Posts Tagged ‘internet security’

Going from listening to writing to film to the Internet, Beware!

The most important and definitive part of being a human is by far our strong powers of communication. We can speak so deeply and with such feeling that we are unrivaled by any other species. One might contend that dogs, cats, and other household pets can speak and talk to one another, certainly not to the depth that man can. On top of this, our dominance over any other species’ capacity to communicate comes in our multitudes of ways to express. We can simply share a look and understand a request, we can gesture with our hands, we can look with the eyes, or simply state with heartfelt words. Technology fits two forms extremely well: audio and visual. As it happens, these two types are the true product of the human condition. With these two options and a strong technological backing, we can spread our messages all without even physically being there.

Audio communication is imperative in humans. This is what keeps the world turning. The president speaks to us through eloquent speeches, and the employer tells us our daily duties. Without the spoken word, all of our carefully constructed infrastructure would disappear. While the voice is primarily used for commanding purposes, it can also be used for a simple communication. Think about all of the songs out there: the instrumentals set the mood of the piece, but the word choice shows the true meaning and message of the song. Bands used to have to be present to sing someone a song, but with the power of the Internet, no longer. Musicians now simply record their music to a computer’s hard drive, and from there can share it with the world. Bands whom people have never even seen before can be singing and playing to them through their computer’s speakers.

While the voice and spoken word are important, the epitome of man’s existence is based upon the eyes. Our pre-historic ancestors gave us this awesome power of visual tool as a survival tool. Seeing as our society generally has to no longer watch out for careening carnivores or identify predators, sight has become much more enjoyable. The survival instinct is still there though. When you see someone with a weapon, you instantly feel the inborn fight or flight reflex. Mostly though, our sense of sight has been for pleasure. Technology has allowed it to be even better too: instead of reading a paperback book anymore, you can simply gaze at a computer monitor. Instead of having to make the long trek out to a relative’s home to see them, you can now just visit their FaceBook or MySpace page. From here you can type the messages and have their replies sent right back conveniently to your page.

Both of these types of communication are important to human interaction with others, whether on the Internet or in real life. Again, technology expedites these messages by allowing them to be sent to a massive amount of people at once, and without physical contact. It all sounds good and dandy, but as with all good things, it is too good to be true. Some people have corrupted the Internet, and these self-termed “hackers” go about breaking into people’s computers. Once inside they can steal, destroy, or alter documents. This can put you in a bad position. If they altered a document in a bad way and called it yours, you could be blamed for their actions. These annoying criminals are the bringers and doers of identity theft, and the ones you see State Farm trying to protect you from.

Not getting caught, that is why hackers are lured to their criminal deeds. They have an advantage over the average criminal, and scarily enough, they truly leave nothing behind. It is almost impossible to catch a hacker whether it is in the act or after the fact. Once they are in your computer, they can do pretty much anything. They can take files and use them to their advantage, or simply implant a virus. Suddenly enough, and with little knowledge, you could find yourself a victim of identity theft. Don’t fall victim to a common misconception: your virus protector is not enough to protect yourself. Be careful online; it can be a great tool, but dangerous as well.

This is why people use an IP changer program to change their IP address. By altering their IP address, it makes it harder for hackers to locate you. This does not solve the problem of people that give their personal information online. But it can provide another layer of protection.

Please click on the link for additional information on how to stay safe on the Internet and for a free trial of our Anonymous Proxy software. Still not sure, read what one of our customers said about us in their Anonymous Proxy Review. It’s up to you to protect yourself on the Internet. Start Today!

