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Keeping your information secure is important to you and others. We
at Smith IT believe that everyone should be aware of all the threats that are out
there and encourage everyone to protect themselves as best they can.
Type of Threats
-
Virus - a software program
that replicates and spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or
documents.
(
Wikipedia)
- Worm -
similar to a virus, but is self-contained and does not need to be part of
another program to propagate itself. (
Wikipedia)
-
Trojan - a virus that appears to be a beneficial program
- Adware/Spyware - software that collects personal information,
produces advertising (popups), or changes your computer's configuration
(such as setting your web browser's default home page)
- Phishing - a scam to steal personal information by tricking you
into divulging the information. For example, you receive an email from
what looks to be your bank and you unknowingly give the information to a
third party.
- Hacker (Cracker) - someone that tries to break into a computer to
steal information or use it for their own purposes
- Spam - unsolicited email
Protect Yourself
Here are few tips on how to protect yourself from being a victim.
- Awareness - Be aware of computer threats. If your computer
is acting up funny, getting tons of popups, try doing some removal tools to
get rid of them early before it gets worst.
- DO NOT open suspicious email attachments - Whether they are from
individuals you know or individuals you don't know. A great example would
be the Mydoom/Novarg virus.
The virus would infect someone's machine, then looks at the address book on the
machine, and emails itself to everyone on the address book and randomly uses
another entry from the address book as the sender.
- Be on the lookout for Phishing scams - Knowing how to tell the
difference between a legitimate email versus a phishing fraud can save
you alot of trouble. Take a
Phishing Quiz to see if you can spot a scam.
- Strong Password -
A good password is at least 8 characters long, and
contains a combination of both upper and lower case letters, numbers and
special characters (e.g. !@#$%^&). Better still, is a passphrase such as
“RHSmith is a gr3@t school!”. A passphrase makes it easier to remember
a long password and is much harder to guess.
- Run Anti-Virus Software - Be sure that you have an anti-virus
software program installed and running (with updates enable) on your
computer. Campus offers anti-virus software for free to membres of the
University community. The software can be downloaded from
here.
- Firewall - If your computer is directly connected to the internet
via a Cable/DSL modem or on the campus network, it is recommended that you
run a software firewall to restrict access to your computer over the
network. Windows XP w/ SP2 has a built-in software firewall that is
enabled by default. To verify that the Widows firewall is running, go
to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Security Center. If you use
a router at home to share a Cable or DSL connection, the router has a
built-in firewall that protects your computer. However, it is always a
good idea to run the Windows Firewall as well.
- Run Windows Updates - Make sure you have Windows Automatic Update
enable on your computer. This will help to keep Windows up to date
with the last software patches and bugs fixes. To verify that the
Widows Automatic Update is enable, go to Start Menu > Settings > Control
Panel > Security Center. This is very important
because some security attacks will go through bugs in Windows and will make
people think it is a virus. An example would be the
Sasser worm.
The worm attacked everyone that did not have the latest security patches and
even if the anti-virus protection was up to date, they were still infected.
- Spyware/Adware Removal Tools - There are several free spyware/adware
removal tools out there. Generally speaking, these tools have to be
run and updated manually, so be sure to check for updates each time you run
them.
- Web Browsing - When browsing the web avoid downloading any
suspicious software. It is recommended that you install an alternate web
browser such as Firefox or Opera. These browsers lack some of the
functionality of Internet Explorer (such as the ActiveX scripting that
Windows Updates utilizes) which makes them somewhat less susceptible to
certain types of attacks against web browsers. Some sites require use of
Internet Explorer, but for day to day web browsing an alternative to
Internet Explorer is recommended
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