1. Firewall
When you are connected to the Internet, your computer is open to attacks from the outside, and you should protect it if you don't want this to happen:
Especially if you are connected through cable or DSL, a firewall is a must!
What does a firewall do?
It protects your computer from crackers and hackers who may want to steal
your data, take control over your computer, or even destroy it.
Click
Here to Purchase Award-Winning ZoneAlarm Pro!
ZoneAlarm is easy to install, easy to configurate and will protect you from attacks from the net very effectively!
2. Virus-Scanner
You probably have heard about the "I love you"-Virus, "Anna Kournikova"-Virus and others. To be safe, everybody connected to the web should have a virus-scanner installed!
There are more than 57.000 viruses on the run, so protect your computer, your valueable data and yourself!
There are different forms of computer viruses:
A computer virus is executable code that, when run by someone, infects or attaches itself to other executable code in a computer in an effort to reproduce itself. Some computer viruses are malicious, erasing files or locking up systems; others merely present a problem solely through the act of infecting other code. In either case, though, computer virus infections should not go untreated.
A Trojan Horse is a program that performs some undesired yet intended action while, or in addition to, pretending to do something else. One common class of trojans are fake login programs - collecting accounts and passwords by prompting for this info just like a normal login program does. Another is a disk defragger that erases files rather than reorganizing them. A Trojan Horse differs from a virus in that the former does not attempt to reproduce itself.
A Worm is just a self-propagating virus, a famous example is the happy, or happy99-virus.
Virus hoaxes
You probably already have received many e-mails containing virus warnings
- many of them are hoaxes (Big Brother hoax, AIDS-hoax, Bud Frogs Screen
Saver hoax, AOL Instant Message hoax and many others.
When you receive a virus warning, check out here if it is a hoax.
Even if many warnings you may receive are hoaxes, never let your guard down, there are still many real viruses running wild!
Never open an attachment unless you know what it contains, even if it comes from somebody you know - many viruses spread themselves by using the Outlook (Express) address-book.
A free Virus-Scanner you can easily download
is ANTI-VIR from H+BEDV Datentechnik Gmbh,
Germany.
Click here
to go to their homepage.
ANTI-VIR is free, easy to use, and very effective.
