Given the huge amount of press and industry attention to “Spyware” it is easy to forget there are other types of malicious software or “malware” out there. Viruses, Worms and Trojans are still being developed to steal your personal data or damage your computer. These malicious programs can be hidden in email attachments or files which are downloaded off the internet.
Most computer users are familiar with the term “computer virus.” A Virus is usually hidden within another program or executable file. A Virus can be relatively harmless, for example displaying a message or picture at a preset time. Others variants however can be incredibly destructive including erasing data from your hard drive, corrupting programs or stealing sensitive information like passwords or financial data.
One of the limitations with a Virus is that it cannot spread itself automatically. Unfortunately a “Worm” can, and it exists to replicate itself. It is a self-contained program which is usually embedded in an email attachment like a Microsoft Word document. The most notorious variants like the “ILOVEYOU” Worm in 2000 are spread using the e-mail address book on the infected user’s computer. It emails itself to the contacts in the address book without the user’s knowledge.
A Worm can cause extensive damage to both the computer and the network your computer uses. A Worm infection consumes network bandwidth as it sends itself out. For example, a widespread infection can dramatically slow or totally overload a corporate network. It can even slowdown the speed of the Internet itself!
A Worm can also carry a dangerous program. The most common type of program is a “backdoor” which given hidden access to your computer to the virus creator. Your computer then becomes a “Zombie” used to send out Spam e-mail or other computer viruses.
A Trojan masquerades itself as a legitimate program or file. For example, you may think that you are downloading a MP3 music file but when the file is loaded a virus is installed on your system. Once installed onto the user’s computer it can have the same impact as a Virus.
Here are some common symptoms of infection by any of they types of malware:
- Unexplained crashes
- Strange program error messages
- Computer freezes
- Poor computer performance
- Angry emails from people you have “spammed” or unknowingly sent a virus (sign that your computer is a possible “Zombie”).
Here are some steps you can take to help prevent infection:
- Make sure you are receiving the latest Windows XP updates. It is highly recommended that you receive these updates automatically.
- Have a good firewall installed – ideally you want to have an application which filters both “inbound” and “outbound” internet traffic.
- Delete and do not open any email with an attachment from anyone you do not know.
- Install an anti virus program and keep the virus definitions up to date. Carry out a virus scan a least once a week. Always scan email attachments if you are planning on opening them.
- Use a Spam Filter to stop dangerous email getting onto your computer in the first place.
Remember audio tape? Sound quality was poor, play time was limited, and cassettes wore out quickly if they weren’t first destroyed by the tape deck.
Once we caught on to MP3s, there was no turning back. MP3s offered clear advantages over the analog medium they replaced. Now we play music continuously for hours, create custom play lists, and take our music wherever we go.
Best of all, we don’t have to lug around all those tapes or discs, because MP3s can be stored on something as handy as a USB key. So while the music goes everywhere, the discs stay at home.
Parents of young children, however, still have their share of problems with those OTHER discs: the expensive CDs and DVDs that you need to run PC games and disc-based applications.
Once touted as “durable,” CDs are remarkably fragile: hairline scratches or even a few smudges can make them unplayable. Supposedly designed to be portable, they’re not all that easy to transport, but they are incredibly easy to lose.
Too often, shared discs are treated badly. Left out their jewel cases and exposed to kids and pets, game discs are quickly damaged beyond all use. Traveling disc collections are not long for this world: volume 2 of a set may be forgotten in a motel room, volume 3 at a rest stop down the road. The disc-based software that accompanies you on the family trip frequently comes back ruined — if it comes back at all.
MP3-LIKE CONVENIENCE FOR DISC-BASED APPLICATIONS
Virtual CDs bring MP3-like ease use and portability to video games, CD-ROM clip art collections, educational software, and other disc-based applications. They’re the perfect disc management solution when you’re sharing disc-based games and applications with members of the family or transporting CDs and DVDs from place to place.
You’ll need a CD emulator to convert your physical disc into a virtual CD, or a file that runs directly on a computer’s hard drive. Since it’s just an electronic file, a virtual CD can be stored on a laptop computer or just about any digital storage device.