Spyware Protection – Five Reasons Why We Need It

Spyware, or maybe a computer software that is used to monitor your every move over the internet, is one of the most vital threats that we confront whilst using the world wide web and also unluckily it is all too effortless to un-knowingly turn into a victim of it. That previous piece of computer software that you previously installed, and also that most recent download of mp3 music might already contain software that can exhibit unwanted advertising, track your activities at the same time as you access the web, gather sensitive data, furthermore even modify the configuration options of your computer. These changes could consist of your home page and search page selection being altered and additional components being added to your browser. The rate at which one’s PC operates can additionally be affected or else even worse spyware and adware has been renowned to cause pcs to crash altogether! Apart from the obvious, here are five good explanations why you need sufficient spyware protection:

Number One – Individual data being utilized on behalf of identity theft. This one is scary as well as all too true. Un-authorized credit card charges, loans being taken out under your surname, I’m sure you have heard these stories of what a disarray this might make of people’s lives.

Number Two – Ninety percent of all of the pc’s with an internet network connection are infected with some sort of spyware and adware. Ninety percent! This is one heck of a large amount of computer systems. Even if a small number of this number are infected with spyware and adware that are able to report back your private data how do you know your computer isn’t one of them?

Number Three – Pop Up adverts appearing without your permission, at times thousands of them plus virtually impossible to get rid of. The content of these adverts can additionally be of alarm, because there is no way of knowing what will come up next, not nice for yourself and not the sort of thing that minors should be exposed to.

Number Four – Your computer systems speed might be significantly reduced once contaminated with spyware. This may be not just irritating but when time equals money it can additionally be costly, extremely costly. The height of complexity in today’s applications means even a minor loss in PC processing speed can have an effect on some kind of programs immensely.

Number Five – If you have read this far and have not cancelled entirely your Internet network Connection Plans then you have done well! Genuinely though I think the very last and not least good reason to download adequate spyware and adware security is the utter inconvenience of what spyware and adware could do to one’s computer. Literally several hours can be wasted trying to eradicate it when it takes hold also occasionally the removal cannot be done without damaging some of the installations previously on your system. Removal would additionally be especially problematical if you are like me and have very little programming knowledge. I know I wouldn’t like to fork out for someone to come and repair something that could easily have been prevented in the first place!

With more and more internet consumers becoming conscious of possible attacks when on the web, let’s hope they all do their bit to stamp out this nuisance by being adequately protected and at that time all of us can have an enjoyable experience browsing the net.

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Remove Spyware Before It Starts

Spyware is software that is able to see a lot of your habits inside your notebook and while not each and every Spyware and adware is critical, it becomes awfully damaging if they are programmed to work mischievously. This type of program generally become established on your computer after visiting a dangerous web page. A large amount of the occasions it is necessary that you do specific things in order to become infected by means of this category of program, but every now and then Spyware and adware takes advantage of mistakes in the browser software in order to infect your PC.

As a long time computer software developer, I understand that all computer software is full of errors. In fact, after releasing a Windows version, a few sources thought that there were more than 63,000 errors within the code, which even though many could assume this as stunning news, to me this is ordinary stuff that I observe most of the time whilst developing software programs. This is not a strange event, but the norm.

Errors are very customary in software, but as soon as you try to take away a competitor from the marketplace, as Microsoft attempted to do while Netscape was the browser of choice among the majority of consumers and had 90% marketplace share, therefore you improve features incredibly quick to entice people to your selection without thinking regarding internet security implications and that is how mistakes multiplied in the software. In addition, not only were errors introduced, but what’s more inconsistencies in the whole model that made the program extremely challenging to alter and the complete software program even more hard to maintain.

This didn’t occur with the Mozilla Foundation, creators of the Firefox Browser, given that they were concentrated in the design of the computer software and the whole security in the place of their market share furthermore this is the grounds why loads of defense conscious people run it each day. If you administer your bank account through the Web, you can not afford to be insecure on the Internet. Even if you simply exchange electronic mail on the Internet, Adware is able to be exceptionally dangerous because of troubles like identity theft.

Just think about it. Would you be comfortable if you knew that there is particular technology in your PC that is tracking most of your actions, keystrokes, mouse movements, passwords, emails, everything you do, along with sending that data to some hacker at the other end of the planet? I wouldn’t and you undoubtedly shouldn’t as one’s financial future may possibly be at risk. Sure, you may perhaps stop working on the Internet to be more safe, but you moreover could stop driving your vehicle for fear of an collision, but it is better to safeguard yourself as well as enjoy the benefits of technology. The first step is easy: stop utilizing Internet Explorer that comes with your Computer and change to the much more secure browser from the Mozilla Foundation.

