In light of recent news about the mass phishing attack that’s so far affected Hotmail, Yahoo!, GMail, AOL and other services, I thought I’d repost this article about internet security threats, and how to avoid being stung by them.

You can read my stories from October 5th and October 6th.

In the first part of this article series I talked about how to spot threats on the internet to make sure you don’t become the next victim.  What are these threats though and why should you be worried about them?  Here I’ll detail the main threats and the problems they can cause.

Viruses

These are named because they spread around the internet in a way comparable to biological viruses can cause untold damage.  Common problems caused by viruses include…

• Using your computer to attack other computers, companies and e-commerce websites, thus using up all your internet bandwidth
• Encrypting all your files, photos and music (that if you’ve not backed up you should do so immediately) and then demanding a ransom of several hundred pounds for the program to unlock them.  This unlock program is also loaded with viruses
• Re-writing an important chip on your motherboard called your BIOS (basic input output system) that renders your machine dead as the hardware no longer knows how to communicate with the software of your hard disk

Viruses are commonly distributed in internet downloads, so you should always virus-scan everything you download before opening it, or by email.  Beware anybody, even people you know, sending you email attachments that look like a cool fun thing.  Their computer might be infected by a viruses that’s sending copies to everyone in their address book without them even knowing about it.  Some of the biggest virus attacks have spread this way, including the Kournikova virus in 2001 that was pretending to be a sexy photo of the famous tennis pro.

You should have anti-virus software and there’s a link in the ‘downloads’ menu on every page of this website to the excellent and completely free AVG anti-Virus.

Trojans / Keyloggers

So named after the Trojan horse which was in fact a horse given to the Trojans by the Greeks, thus really meaning it should be called a Greek horse (but I digress) these are malicious programs that can be installed remotely by websites as plug-ins or distributed by email.

They can grant criminals back-door access to your computer or, using a program called a keylogger, record and broadcast everything you type.  This would include all your usernames and passwords.  A trojan could also use your computer to send spam email, using up the available bandwidth your ISP allows you each month, which could result in letters of complaint from your ISP and even, in extreme cases, disconnection.

In the downloads menu on every page of this site you’ll find an link to the excellent and free Spyware Terminator.

Phishing Emails

Pronounced ‘fishing’ they’re named this for good reason.  They pose as legitimate emails from banks or shopping websites.  Their aim is to get you to give up your private usernames, passwords and other valuable information.  They will usually say something like ‘Due to an upgrade we require you to log-in and confirm your security details‘.

A word of warning.  No bank or shopping website will EVER ask you to do this.  If you ever receive any email asking you to do so, from PayPal for instance, then ignore it.  If you think there could be some legitimacy in it, never click on the link in the email.  Instead manually type the website address, ie. www.paypal.com into your browser and log-in that way.

Spam

This is more of an annoyance than a threat these days.  Be aware though that should you ever click on a link in a spam email, there could be a virus or trojan on the website at the other end.

I hope this two part article series will help you to stay safer on-line.  Don’t have nightmares