Keep your computer safe from the internet
A reminder from our newsletter article. It is difficult to imagine cyber-vandals and thieves climbing into your computer via your internet connection, but this can really happen, electronically at least. Fortunately it is easy and cheap to stop the hooligans with a few simple steps, the details of which can now be found on our website. You can even safely use your bank online!
First, have a look in a mirror where you may find the biggest computer threat of all! Clicking spam attachments, using illegal software and visiting gambling or porn websites are a fine way to infect your computer! Reducing Windows security settings to make the computer a bit easier to use is also a good way to help criminals! The man or woman in the mirror should be making regular backups so that if anything goes wrong all those precious photos and email addresses are not lost forever.
From time to time you will see media articles saying that some programme, browser or even your antivirus programme has been hacked and is unsafe. Do not panic! If you have made your computer secure when something goes wrong you will have defence in depth, and you should not succumb to one or two things going wrong. No computer can be perfectly secure, but if you follow the advice on our website you would have to be very unlucky to fall victim to computer criminals.
Some strange words.
Malware.The term which covers all the internet nasties including: viruses, worms, spyware, Trojans, rootkits and other strange words you will come across.
Phishing.How criminals get you to give them a helping hand so they can rob you. They may send you an e-mail or phone you. Read about it here. www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/symptoms.aspx
Spoofing. Using a legitimate e-mail address for spamming. You might get spam from what appears to be your friend, but the spammers have stolen your friends e-mail address.
Keep up to date.
Just as an old run down house may not be as secure as one which has been modernised, computers need to be kept up to date, which means using recent software. Anything older than Windows XP, for instance Windows ME or 98 really is old hat now and has no place on an internet. No security patches have been issued for theses systems since July 2006. Recent secure versions of Internet Explorer or wireless safety protection will not run on these old programmes, neither will many good antivirus programmes. If your computer is this old it might be being used by criminals to send out spam or raid your friend’s bank accounts!
Continued on Page Two
A reminder from our newsletter article. It is difficult to imagine cyber-vandals and thieves climbing into your computer via your internet connection, but this can really happen, electronically at least. Fortunately it is easy and cheap to stop the hooligans with a few simple steps, the details of which can now be found on our website. You can even safely use your bank online!
First, have a look in a mirror where you may find the biggest computer threat of all! Clicking spam attachments, using illegal software and visiting gambling or porn websites are a fine way to infect your computer! Reducing Windows security settings to make the computer a bit easier to use is also a good way to help criminals! The man or woman in the mirror should be making regular backups so that if anything goes wrong all those precious photos and email addresses are not lost forever.
From time to time you will see media articles saying that some programme, browser or even your antivirus programme has been hacked and is unsafe. Do not panic! If you have made your computer secure when something goes wrong you will have defence in depth, and you should not succumb to one or two things going wrong. No computer can be perfectly secure, but if you follow the advice on our website you would have to be very unlucky to fall victim to computer criminals.
Some strange words.
Malware.The term which covers all the internet nasties including: viruses, worms, spyware, Trojans, rootkits and other strange words you will come across.
Phishing.How criminals get you to give them a helping hand so they can rob you. They may send you an e-mail or phone you. Read about it here. www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/symptoms.aspx
Spoofing. Using a legitimate e-mail address for spamming. You might get spam from what appears to be your friend, but the spammers have stolen your friends e-mail address.
Keep up to date.
Just as an old run down house may not be as secure as one which has been modernised, computers need to be kept up to date, which means using recent software. Anything older than Windows XP, for instance Windows ME or 98 really is old hat now and has no place on an internet. No security patches have been issued for theses systems since July 2006. Recent secure versions of Internet Explorer or wireless safety protection will not run on these old programmes, neither will many good antivirus programmes. If your computer is this old it might be being used by criminals to send out spam or raid your friend’s bank accounts!
Continued on Page Two