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A Few Very Good Reasons To Install Antivirus Software

Did you realize that there are fresh viruses, Trojan horse, worms as well as spyware coming out every day?

Due to these rapid growing computer infections, we can not use the Web securely without using a good security software system.

But purchasing and picking an antivirus is not uncomplicated. There are so many models on the marketplace plus each one of them has their own strengths and weaknesses. But the process can be less complicated if you comprehend how to evaluate which internet security can function matching to your needs.

1. Scanning Engine. The major element of an antivirus software is its scanning engine. It scans over every file in your PC, looking for evidence of a malware. Heuristic engine is the main structures of numerous internet security to become aware of the frauds while other issuers used a virus signature record for judgment. Yet these days, there are lots of antivirus companies start using both in their scanning engine to give more fortification to customers. For specific highly developed organizations, they create more technologies so that they are able to keep safe their Computers in a better way. As a consumer, we should appreciate how these technologies work plus how we are able to benefit from them. 2. The precision. Honestly, I have never seen one antivirus that could 100% protect your PC from the viruses. Although as a customer, our duty is finding those that are able to stop out the higher fraction of viruses. Some models of antivirus can block up to 98% of viruses. 3. The speed. Today, antivirus is not a simple product. It has a lot of functions inside and also utilize a lot of processes to defend our PC. Because of this, various antivirus may take out a lot of resources and slow down your PC. So you must test out and decide on those softwares that won’t make your PC slow. 4. Particular features. Another consideration that you have to make is the detailed features. An individual user has different desires than a household or company which has more computers. For family, they may have to think about the parental control features. For business, they might have to think about firewall, internet network protection and anti-spamming for email. 5. The price. The price range for antivirus is varied. Different brand with different suite of antivirus has different price. For example, an antivirus that has Internet network security protection should be more expensive than normal antivirus software. This is because the Internet security has more features and protections. Your job is to decide whether or not you need to pay more for the additional features.

Buying antivirus software can be simple if you know what you need. Do more research on the Internet and understand each technology that is on the market. In most cases, you just need to do this research for 1 time because you can continue to renew and keep using the same antivirus for the coming years.

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Biometrics The New Way To Identify Individuals And Create Better Security For Your Business or Even Your Home

Biometrics is, generally, the analysis of what can be measured of your biological features. When it comes to computer security, biometrics has to do with certification techniques that utilize differentiating physical features that can be automatically affirmed.

Biometrics has fast come out as a promising technique for authentication and has already found usefulness in quite a few hi-tech security fields. It is this exceptional aspect of the technology that we would like to center on. We will attempt to depict how well biometrics can be utilized for security and certification in different places.

A very normal idea amongst the flocks is that, Biometrics is meant only for the rich and individuals with loads of cash. But that is a far path from reality. Biometrics other than being extremely efficient, is also very cost-efficient.

Utilizing biometrics for discovering and certifying human beings, offers some unequaled advantages. Exclusively, biometric authentication provides an identification on an intrinsic character of a persons body. Soon to be relics, similar to smart cards, magnetic stripe cards, physical keys, and so on, can be left at home or duplicated. Keywords can be shared or forgotten.

Finger print electronic scanners are the most widely utilized biometric devices. These devices moved into the mainstream a couple of years ago, when manufacturers began implanting the technology in laptops and regular computer keyboards, as well as offering stand-alone scanners for a wide range of security applications.

Fingerprints stay unaltered throughout an individuals life. In over 140 years of print comparison from all over the world, no two individuals prints have ever been noticed to be the same, not even the fingerprints of identical twins. Really good fingerprint scanners have been put in PDAs like the iPaq Pocket PC, so the reader technology is even easy. They may not function properly in industrial applications since it calls for clean hands to perform properly.

