The number of the beast

So, what an end to a real busy week, and its not even end of semester yet! But we all survived and that's always good news. This week, we were exposed to the topic of internet security, something which all of us can certainly relate to. How many times have you heard a friend complain to you about his/her computer problems due to a virus or worm? Friends aside, how many times have we ourselves been the target of virus and worms and because of that, lose valuable data on our beloved PCs? 'Reformat' is such a frightening word.

Thus, I feel that it is actually essential for every PC user to be educated in proper internet security, similar to what we have been through in COM 125 this week. First off, what is a computer virus? It is essentially a program code that is designed to destroy or corrupt systems and survives by replicating or copying itself within. A scary resemblance to the biological counterpart. Worms are also programs that destroy other programs but unlike a virus that needs a host, a worm simply wriggles through loopholes in networks like emails. Trojans are an interesting one, just like the myth, Trojans are destructive programs that pretend to be normal or 'friendly' programs which when executed, will most probably lead to the execution of your computer system.

Phishing is also another threat to internet security. It works by stealing private information like credit card numbers and passwords from users so that the evil people behind the phishing tool can use it for themselves. Sometimes they get our private information by setting up a fake website that looks like a legitimate one (like a bank homepage) and when we fill in fields like 'username' and 'password' to gain excess, that is when we offer our private info on a silver platter for them.

So how do we deal with all these dangers? It is not impossible to protect ourselves by using protection and risk-prevention tools. Personally, I use Spybot - Search and Destroy to get rid of spyware and Ad-aware to get rid of unwanted ads or suspiscious files that latch onto my computer while using the web. Both of these programs do a reasonable job in keeping my com clean and you can get them at download.com (make sure you update them often). These two tools that I usually use removes spyware and unneccessary programs but they don't always eliminate viruses or worms. For that, I use a free online scan provided by Panda Security called Active scan 2.0. Active scan does a pretty good job at scanning your entire PC and alerts you of any viruses, worms or malicious software. I must say that Active scan 2.0 doesn't get rid of viruses though, you either have to search for the infected files yourself and delete them or pay for Panda Security's Anti-virus software. Panda Security is not the only website out there that provides free virus scanning services, many websites like Trend Micro Housecall do the same. If you are looking for more anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall or cleaning tools and programs, filehippo.com is a good place to look for one that best suits your needs.

As the saying goes, 'cure is better than prevention', hey wait a minute, its the other way around! Prevention is always, always better than a cure, hence, it is better to be reserved than to be reformatted. Update your computer and web browser often and only download from sites that are clean and well-established. Never open attachments from wierd email senders and scan for viruses and worms constantly. Be safe, and surf safe for happy days!