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If you own a personal computer that connects to either a private network or the Internet, a personal firewall can provide you with a certain amount of protection from hackers.  Often home computers on a network share files or use common resources like a printer.  If this is the case, a firewall will allow more access than when connecting to the Internet.

Accessing the Internet is a riskier venture, so the firewall controls for it should be much stricter.  Incoming and outgoing data should be restricted and any unnecessary ports, standardized number used to route traffic, should be closed. (more…)

The use of computers at home has turned many novice users into computer geeks.  In order to protect yourself from hackers, you need to know computer geek terms like routers, hubs, switches, Ethernet cards, firewalls and a host of other terms that you probably never thought you would know.

Part of the reason home users are more familiar with these terms is the vendors have made the devices more affordable and much easier to use.  This benefits both the vendors (by seeing more sales) and the home user (by being provided with more protection).  An entire family can now use wireless technology to connect to the Internet whereas they once had to run wires all over the house.  Home networking is easier and cheaper than ever before!

However, home users may not appreciate the need for securing their network from hackers until it is too late.  Hackers look for unprotected networks, even home networks.  The hardware and software sold by vendors have good default settings, but there is more you can do to protect yourself.

Most of us want to skip over the manual and just get the hardware or software installed, but the manual can provide important user settings and configuration information you may need.  If you have skipped it, you may want to dig it out and read it to learn more about securing some of the following areas:

• Router (Wired) - This is the device that sits between your broadband modem and your computer.  The broadband modem connects to the router which then has a couple of ports that hook up your computers to.  The first thing you should do is change the password on the router.  Almost anyone who works with home based routers will know the default passwords that are set by the company.  Even better this information is freely available from their company support sites. 
• Router (Wireless) - Like the wired router, this to sits between your modem and your computer.  Besides having some ports on the back of it for wires, this device can also accept computer connections using wireless cards.  In addition to changing the admin password, you will also need to configure your wireless options so you are not sharing your connection with people that you don’t want to use it.  Under your wireless router settings for security, we recommend that you set the security to use WEP - 128 bit encryption.  What this means is that once your set a secure password for the wireless, a user would have to know this 26 character length key before they are able to use your internet.

Making your home network more secure just takes a little reading and a little time.  But, it is much easier to learn to secure your network than it is to try to clean up a mess a hacker can make if they are allowed into your network.

Now that there are complex PDAs and cell phones, you do not have to be near your computer to log into the Internet, read email, etc, send instant messages, etc.  Yet many people who still do not have any of those devices often use public computers in places such as Internet cafes, libraries, and hotels.  These public computers should be protected with anti-virus software, but they may not be secured or regularly checked by anyone.  Also, the person using it right before you could get infected.  What do you do?

There are some tips when traveling that you can use to protect your personal information.  If you are going to be away from your home computer for a few days and plan on accessing your email account, set up a forwarding email.  Your email client probably allows you to forward your mail to another account.  By setting up a new account and forwarding your regular email account to that new one, you can provide yourself with a bit of protection.

With the new account, hackers are less likely to know the account exists or have any idea what the password is.  However, it still allows you to read your normal email.  Even if someone does figure out the username and password, you are only going to be using this account for a brief time.

If you do log into a computer in a public place using your normal email username and password, change the password when you first log in.  When you return home, change your password to something different.  This limits the time your password may be exposed to hackers.

Why should you worry about changing your password so much when using a public computer?  You need to change your password in case anyone has set up what is known as a key logger program.  Key logger software is a type of spyware that records every keystroke made on a computer.  So if you use a public computer to log into email, access your bank account, or purchase something with your credit card, the person who installed the key logger software can record all your sensitive information.  To be extra safe, avoid making credit card purchases or logging into your bank account while traveling unless you are using your own personal laptop.

Some public computer administrators have locked down a feature called auto-complete or password storage.  If you are asked while logging in on a public computer if you want to save your information, always say no.  And try to disable the features if you can.

Visit only the web sites you are familiar with while you are traveling.  Visiting new sites may cause a download of spyware or viruses, but if you normally visit a site, you are probably sure of its safety.  This also includes clicking on any pop-up ads while on the public computer.  Those can also contain spyware and result in auto-downloads.

