Arm Yourself Arm Yourself Against The Virus Bandits and Intruders Douglas B. Keller As everyone has most likely already heard, the latest and biggest stir making the rounds on the Internet is the all dreaded virus alerts as well as unwanted intruders. I am not referring to the Hong Kong flu, I am talking about the viruses that are wreaking havoc on computers around the world as well as the cyber thieves that prey upon unprotected cyber surfers. I chose to devote this effort to help all of my subscribers to understand the potential for disaster on your home computer as well as business computers. I would also like to pass along some information to help everyone to arm themselves against these WORTHLESS cyber-junkies that have nothing better to do than crash computers worldwide just for the fun of it. There is also a great threat of these same idiots, tapping into your personal computer and stealing personal data stored in various files and folders. Yes they can enter your computer without your knowledge and harvest whatever they choose, most times, without you ever knowing. Many people will ask "Am I Really In That Much Danger"? Read this very carefully. You are most definitely in DANGER. You will lessen your chances of a problem if you are connected to the Internet for very brief periods but for the average netter, prolonged connections are the norm. These cyber bandits wreak their havoc with "scanners" that are constantly searching for computers that are running Windows File and Printer Sharing. Even if your computer is password protected these bandits have little problem convincing your computer to belch up the sacred password thus gaining entry into your private domain. These bandits very often leave these scanners running day in and day out just collecting IP addresses. If one of these IP addresses happens to be yours then it is only a short hop to gain total access to your computer files. I will not go into great detail as to how all of this is possible because of space limitations and time as well, but I would like to provide you with a way to check your own computer very easily, and then you can really see how vulnurable you are. The website that I would highly recommend is Gibson Research Corporation at http://grc.com/default.htm Once there you can click on a window called Shields Up and then click on "Test My Shields" and/or "Probe My Ports" to have your computer tested in a very short time to see just how "wide open" you are while you are on-line as well as off-line. If you find that you too, need a personal firewall after having your computer checked, I also recommend the "Zone Alarm 2.6" software. For home use you can download it free and for business it is around $20. Not much for the peace of mind that it will give you. Zone alarm also features "Mailsafe" to stop email-borne Visual Basic Script worms, like the "I Love You" virus, instantly, preventing further spread, and preventing damage to your files and folders. Zone alarm is a superb piece of software and very easy to use. If you decide to download Zone Alarm you can do so at the above site or go to http://www.zonelabs.com Also, if you would like any more information or a more detailed report on upgrading your computer for top-notch security feel free to email me and I will be happy to help!
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Douglas B. Keller @ 5/2000 Doug Keller is the publisher of Business to Build Ezine, a "Guide for Helping Internet Newbies Make Money Online." Subscribe at http://www.businesstobuild.com or mailto:BusinessToBuild-subscribe@onelist.com This article extracted from the Marketing-Seek Archives at: http://www.marketing-seek.com/ |