A virtual CD plays just like a physical CD, only there’s no need to load the physical disc — you simply click on desktop shortcut to launch a favorite game or application. You can have several virtual CDs running simultaneously in one of several virtual drives. It may seem like a silly idea to keep so many virtual CDs loaded, but gamers in particular like to hot swap between titles or volumes.
Although it emulates a physical CD, a virtual CD operates directly on the hard drive, improving playback times by as much as 200% and eliminating wear and tear on the CD-ROM drive. It can be shared over a network, customized to contain multi-disc sets and expansion packs, and organized with other virtual CDs in a searchable library with a Windows-like directory tree.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT CD EMULATOR
Most commercial CD emulators cost between $30 and $60 — a bargain compared to many game titles, and well worth the price of admission if you’re able to spare just a few of your discs from abuse. But while nearly all CD emulators have certain basic features in common, not all offer the same usability and disc support.
You should also be aware that while a CD emulator is a great tool for most PC games, educational software, and unprotected DVDs, any legal CD emulator will not work with a CSS protected DVD. In other words, don’t expect to transform your Hollywood videos into a virtual DVD library.
If you’d like to purchase a CD emulator, you might want to download an evaluation version first. Try to determine which product works best with the discs in your collection. Decide which brand gives you the best value for your money and offers ongoing technical support.
FarStone Technology makes a solid CD emulator in the form of VirtualDrive (www.farstone.com/software/virtualdrive.htm), which weighs in just under 30 dollars. An evaluation download is available at www.farstone.com.
CD EMULATOR RESOURCES
FarStone VirtualDrive
www.farstone.com/software/virtualdrive.htm
General Emulator Listings
www.thumbshots.net/webguide.aspx?cat=Computers/Hardware/Storage/Optical/Emulation
The Shocking Facts are that 85% to 90% of computers that are connected to the internet today are infected by some type of adware and spyware!- Source CNN
These malicious software programs Invade your privacy and send personal and private data to third parties and also take up hard drive space and slow down your PC.
Spyware tracks your on line internet browsing and surfing habits. It moniters each location you visit and what you have looked up on that site. Spyware programs can even track every keystroke you make on your keyboard and record every bit of data you add to a online form, such as name, location and credit card data when you make a purchase. This can lead to identity hijacking and theft of personal and private credit card information. Your PC surfing habits and personal and private information is then sold to third parties.
Adware is another kind of spyware. It doesn’t work by tracking your information as spyware does, but what it can do is literally switch your browser settings without your permission. It can cause pop up ads to appear on your PC. A toolbar can also be installed on your computer without your knowledge. Most of us are unaware of the presence of adware programs installed on our computer untill it starts to slow down, crash, blue screen or programs stop working properly.
The spyware business is a billion dollar a year industry with people getting very rich selling the information they steal about you.
Downloading and installing anti-spyware software will remove and protect your computer from spyware, adware, keyloggers, pop ups, trojans and worms.
Its late. You’ve been scouring the web for that perfect present for your Aunt Bess in Idaho. You finally find it at presents4aunties.com. The site looks a little rough on the edges, weird colors and such. But they have that gift you know will make Aunt Bess add you to her will. You purchase the gift, log off and head to bed. Tired but happy.
The next day, coffee in hand, you turn on your computer. That’s strange you say, its awfully slow this morning. Finally its booted and ready to go. You open your browser to check the Cow Tipping Blog for the latest posts.
What’s this you say, My Homepage is now longer the Log , but a site trying to sell me a DVD of the Surfs vs the Terminator!
Oh well you say, not quite fully awake. You type in the URL for your Log and wait. And wait, and wait. Finally its up! You start to read the mornings postings. You’re into the second post about the upcoming Cow Tipping Championship in Vegas when a Popup appears and says you need to go to heartburn.com for the new revolutionary cure for heartburn. Click here now it says and receive a free gift, the secret cure for Baldness!
Weird you think, you click the X to close it.
You don’t realize by clicking the X that a small hidden piece of code has just been downloaded to your computer.