When you are finished using the public computer, see if you can delete the browsers temporary files, cookies, etc.  The administrator may have the computer locked down so you cannot do this, but it doesn’t hurt to check.  This helps protect you and also leave the computer cleaner for the next user.

If the computer does allow you to download legitimate files, don’t leave any of those on the computer when you go.   Also, it sounds simple, but pay attention to anyone walking up behind you to see what you are typing.  Just like at an ATM, they may be up to no good.

Just by doing these few things, you can help further protect yourself and your information while on the road.

Network firewalls got their name from physical firewalls, used to prevent actual fires from spreading from one section of a building to another.  A network firewall does the same thing – it restricts the flow of data and program instructions in and out of the system.

There are two types of firewalls that can be used on a network – hardware and software.  This can be slightly misleading, as hardware cannot really work on its own without software to tell it what to do.  And in turn, the software cannot do much without hardware, since the software must be stored and executed somewhere. (more…)

Email is a common way for viruses to infection your computer.  No matter how many warnings are issued to avoid opening emails from people they do not know, each day there are users that do just that and suffer the consequences.

One of the biggest problems with email viruses is that they don’t usually stop after infection one computer.  Many will access your address book without your knowledge and send the infected email to everyone on it, spreading the virus even further and further. (more…)

Do you remember when people had to communicate by phone, letters, or faxes?  Many of us were alive before email was popular, but it is hard to believe we survived for so long without it!  It is the major mode of communication today whether at work or at home.  It is also one of the most common ways for hackers to defraud people and send viruses.  It is necessary to protect yourself if you use email at all.

Because emails often contain attachments, it makes them particularly susceptible to viruses contained within the attachments.  Even someone you know may inadvertently send you a file that contains a virus.  Some viruses look in your email address book and send the infected email to everyone on the list to spread themselves even further.

The best protection against viruses is to know beforehand that someone is sending you an attachment and also to purchase virus protection software.  A good virus protection software program will scan all email attachments as they are received.  It will also scan files you send to others.  It will help keep your system clean of viruses. (more…)

Because it has been in the news, most computer users are aware of the fact that they need some type of antivirus software on their computer.  However, you may use software and hardware that resides outside your personal computer.  Things like email programs, file transfer protocol (FTP) services, web pages and other services are tied to other computers, known as servers.  What can be done to protect those servers from virus attacks?

Computer viruses can attack all computers on a network(including your home network if you have one), from your personal computer to a server that assists the entire organization.  A server is basically the same as a personal computer, but because it serves more people, it has more memory, disk space, and processors to carry the workload.  There are normally email servers dedicated solely to sending and receiving email.  Most web pages are served on exclusive servers that only deal with web traffic of those pages.  Some places, if they share quite a few files with others, may even have a server dedicated only to file transfers.

These servers basically work just like your personal computer, so that means they are subject to attacks of viruses and other malware generated by hackers.  It is just as important – if no more so – that they be protected against attacks.  If a server receives a virus, it may affect anyone who connects to it, not just one individual. 

Most servers have antivirus software installed to protect against an attack.  Most also have a firewall, which protects the server from entry points that are vulnerable to hackers.  But what else can be done? (more…)

There are some easy things you can do to keep your computer virus-free.  If you simply use software from reliable vendors, that is half the battle.  The other thing you can do to keep viruses off your computer is to avoid opening email attachments from people you do not know.

It sounds easy, but you would be surprised how many people download software or open an email attachment from someone they do not know.  You would not open your car door for a stranger, so avoid these two practices to keep from opening the “door” of your computer to strangers.  Some of the most infamous viruses were spread from one computer to another through emails.  Even if the email is from a reliable source – such as Microsoft – you should still be suspicious.  Email addresses can be forged to look like they are from someone else.

In 1999, the “Melissa” viruses was posted to an Internet newsgroup through a Microsoft Word attachment.  The virus perpetuated itself by accessing the address book of the person that downloaded it and sending itself to the first 50 users in that address book.  In only a few hours, this virus has slowed the networks on the Internet. (more…)