Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Checking Computer Security

Author: Donald Brown

Article source: http://www.articlecity.com/. Used with author's permission.

Many people wonder whether or not their computer is secure. They fear that someone might be looking through their files, copying, altering, or erasing them. They are uneasy about the thought that someone might be monitoring their every move in cyberspace. These concerns come to mind when reminded of the problem of hackers, viruses, and other security risks that abound in the Internet. Fortunately it’s easy to prevent these problems by following a few simple tips.

Update

Perhaps the most important step for computer security is to keep it updated. Install the latest critical updates and service packs from Microsoft's download center. This is made easy by configuring the system to utilize Automatic Updates, if available. If not, updates can be downloaded directly from Microsoft's download center. Currently, Service Pack 2 (SP2) is the most current Service Pack for Windows XP.

Firewall

The easiest way to increase the security level of a computer is by using a firewall. Firewalls monitor all activity that occurs on a connection between one or more computers. They act as a “wall” with one or more computers on one side, and one or more computers (usually the Internet) on the other. Information transfer by suspicious programs are immediately cut off, preventing them from entering the protected side of the firewall. This way denying access to anything coming from unauthorized and unknown sources prevents possible infection by viruses, worms, and other malicious codes.

Anti-Virus and Anti Spy-ware

Even if a computer is protected by a firewall it is still necessary to use anti-virus and anti spy-ware. This is because a firewall only prevents unauthorized outside access, and cannot distinguish between malicious and benign access. It is still possible to inadvertently make a request for information that is harmful, which the firewall views as an authorized transfer. Anti-virus and anti spy-ware provides another layer of armor for a computer, making it harder for hackers and their malicious programs to penetrate and control a computer. Some well-known anti-virus programs include Norton, Trend Micro PC-cillin, and McAffee. Anti spy-ware programs are also important as they reduce the chances of spy-ware getting into a computer. Spy-ware behaves differently than viruses, making it necessary to use different programs to catch it. Spy-ware can monitor any activity a computer infected with it performs, or even act as a gateway to download additional spy-ware or viruses. Hackers typically use spy-ware to obtain important information that must remain confidential like credit card numbers, social security numbers, and police records.

Protect Home Networks

It is possible for a computer owner to be unaware they are using a network at home. If more than one computer shares the same Internet connection or if wireless Internet access is being used, a home network is present. Securing a single computer is not much use if it is part of a network. The whole network must be protected as well to prevent malicious software from simply hopping from computer to computer to avoid attack. Different kinds of home networks face different kinds of risks. In the case of a wireless connection, anyone within the broadcast range of the network may be able to look at any data contained within the network.

Most networking devices employ their own security mechanisms. Using this in combination with security defenses installed on each computer's should provide enough protection to thwart attempts from hackers to hi-jack the network and use the computers connected to it. Most routers function as Network Address Translators (NAT) which makes them a safe connection to the Internet.

While no measure can guarantee total immunity from attack, these steps should increase the security of a computer or network enough to protect against any typical attack.

Donald Brown enjoys writing for several web sites, especially http://sixal.com and http://tyrop.com.

How to remove spyware for good!

Author: Jason Frovich

Article source: http://www.articlealley.com/. Used with author's permission.

Spyware and adware often slows your computer down or you begin to notice that you are seeing pop-ups every time you use your computer. You also discover that someone has access to your identifying information such as IDS, passwords, credit card information, or even that suddenly your homepage has changed, which is known as hijacking.

It is important that you know how to remove spyware, what to do if hijacked and what tools you can use to get rid of spyware.

How to remove spyware

The first method of combating spyware or adware is asking people you know questions like where can I find free spyware software or where can I find free adware removal websites. If your friends or family members cannot help you in this area, you should turn to search engines to help find the answers.

One excellent program for removing spyware is Spy Sweeper. Spy Sweeper allows you to keep your computer safe from spyware even while downloading things such as videos, music, or pictures and surfing the internet. This program delivers the highest form of computer protection available today by removing spyware programs that have infected your computer, as well as blocking any from ever entering again.

Why do we need anti-spyware protection?

Without anti-spyware protection, your computer is vulnerable every time you surf the web. Any time you access the internet, without some form of protection, like Spy Sweeper on your computer, you are putting yourself at risk for infection. Spyware is extremely malicious and can significantly slow down the processes of your computer, your internet performance or the very worst scenario might be completely rendering your computer useless.

When wanting to learn how to remove spyware and why we need anti-spyware, Spy Sweeper is a great place to start. Not everyone who uses a computer can detect which type of download might be infected; Spy Sweeper can do that for you. It will always provide you with protection thanks to their Smart Shields, which keep the emerging and known threats at bay while using the internet. This program has the capabilities of detecting, removing and blocking more than 140,000 variants of spyware, greater than any other anti-spyware program available on the market.

Where can I get the latest free spyware removal software?

Your favorite search engine is a very valuable tool when it comes to searching for anti-spyware programs. There are many available. However, you will want to be careful of which one you choose to download. While many will advertise removal, in reality, they may actually install the spyware. So be sure to get recommendations from people you trust. Some great programs include Spy Sweeper, Microsoft Defender, Spybot and Ad-Aware.

About The Author:

New forms of malicious Spyware and Adware are constantly created and in order to protect your computer from infestations you must choose a high-quality program and keep it updated. Supportcave.com offer all this and more

Supportcave.com offers new and enhanced spyware removal Software. Not only will these programs effectively check and clean your computer from Spyware, once installed they will also shield your computer from future Spyware intrusions.

FAT Drive Recovery

Author: Data Recovery

Article source: http://www.articlealley.com/. Used with author's permission.

Data Recovery has announced that fat recovery software for window operating system supports fat 12, FAT 16, FAT 32, VFAT file systems. Fat partition recovery tool supports recovery of storage media damaged due to virus infection, Power failure overwritten, crashed, hardware-software malfunction. Recovery software restore virus infected accidentally deleted data recover formatted crashed hard disks drive files like acrobat PDF TXT HTML MS Office excel word access power point outlook PST outlook express MBX DBX files. Retrieve undetected root directory damaged storage media including IDE ATA PATA SATA SCSI iSCSI EIDE. Tool recovers Compressed and encrypted data lost by power surges inaccessible disk. Data recovery software for all windows FAT file systems partition hard disk drive files folders provides rescue from data loss due to unexpected shutdown of system, accidentally deleted crashed disk data. Recovery software scans inaccessible hard disk, retrieve data and restore at safe location on your storage media.

Utility provides recovery of deleted data on Window 95, 98, 2000, 2003, NT, ME, WinNT 3.x, WinNT 4.x, Window XP and Windows XP media center edition 2005 operating system.

Features:

* Software is user friendly and provide graphical user interface GUI.
* Powerful and cost effective software.
* No technical knowledge is required
* Software provides recovery from previously existing partition.
* Full support for long files names, encrypted and compressed files.
* Logically damaged or corrupted partition can be recovered by the software
* Software is read only and non destructive support windows operating systems.
* Provides recovery of crashed and disaster data loss of your hard disk drive.
* It can restore the files and folders even if they have been deleted with shift+Del key combination or have been deleted from recycle bin.
* Recover the inaccessible, overwritten or undetected files folders.