You finish the Log postings and decide to check your Bank Account. You type in the URL and wait, and wait. Finally the Bank Logon appears. You log in, completely unaware of the code, which is actually a Key logger, is recording your every keystroke. The Transaction is there for Aunties gift, you’re so happy. You log off and remember you forgot to email that document for your Boss. That’s ok you say, I can log in from here and send it! Technology is so great ! You log into your work portal and access your email program, find the document, attach it to the email form and send it. You vaguely remember it had something to do with the updated personal info list for all of the employees at your job. It includes their Addresses, email addresses and Direct Deposit Account numbers, also their Logon Names and Passwords to access the Computers at work.
Darn you say as another Popup appears, what’s wrong with this computer?
Well at least you didn’t forget the Bosses Document. Wouldn’t want to get in trouble with the Boss. You’ve a great job, working for the Trans Global Bank after all. Offices all over the world don’t you know.
Well time to check your Anti-Virus program for updates. Hmm it says no updates kneed ed . You notice the Misspelling but what the heck, those things happen. Gee the computer is really slow! You decide to reboot, hoping that will fix it. Gripes, now it wont even boot! At least there’s a little extra money in the ole Bank Account to get it fixed.
The above is fiction. No animals were harmed. But its scary huh to think it could happen.
Granted it’s a worse case scenario, but I wonder…
Be smart out there people, learn how to use your Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware programs. Keep em updated, and it they don’t work well for your surfing habits, find programs that will. Keep your computer protected, your well being may depend on it.
Any music teacher that also plays the guitar and has guitar amateurs under his tutoring at least one time dreamed about being able to slow down guitar riff in such a manner that will not required to change the pitch, keeping audio quality at a high level while slowing down the song in order for students to be able to faster and better follow the notes and general performance tone. Try to solo a riff or tone by year when listening to a very fast paced song often results in frustration and disappointment for most young guitarists looking for instant results and musical satisfaction. For this reason the need to properly slow down guitar riff and even capability of transcribing a specific part of a song has grown over the years, keeping massive musical capabilities locked away from the superstar dreaming inside every one of us. Fortunately, there are already professional solutions that allow you to slow down guitar riff without changing the pitch.
If you are sick of paying for tab books that aren’t exactly the most accurate pieces of art you have been looking for or tired of wasting time over the Internet while downloading tabs that are not even close to the song that you wish to learn it is time for a change, a massive change of productivity for your musical hobby! While many guitar amateurs are ready to give up, users of Riff Master Pro are enjoying the benefits of a software product which is cheap, reliable, accurate and able to instantly slow down a guitar riff without changing the pitch, resulting in great learning capabilities, making Riff Master Pro the perfect guitarist software made by a guitarist for his students.
After downloading Riff Master Pro you are just 27 seconds away from starting to learn to play the guitar professionally, being able to rock and roll side by side with world’s best guitar solo players. While using Riff Master Pro you are not able to only slow down guitar riff but also save a specific part of a song while it has been already altered for teaching purposes and even the zoom feature which allows you to find a specific phrase that you are interested to work on, down to the note, making tabs part of the history and software like Riff Master Pro indispensable for guitar learning sessions that involved the requirement of slow down guitar riff.
According to customer testimonials, Riff Master Pro has increased the success rate of guitar students significantly, allowing in some cases the learning of 3 songs in just few hours after the first contact of a student with this award winning software. As a matter of fact, Riff Master Pro is so user friendly that even non technical PC users can enjoy the benefits of working with a product that is able to slow down guitar riff without changing the pitch, at a level of sound quality that is capable of satisfying even the most professional players.
Even dreamed about learning “Satch boogie” in just 1 day? Incredible as it may sound, it is now possible because all which is needed to better and faster comprehend such complex guitar based songs is to be able to properly slow down guitar riff. Riff Master Pro has easily become the number one choice of Australian guitar students and is now open to the global market. Get it today, slow down guitar riff and start learning every song that you have been only previously dreaming of.
Will malefactor steal your most private information right now? Or will he wait for tomorrow?
The relevant issue of privacy protection is important today like never before. Malefactors are hunting users for their personal information, inventing new intricate ways of stealing it.
You may think that there’s nothing wrong with giving away such ‘innocent’ info like your email address, for instance. Well, that’s where you have to think again. By finding some bits of information malefactors are always able to find out more. They may find a way to get into your system and fish out some data which you didn’t even know existed!
The following are just some examples of how your personal data may be used by frauds.
