpha=2D7AC .
|