Fingerprint biometrics is just one of the technologies there is also voice biometrics. Comparable to face recognition, voice biometrics creates a way to authenticate an individuals identity without the persons knowledge. It is much simpler to fool (using a tape recording), it is not possible to take advantage of an analyst by simulating another person’s voice.

To sum up, biometrics has become available to every person at all ranges of prices.

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Is ‘Internet Privacy’ A Myth?

This is quite a contradictory question, almost a Catch-22. After all, we place all our personal information on the internet and then want to know whether it is safe. Most of us lead two lives, the reality and the virtual, and we tend to keep them as two distinct identities. But there are sites that require authentic data to process the official requirements, or you may as well be working in the paper, stapler and snail mail era.

So even if we wanted to avoid, we are compelled to place something authentic about ourselves in some official site, and not necessarily the various Social Sites. Now, if you have taken the trouble of demarcating Dr. Jekyll from Mr. Hyde even in the confines of the virtual world, where and how do they converge to take on a singular identity? Good question, but to understand it real deep, you need to be a techie or a geek. From a lay-mans point of view, which would be ours too, let us understand this in the simplified language of the complicated cyber world.

Let us know that the moment we create an email identity, and we log into the internet thorough our safe password within the confines of our home on the very personal computer, we are still not alone. No, we are not talking of the Twilight Zone; we are talking of something worse called Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. Between these three CCS or Cloud Computing Service providers, nothing much is really ‘hidden’, so the internet privacy does become a myth.

Presuming you have a yahoo email account, a gmail, or even a hotmail account. Know that any of these is controlled by one of the CCS, and somewhere down the line, there is an overlap that allows the exchange and filtration of data. For example, you can create any false identity on a social site, but Google knows your real name, when and for what you use the search engine, your mails and chats and from whom including their email id, access to friends and communities on Orkut, pictures stored in Picasa album, who you have been tracing via Geolocation.

Google knows every Blog, your birthday, your appointments through Alerts, your music preference through YouTube. These are just examples of some of the Google features in regular use, and there are many more. Similarly, Microsoft has features like Windows Mail, Messenger, Live Spaces, Live Searches, Windows Zune, Live Skydrive, Live Maps, Soapbox, and the list goes on. It’s too technical, but somewhere down the line, there is an info-share or just a trespass that does occur, and it becomes easy to segregate the chaff from the rice, surfacing the ‘hidden’ you.

But let us be realistic and ask ourselves, ‘why do we need to hide from ourselves?’ If we just be our transparent selves, we won’t need to worry much about our identity. Yes, keeping important and very personal data is another thing, but then no one advises you to place that on the internet. The privacy on the internet is a myth, but that myth is safe as long as you are within the limits of the law.

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Internet Privacy and Security- User Misuse.

Without a doubt, internet privacy and internet security are big issues today, and the concern deepens knowing that millions are being added daily to the World Wide Web. In fact, all personal internet sites require a log-in with a classified password, and some even display a little lock to indicate that the user is logged into a secure site. But despite all the precautions, the risk factor remains and the internet privacy goes into a direct conflict with the end users. The question is, are there lapses with all the privacy and security measures placed within the sites, or is the user too casual to allow the bastion to be breached and then holler ‘foul’.

The internet today is not just about the personal keeping in touch, but has a huge bearing on the various portals that conduct B2B or B2C business, and is thereby rightly considered the engine of economic growth. In fact, online business transactions, including personal banking or bill payments, is growing in popularity with the people. Ask these people why use the internet and the prompt answer is convenience. Ask them about the allying fear and it is invariably the threat of privacy intrusion and security lapse.

The problem is to determine who actually creates either. Offhand, we can confidently state that a majority of the people do not even bother to read the ‘privacy policy’ of any site, and blindly click the ‘read’ just to move on to next step. In fact, the persons concerned about the privacy policy or the security threat will gladly pass on personal information on a free offer caption or on a consumer promo site. Some would gladly barter their email id and birth date even to a lottery or a sweepstakes vendor.