Spammers make use of your address book for sending annoying unwanted letters to you and all of your acquaintances. Phishers masquerade as a trustworthy person or business and send you an apparently official email trying to find out your bank account details or your credit card pin number. Hackers use your login and password for stealing your Internet traffic or sending exploits into your system thus turning your computer into their slave. Not exactly something you’d like to be a part of, is it?
The main problem is that most users don’t even suspect they might get ripped off in such a malicious way. They are naive enough to think that their personal information is perfectly safe the way it is without any extra measures taken.
But please consider the following. Your personal private information might be in danger, if:
- you ever used any of the web-services
- you ever filled out any of the online registration forms
- you ever used any online messaging services
Which basically means that you are in the risk group if your computer is connected to the Internet. And that would be almost all of us!
So what you need now is to find out how to deal with this problem. Many articles have been written on this subject, and many words have been said. But the number of attacks grows with every day, and so does the users’ alarm. What a user really needs nowadays is not talk but some REAL protection of his PRIVACY.
When you input any information into your computer, you trust your system to protect this data. But unfortunately it is you who has to take measures and turn your PC into a SECURE STRONGHOLD, inaccessible by any malefactors.
If you wish to find out how to do this, just read on.
First of all, let’s get to the root of the problem. Why is it that you need any protection in the first place? What exactly puts you into a risk group?
The thing is that your Operating System collects and stores data about you personally and about your computer’s configuration. This is mainly done to facilitate the process of you getting customer’s support in case any problems occur. Many user’s applications do the same. So when you contact the program’s Support, all you might have to do is to click one single button in the application’s screen rather than to scan your system manually, trying to find the needed information. Rather convenient, isn’t it?
The other reason for the system and applications storing your personal information is you using web-services. Many applications store information about your e-mail address, your passwords, your credit card number or your bank accounts in order to speed up the process of your registration at some websites or your buying and selling stuff via the Internet etc.
Now, please note that by personal information we don’t mean any of your files or documents. It is only the data collected by numerous applications and the Operating System that we talk about. Such data is stored in your system separately from any user’s files and usually does not affect the work of the applications themselves.
While all those features of collecting and storing information about you and your system are meant to help you, sometimes they turn into your worst enemy. There are many many malefactors that will try to take advantage of your system’s leaks in order to steal your personal information stored by your OS and applications. Thus instead of making your life easier, the storage of your private info brings you nothing but potential problems.
Now don’t you think that you should be the ONLY one to decide whether you want to share any of your data? Well, exactly! It should be only up to you to determine who should know what about yourself! After all, it is YOUR information!
So we defined the problem and we know you want to solve it. The question is how.
There are several ways of protecting your private information. Nowadays there is a great number of software solutions that will help you deal with the problem of privacy protection.
First of all you may choose to install some kind of a firewall that would prevent any hacker attacks. Modern software market offers a great deal of such applications to choose from. But note that setting up these programs is usually a rather complicated process. In order to customize the application you’d have to specify what actions it would take for virtually any event. Besides you will have to download base updates if you want to be sure that you have the best protection available (than means you have to download them daily or hourly even). Considering the fact that malefactors daily invent hundreds of new ways of getting into your system, firewalls might not be just the best solution to keeping your private info safe.
This does not in any way mean that firewalls offer bad protection level. It’s what we should call an ‘insufficient’ measure.
Keeping this in mind you might ask yourself: What if I don’t want these applications to store any info about me in the first place? And that’s exactly right! No one will ever steal something that you just don’t have!
Now the problem arises how to clean up the information stored in your system. You may, of course, do that manually by locating system files and settings responsible for storing user’s data and then cleaning them up. But this requires advanced user’s skills and knowledge, as you may accidentally erase something that will cause your applications work unsteadily. Besides, manual clean-up takes time and patience and is not always possible to perform as many applications encrypt your info (so you may have trouble finding it, let alone removing).
And what now? Is that impossible for a common user to protect his own personal information? Well, of course not! Luckily, there are some programs in the market that allow for automatic safe clean-up of all your privacy leaks. You can easily find such applications in search engines, searching for ‘personal data protection tool’, ‘privacy protection tool’ or ’system-stored personal data search and removal’.
And remember this: No one but you has the right to access your personal information! So take the necessary steps to prevent your private data from being stolen! Do that before it’s too late, as some of the malefactors are attempting to rip you off at this very moment!
