Computer Security - Beat The Hackers The Easy Way
Technology has come so far in the past ten years. It is hard to even imagine that it was only within the last thirty years in our history that personal computers came into existence.
As I write this, we have become a society that runs on computers and everything is at our fingertips. The modern computer gives us access to a virtual world, filled with information and multimedia and we can almost do anything we want to using a computer.
Along with these amazing new technologies and exchange of information and data, we have also had to bear the unfortunate dilemma of dealing with the misuse of technology by hackers, almost from the inception of personal computing itself. It often seems like We are at the mercy of hackers, and we need to know how we can make sure our privacy and computer security is maintained.
Hackers may have started off with an “us against the machine” type of mentality and acted as a form of protest, but this is no longer the case. Most hackers now only want to wreak havok on unsuspecting computer users. Their primary purpose is to steal or destroy data.
A common way of obtaining personal information, which lures a user into giving away their data to hackers, is called phising, but there are also many other ways that our private data can be stolen. Financial gain is the most common motive, but some hackers simply want to destroy or delete computer data just for kicks. Others attempt to burrow into a computer system without the computer owner’s knowledge, so they can use it for more hacking or spamming or even sending out viruses.
As computer owners, we need to be wise about how to best protect our computers from hackers and various attacks such as spam, viruses, trojans and spyware. The best way to do this is by installing two software programs on our computers. One is a Firewall and the other is AntiVirus software.
The first line of defence is a good Firewall, so named because it acts similar to a firewall in your car, which protects the car body and its passengers from the engine, in the event of a fire. The Firewall is a software program that, once set up, will give a layer of security between the computer and the internet.
The AntiVirus software is also essential in stopping Viruses and Trojans in their tracks. Most AntiVirus programs are managed by professional companies that specifically devote all their time and effort to protecting users from viruses.
There are numerous other ways that we computer users can protect ourselves from these online nasties, such as being very careful about opening emails with attachments and watching what websites we visit. We must also realize that the hackers have become very sophisticated and even offer us virus and spyware-filled software programs masquerading as AntiVirus and Firewall software.
The way a bank teller learns to differentiate counterfeit money from real money is by studying real money, so they can pick out a fake at forty paces. In the same way, We need to make sure we are informed about what the best practices are with our computer use, so we avoid making mistakes that could cost us our data. We need to learn and talk to people who are knowledgable about these things. If you do this, you will keep a step ahead of the hackers.