Protecting our children against Internet predators

Most Problems Are Not From A Virus!

There are actually very few true virus infections any more. When someone's computer has been infected by unwanted and undesirable software it is typically either a Trojan, worm or other malware. The word "virus" has become a catchall term. True Virus infections were once the only damaging infection but that's no longer the case.

Whatever "anti virus" software you may be using, make certain to manually check for updates weekly, even if you believe it is updating itself. One day it will surprise you and get additional components. At the time of this writing, Norton Antivirus is one of the programs that automatically update virus definitions, but fail to update program and feature files unless you do it manually thru Live Update.  This is one of the major reasons why we recommend the top-rated NOD32.

The worst type of infection is the one you aren't aware of. Several Internet worms are expert at disabling as many as a dozen of the more popular anti virus programs and you may never know it! Worms, Trojans, keyloggers, rootkits, malware and the like frequently circle the globe in under an hour from their original release into the wild. This is what's referred to as a zero-day attack-infection since the companies that develop the anti virus software aren't even aware the problem exists before it has a chance to do damage. 

How might you tell if you have one of these infections? It's a long list of possibilities and not all of these mean you are infected but here are some things to consider.

• Sudden slowdown of your computer.
• Excessive background activity, (you might notice an hour glass on a slower system when you're not doing anything or the hard disk may be running).
• Popup windows even if the system is idle. Pop-ups are disabled by default in Firefox
• Your computer crashes frequently with non specific messages.
• You see lots of windows suggesting you have some type of infection. Do whatever you can to carefully close those windows unless you're certain they came from your anti virus software. A quick way to close a highlighted window is to use ALT+ F4.  Do not click on the image. A lot of these images will launch an assortment of malware. If things get totally out of control, launch the Windows Task Manager by simultaneously pressing CTRL + Shift + Esc.  On the application tab, click the problem program (most likely Internet Explorer) and then select End Task.

Once malware has infiltrated your system it can and frequently does invite even more of the same. The situation can quickly get out of control. If you feel you have malware in your system especially because of pop-ups, get expert help before it gets worse. If you wait, you could have a disabled system in short order and it will take much longer to correct the problem..

We suggest a good firewall as an additional level of protection. Windows XP's firewall is little protection from some types of malware because it won't alert you to a problem after the "junk" is in your system. I strongly suggest a firewall program such as Zone Alarm Pro or  Sunbelt Kerio  Neither of these products will  put undo strain on your system like some firewall software (like Norton Internet Security for example, which we do not recommend).

So what is the quickest and easiest way to prevent the majority of these problems in the first place? Unless there is a very compelling reason, do not use Internet Explorer on the WEB or Microsoft Outlook for mail. There are many alternatives, for example Mozilla's Firefox as your web browser, and Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client.  Both products are exceptionally safe and are FREE!  If you chose to use these two products, your instances of malware will drop significantly!

Portions of the above content is courtesy of the outstanding web site http://pcmax.com/index.html.  Please visit their site.