Spyware is a term used to describe a broad category of malicious or privacy invading software. Spyware is very much like a virus in the way that it “infects” a computer’s operation and functioning without the owner/user’s consent. Spyware infects a host by a number of different ways. One way that spyware is distributed is by hiding it inside another piece of software. Disguising software in such a way is very sneaky but is usually not illegal. Often enough, when installing the original software there will be a contract that you must read and accept to continue. About 99% of people never take the time to fully read that contract because if they did, they would learn that the software they are installing would also be installing spyware to do a number of nasty things. Some of these things include: 1. Logging all of your passwords and user names and sending them to people that exploit that information. 2. Logging all of your websites that you visited and keeping detailed track records of your Internet usages. 3. Pop up advertisements unsuspecting in hopes to make a few bucks from your clicks. 4. Slow and bog up your Internet connection.
As you can see spyware is usually an undesirable piece of software. The sad truth is that over 75% of all Internet connected computers are infected with spyware. That number continues to grow because spyware often reproduces itself automatically by sending itself to other computers from infected hosts. Essentially growing exponentially out of control. Even major multi-million dollar businesses undergo a tremendous battle against spyware, spending thousands and thousands of dollars every year. The problem with this is that while battling against spyware they are actually attracting more of it. If only they would put the time, money and resources into having computer and network systems free and immune to spyware will they ever win the war against it.
Now this may sound unbelievable at first but if you look at how anti-spyware softwares, firewall softwares and computer security softwares all work, they work by protecting computers from previously made malicious software, not by preventing new ones from infiltrating. A firewall is designed to block access from places that it is told are unsafe or unrecognized. This might seem like a preventive measure but its not! – If you recall the earlier part of this article, one of the major ways you get infected with spyware is that it piggybacks on a “trusted” piece of software.
If you want to have lasting pleasure online then you should have some kind of adware spyware removal tool protecting your computer against adware, spyware, trojans, dialers and worms.
The web delivers more threats to the innocent browser on a daily basis than the advance user, and that is why you should protect yourself from identity theft or any other scams that can be caused by malicious adware or spyware.
The first thing anyone online should do, is get a antivirus program, free or paid, works just fine, I do think you get what you pay for, so dish out a little.
Next you will need a adware spyware removal tool, I do advise going with a free and paid tool, you can do a search online for Microsoft AntiSpyware beta, it’s free and really good.
Adware or any of those type of threats slows down your computer performance, you will need to run your free adware remover to remove adware that you might have already on your computer. Once your system is cleaned you will be amazed by the performance.
The biggest problem your faced with today is the choice between the thousands of adware spyware removal tools online, and some of the tools really do more harm than good by adding more malicious adware on your system. You need to go for a adware removal tool that is trustworthy and one that is upgraded often.
I have tried many of these programs and I can only recommend one program that has really worked for me and still works, even today.
My online browsing has been so smooth, that even my kids knows how to use my adware removal tool to clean my computer on a daily basis after browsing the web.
If you do any king of online purchasing with your credit cards, then you must get yourself a adware or spyware removal program, because your at risk that you might be sending out information online without you knowing, and if this information lands in the wrong hands, you could be the next victim of identity theft.
Do yourself a favor and get the tools needed to protect you and your family online, it only takes a antivirus software and a adware spyware removal tool.
This solution is System Keylogger. It logs keystrokes, chat conversations, applications, windows, websites, passwords, emails and can take screenshots at a given period of time. System Keylogger is the ultimate surveillance tool. It is invisible, informative and impeccable.
System Keylogger can be used for monitoring PCs at home and in the office. At home, you can look after your child. You’ll see what resources he’s visiting and notice if he spends time in suspicious chats or forums. You’ll know before it’s too late if he gets an invitation from an unfamiliar person asking for a meeting without your consent.
The program can help you to save your marriage. If your spouse acts suspiciously and it looks like he’s having an affair online, you can use the spyware to log his emails and chats. This’ll enable you to act beforehand and help to make things right.
Another good point of using System Keylogger is that it can raise efficiency of your office employees. Use the program to log what applications they are running, what websites they are visiting and make screenshots to see how they spend time in front of PC. It’s also possible to turn on the splash screen that will inform them about logging.