No doubts there are some who guard their privacy fiercely but then these are the ones who don’t scream either. The vociferous ones are in reality the apathetics, who do very little to safeguard their interest. Ask if these users would be willing to pay a little extra to safeguard their security and privacy fears, and their incredulous response will be ‘on the free-way’?

Technically, it’s the internet activists, who are concerned about privacy and security, and to get them they demand it from the one they do internet transactions, or just move on. They are the careful ones at all times irrespective of the site. In step contrast are the mainstream majority who may skip the minimal interest to safeguard themselves and demand that the government draft some ‘internet protection policy’.

In all honesty, even companies do care about consumer privacy and spend a lot to safeguard the interest in the hope of furthering their business bond. But when the majority consumer is not concerned, the companies too lose interest as it is a losing investment. If we have to view this whole angle of privacy and security with a positive and fair perspective, then we have to accept that the bigger onus lies with the user in using the safety features or avoiding sites that have no privacy policy. But it will not resolve any matter or make thing easier by merely drafting some regulations. There is every possibility they won’t be read either.

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Parental Anxieties Of The Internet

The parental anxiety of the internet, its vast applications and information, are in equal measures a bane and a boon. From the positive angle and especially in today’s context, parents would want their child to be able to manage a computer. While most children may have no interest in the various computer languages or be overly concerned with the vast applications, they would certainly know how to create their email id and access the internet.

This too is good as it gives the child the power of connectivity and a link that can provide a huge data of information to help them with their assignments. In fact, the internet has ’shrunk’ the world to a level that they can even learn about other countries and cultures seated at their desk, something that the earlier generation used to glean from the National Geographic magazine, not even the television. Unfortunately, this free information and net connectivity is not minus the misuse, which are the main cause of parental anxiety of the internet.

Any parent knows that full access of the internet will open the windows platform, but also opens doors of concern. For instance, the pornographic sites leave a lasting impression on the impressionable minds, and this cannot be erased overnight. The urge then is to know more, and a contrary cycle is set into motion. But for this, it just would not be fair to deprive the child of the internet entirely, and parents would be wiser in trying to counseling rather than in exercising a ban. Tell them about the rules they violate unknowingly, and tell them the truth about why they should avoid.

While we understand that parents would like to protect the purity of thought and the innocence of childhood, this is the best recourse left to the parents to defer their anxiety level. This is necessary too as some unscrupulous sites actually lure children towards porno-sites in the guise of URLs titled with the information that they would normally seek. The larger anxiety of parents is of their children falling pray to cyber stalkers, paedophiles, sex maniacs, who can entice and lure children on chat lines.

For restraining part of the parental anxiety of internet, it is well said that arming the children is equivalent to teaching them. Therefore, instead of relying on a gadget that only blocks certain sites, open their mind with a vast array of your talks, aligning and spelling out all your fears for them. Place it on the children as a ’shared parent child responsibility’ instead of relying on cyber laws that are applicable only after the damage is done.

Parents should understand that even counter-technology is just a tool, and not some magic wand. However, their anxiety today of the internet can be at ease knowing that the tech-savvy children no longer consider it a new world, but just an alternate environment that ties them to the real world. So real in fact, that the parents should also be prepared to accept that their children have already read this article.

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A Review Of The Different Internet Browsers Available

There are many internet browsers and each person has a favorite. However the most popular internet browser is Internet Explorer or IE. This comes pre-installed along with the Windows package on the computer.

Internet Explorer

IE is an excellent browser, but the problem one has always faced with IE is that it was vulnerable to hackers who used this as a platform to release nasty viruses and spyware. These days’ people are simply switching to others. The reason of course is that users want to surf the net, without the fear in their minds that their computer will not be hacked into

Firefox

The main competitor of Internet Explorer is Firefox. It is a much faster browser. It has always been the favorite of many who love tabbed browsing. It has many other features that are user friendly and not given with IE

The design is simple, the browsing is fast and it is safe. This internet browser blocks pop ups, and protects against viruses and other nasties that trawl the internet. Moreover Firefox does not get hijacked. Problems that arise are quickly solved as patches are released. Since it blocks spyware, your computer runs faster and smoother. Firefox, has other neat features like live bookmarks, automatic software updates, and you can even customize your browser.

