Articles Index

Twitter Safety: How to Tweet and Twitter Without Spam, Phish, or Scareware
The micro-blogging Twitter phenomenon has captured global fancy and provided an instant platform for expressing your every thought in 140 characters or less. Unfortunately, Twitter has also captured the imagination of spammers, scammers, and criminals. Here are some Twit tricks you'll want to avoid.

Help! My Email was Hacked!
Do you suspect your email account has been hacked? Can't login to your email account? Are you getting undeliverable and bounce messages for email you never sent? Are friends and family complaining of receiving email you never sent? Is it malware? A hacker? Here's how to tell.

Wire Transfer Scams
Small businesses in the U.S. are having their hard-earned funds stolen by cybercriminals and transferred overseas, all thanks to the willing gullibility of scam victims engaged in illegal wire transfers.

Gearing Up For College
Whether you're going off to college for the first time, or are a returning student, chances are you're on a tight budget. Fortunately, that doesn't mean your computer security has to suffer. While the suggestions below won't free you up from having to write term papers, they will free you up from suffering undue angst due to malware. And speaking of free, most of the solutions recommended below are either low cost or totally free.

Malware: A Never-Ending Race
It took 20 years (1986-2006) for malware to reach the one million mark. Since then, the rate of malware has been doubling every year, and is now threatening to double every six months. Being proactive and taking responsibility for your own security will go along ways towards helping you avoid the onslaught and helping all of us ensure the bad guys don't win.

Antivirus FAQs
Answers to frequently asked antivirus questions

Oprah, the Government, and Antivirus
Recent opinion blogs and articles push the notion that either the government or Oprah needs to encourage everyone to use antivirus software. The premise seems to be that if Oprah or the government began pushing antivirus, we'd somehow nip the problem of malware in the bud, save everyone some money, and make the world a better place.

Mr. President: Just Say No to Twitter
Should President Barack Obama use Twitter? Or do the risks outweigh the rewards?

Browser History Sniffing and Other Tracking Techniques
Sometimes the desire to contextualize content delivery can go too far and can be used for malicious purposes. Here's how to block browser history sniffing, cache timer attacks, and Adobe Flash offsite cookie storing.

Online Game Compromise and Social Engineering
Blizzard, makers of the very popular World of Warcraft series of MMORPG, has been aggressively warning players to the risks of keyloggers and other trojans that can lead to compromise of their online gaming credentials. After plowing through 12 pages of player comments in the Blizzard customer support forum, I'm convinced there's more than just malware at play.

Autorun FAQs
Autorun is one of those 'convenience' features in Windows that can cause more harm than good. Essentially, Following are frequently asked questions about the Autorun component, including why Autorun can be dangerous and how it can be disabled.

Three Common Myths of Filesharing Safety
It doesn't matter what side of the copyright bench you sit on, filesharing is dangerous. Before you roll your eyes and say "Yeah, whatever...", here are the three most common misconceptions about filesharing safety.

Patch Yourself
Protecting against social engineering often requires a degree of savvy that is more instinct than technique. When it comes to social engineering scams, it's often instinct and not technology that can make the difference. An experienced user armed with the right information is generally best equipped to make the right decisions to protect themselves online.

Why is Internet Safety Important?
Why is Internet Safety Important? Today's malware is vastly different from yesteryear's virus. No longer a form of digital graffiti, modern malware is all about money. Your money, that is. This change in intent has also led to a corresponding change in tactics.

Web Browser Security
Whether through social engineering or through web site exploit, the choice of browser will be of little help. All browsers are equally susceptible to web-based malware and this includes Firefox, Opera, and the much maligned Internet Explorer. Disabling Javascript on all but the most trusted sites will go a long ways towards safer web browsing.

Web-Based Malware Prevention
Home and SOHO users are particularly vulnerable to web-based malware attacks, since these users often do not have access to sophisticated proxies, intrusion detection, and patch management systems necessary to ward off web-based threats. The following advice is geared specifically to help this segment of the online population.

Computer Safety Tips
Computer security need not be daunting. Here a few simply steps that will keep you computing more safely.

Ten Tips to Protect Against Identity Theft
Every 3.5 seconds in the United States, someone's identity is stolen. Unfortunately, many view identity theft as an 'online' only problem. It's true that phishing scams, Trojans, and other forms of cybercrime are a factor, but there are also far more low tech means of identity theft - including digging through your garbage or stealing your wallet or purse. You can minimize your risk by following these ten tips.

Why Getting Rid of the WildList is a Bad Idea
The WildList isn't a perfect measure of antivirus detection. Far from it. But the WildList does offer important benefits that should be acknowledged.

Greeting Card Scams
Be aware of scams that masquerade as greeting cards. It may just be a trap laid to launch trojans onto the computers of the unsuspecting.

Securing Outlook and Outlook Express
Securing Outlook and Outlook Express

Passwords: Creating and Maintaining a Strong Password System
Unless unique passwords are used for each site, it takes only the compromise of a single site's credentials to have a toppling domino affect on the security of all your online assets.

Password Safety: Tips for Keeping Passwords Safe
So you've created a strong password system following the tips outlined in "Passwords: Creating and Maintaining a Strong Password System". Now you need to keep those passwords safe. Here's how.

How to Make an F-Prot CD
FRISK Software, one of the oldest and most venerable antivirus vendors, provides F-Prot for DOS free to home users and dirt cheap for corporates. And though it's designed for DOS, you can run it commandline in Windows XP too.

Free Virus Removal Tools, Tips, and Tricks
A list of free tools, tips, and tricks to get rid of viruses and keep them from getting back on your system.

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