You can use System Keylogger absolutely without a risk of being exposed. While the program is active, it’s almost impossible for an unauthorized person to notice, deactivate or terminate it. The advanced stealth engine will hide it from System Tray and Task Manager. It’s also important that when it comes to viewing the collected data, System Keylogger is at its best, delivering all logs through a friendly interface. Moreover, you can even make System Keylogger send Activity Logs via E-mail or FTP to monitor your PC remotely.
With System Keylogger, you can be sure that everything is OK, both in your family and at work. It’ll let you notice the upcoming problem in advance, so you’ll be able to deal with it promptly. Whether you want to keep an eye on your child, spouse, employee or anyone else who uses your PC, System Keylogger will be the optimal solution. Being aware is being secured. Visit www.systemkeylogger.com to get a trial and see the program in action.
Pricing and Availability
System Keylogger runs under all versions of Microsoft Windows and costs $49.99 (USD) for a single-user license. Licensed customers are entitled to the fully-functional version of the product, free technical support and free upgrades. More information on System Keylogger, as well as its free trial copy is available free of charge from www.systemkeylogger.com.
Has your computer ever crashed on you? I don’t mean the normal everyday, “I’m a Microsoft Product so I must shutdown” crashes, I mean really crashed where you cannot boot back up. Where your hard drive just quit working or some other major problem made you lose all of your data.
It’s like losing your wallet. Losing your money isn’t so bad, but all that time getting new ID, credit cards, and other important papers is aggravating. On your computer there is a lot of data we take for granted every day.
Documents we have created, music we have downloaded, pictures we have saved, and so much more. Most people know its wise to back up those items onto a CD-ROM or onto storage space somewhere on the web, but what are some of the other things you should be backing up?
Do you allow cookies to be stored on your computer to remember your login information for websites that you visit a lot? Then you also need to find the “cookies” folder on your computer and back that up as well. In Windows 98 its in C:windowscookies. In Windows XP, its in C:documents and settingsusernamecookies.
Do you know all of your passwords by heart? Do you use a program to manage passwords? If you use a program, find it, probably in program files, and back up the files inside that folder that related to your saved password files. If you ever have to reinstall that program you can re-add those files into the new folder and have all of your old password files.
If you do not use a program, you need to have a system of recovering those passwords if your computer ever quits on you. If you do not have one, create one and add all of your new passwords you create to it. Don’t put it in your wallet.
Hit F3 on your computer and select search for files on C Drive. Type in (*).PWL(*) without the parenthesis. It’s the asterisk dot pwl asterisk with no spaces. Hit search and windows will find all of the password files for you. To find them manually, check C:windows. Back up those files if you want your computer logins to remain the same.
What about your email? Not just the saved email, but the entire folder structure you spent time creating, your address book, and your account information with all of the right settings to send and receive email. You will want to back these up whenever you do all of your other backups.
First, how to backup all of the email and folder structure in Outlook Express. Open Outlook Express. Go to tools, options, maintenance. There will be a button there that says “store folder”. Click on that. Highlight the entire path that comes up in the little text box. Now hit cancel and cancel to close all popups.
Click on “start” in your task bar. Go to run. Paste the path you just copied into the text box and hit enter. A folder will open. Go to edit, select all, then go to edit again and select “copy”. Now close that folder. Right click on your computer desktop, select new, folder.Rename that folder “mailbackup”. Open that folder. Go to edit, paste.
Leave that folder open so you can backup your mail account settings and information. Now go back to Outlook Express. Go to tools, accounts, mail. You will do the following for each mail account you have. Highlight one account, Click Export. Browse to where the mailbackup file is on your desktop and export it into there. Once you do that with each account, you can cancel out of the open dialog boxes.
Now, for your address book. Go to Outlook Express one more time. Go to export. Choose address book. Choose text file. Browse again to the mailbackup folder and export it to there.
Now using winzip or other file compression utility, you can zip the mailbackup folder up and back it up to CD-ROM or to an online storage place. Make a schedule of backing these things I have included in the article. Consider it insurance against a hard drive crash. Believe me, if you use the web a lot, you’d almost rather lose your wallet than lose all of your computer data.