The only downside is that certain web pages can not be opened since Firefox does not have ActiveX

Opera

Opera is one of the more popular browsers. It offers faster uploads, and so it is preferred by people who are still working on dial up connections. This makes browsing faster and smoother. Internet Explorer’s slow speed makes web surfing test the patience of a saint! Opera is sleek and comes with lots of features like tabbed browsing and a pop up blocker. You can choose whether you want to run Java applets or not. For faster browsing you can turn these off. It does disable certain JavaScript functions but it’s a small sacrifice for that valuable internet speed. If you want fast browsing, you must go with Opera. Now Opera is free and that is a big plus. Another thing is that it has never been breached, so you can feel safe. However opera may not be able to display certain web pages.

Google Chrome

Again this internet browser offers a huge improvement in speed and browsing. It has a huge screen and the tabs are arranged so as to save space. It comes with a pop up blocker, you can surf in an incognito mode. The time saving idea of showing snap shots of pages you visit whenever you open a new tab is great. It also has a integrated search bar. It is a winner in terms of speed and versatile too.

Safari

Safari comes with the Mac. It has tabbed browsing and a Google search box, and an automatic pop up blocker. It is sleek and fast.

These days the demand is for faster browsing experience and these alternative internet browsers offer a more satisfying browsing experience.

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Internet Browser: The New IE8

Internet Explorer 8 has taken on its closest rival Firefox 3 head on with its nifty features. It has better tab handling, a smarter search bar and address bar and many new tools. It has also got a nifty feature for anonymous surfing (often called Porn mode) and security tools. However, I can almost sense cynicism from those who abandoned IE for Firefox, Opera or Chrome.

Yes the older IE was clunkier and it inundated your computer with spyware and popups. I can remember the browser hijacks that happened! But the new IE8 is much better.

Tabbed Browsing The tabs are a huge improvement for people accustomed to the alternate browsers like Firefox and Opera. IE handles the tabs well, the new one opening right next to the one you are working on, and in the same color. The color coding saves a lot of time if you require referencing. You can also move a tab by simply dragging it.

You can re-open tabs by pressing Ctrl-Shift-T and see the recently closed tabs by right clicking any tab and pick the one you want reopened. Moreover if a tab crashes it does not affect the others.

Like Chrome and Firefox, it has an integrated search box that searches the Web, RSS feeds, Favorites and your browsing history.

New Features This internet browser has Accelerators and Web Slices. Accelerators display feeds from other websites as a popup on your page or in another tab. All you need to do is highlight that link.

Security Finally makers of this internet browser have heard the cries of people who were suffering. Microsoft has installed something it calls SmartScreen Filter that has anti phishing capabilities and issues malware warnings. It blocks cross scripting attacks and protects against malicious ActiveX. Microsoft has claimed that it IE8 offers protection against clickjacking. Clickjacking is when hackers put an invisible code under a legitimate one. Once you click it, spyware gets installed.

Of course what has got people talking is the InPrivate browsing or the porn mode. When you browse the net in this mode, no browsing history, cookies or passwords are stored by the browser.

You can select the cookies you want deleted. This is innovative and convenient. You have an option where you can select to preserve the favorite websites data, so that when you delete your browsing history, certain data is preserved.

Search Bar It actually previews the website. When the IE8 gives you the initial results of your search, if the provider has any special graphics added, it shows up as a thumbnail which makes the search easy.

As far as internet browsers go, IE8 is smoother and faster than the IE7. However, it is just at par with Firefox. For simple browsing IE8 is a great option, it has better tab systems and a great search box and niftier features that Firefox doesn’t have, the accelerator, malware protection and of course the porn mode.

However, what it does not have is the add ons that Firefox users are accustomed to. However for basic browsing, this internet browser is far better.

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