Stop Spam Email

Avoid a Computer Crash Wipe Out: Back Up Important Files

You’ve heard horror stories about it, or perhaps you’ve experienced it yourself. Many people have nearly gone insane after the disaster that all computer-dependent individuals shiver at the thought of: the great computer crash.

A person can literally lose everything he has saved on his computer in a blink of an eye. The reasons are varied. At times it occurs after an ample amount of warning signs, other times it comes as a complete surprise (making it more disconcerting). When these moments happen - and they do happen, and quite often actually - one can only hope that he has saved his files elsewhere, otherwise, there is little hope that they will be recovered.

Are you scared yet? If you don’t want this to happen to you and your precious files (which I’m almost sure you don’t), read on and find out how to create backups for your many important files.
Read the rest of this entry »

Preventing Password Hackers

PC security and safety is always an issue nowadays thanks to the advent of computer technology and the Internet. More computer intruders are boldly coming forward and are looking for ways to attack helpless computer users with valuable information stored in their PCs. Intruders are getting their hands on the latest security measures brought out by various developers and are looking for ways to get through them.

Anti-virus software developers are doing their best to ensure every computer user’s safety and security from potential attacks by always updating their virus definitions and cleaning capabilities, as well as strengthening your firewalls. Sometimes however, it is not enough as intruders can be one or more steps ahead. They use various means of attacking computers so it is sometimes hard to tell what they’re going to do next.

One of the ways is hacking in order to retrieve your password. Think of the many things they can do once they get your passwords - they can access any online accounts you may have, access your email to send and retrieve messages from your address, enter secure networks - the possibilities seem to be limitless. In order to prevent these things from happening, you should have password protection.
Read the rest of this entry »

Computer Viruses and Guarding Against Them

In this modern Information Age, computers are necessities in life. Whether we use them for simple functions such as typing our homework and business reports, up to more important acts like online business meetings and transactions, one cannot deny that computers are a big part in our daily lives. Using a computer, particularly the Internet, is one task that even a ten year old can do at this particular period in time.

With the growing increase of popularity and reliance on computers, as well as the demand for it, security risks have also gone up, which is a reality that cannot be ignored. With the billions of information bits being spread across the World Wide Web, hackers and computer intruders (criminals) see the value in focusing their attention to computers and the Internet. The information they would retrieve here is (more often than not) more useful than when doing it the old-fashioned way.

As such, these intruders have devised methods to get information out of computer users, with or without these people knowing that they’ve been hacked. As is the case in real life, there are some computer programs that are disguised to be innocent, but actually act as spies, providing information to the intruders. These malicious programs, which are security threats, are called computer viruses.

Computer viruses should not be taken lightly. They work in many different ways; one of them may be to provide data to the one who planted the virus. Other viruses can simply be annoying - slowing down your computer, building unwanted files, etc. - while some can be very disruptive, such as deleting your hard drive, compromising your operating system, etc.

As such, there are different types of viruses, which normally differ in how they function and how they are spread. Examples of these include Trojan horses, worms, email viruses, and logic bombs. It would be important for you to know these kinds of viruses in order to better protect you from them, as well as to have the proper programs to get rid of them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ensuring the Safety and Security of Your Home Computer

With the popularity of and the reliance on the Internet by almost the entire world population, there are suddenly a lot of things you can do and know with literally one click of the mouse. Making purchases nowadays doesn’t require you to go to the shop or store; you can buy items online. Researching for various pieces of information can now be accomplished via the Internet.

However, there is an unfortunate reality that goes along with the wonders of the Internet. It also thanks to the Internet that computer security is always an issue. With the continued growth of the dependency of people (including businessmen, offices, government officials, and more) on computers and the Internet, this is a more important issue than what most believe.

If you are a home computer user, you still need to make sure that your computer is safe from any form of malicious online attack, including hacking. You might have important data (including any identification) in your computer which intruders can have access to. That being said, it is important for you to find out just how safe your computer is from these potential attacks.
Read the rest of this entry »

The internet is filled with more and more marketers, many of whom are creating their own websites to market products. While having your own website will help you attract potential customers, it will also attract hackers who can wreak havoc on your site if you are not well protected.

Here are some things you can do to help protect your websites.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you aren’t using plugins to protect your WordPress blog from spam, you must very frustrated with blog spam right now. While doing a little blog maintenance recently I was reminded that automated blog spamming makes it possible for spammers to constantly attack.

In order to update one of my spam stopping plugins, I deactivated it. Of course, right at that moment my son needed a ride so I left my desk for about 20 minutes. In that short amount of time, four spam comments were posted and nearly another dozen spam comments and spam trackbacks were awaiting moderation. At that pace it would be impossible to maintain a blog without constant attention to all the spam.

How to keep a blog spam free Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve been on the internet for any period of time you’ve likely hear the term IP address.  IP address stands for Internet Protocol address. The Ip address is a number that is unique to each computer or system that is connecting to the world wide web. The sole purpose of having such a specific address is for tracking each individual internet connection. It identified the user in much the same way a telephone number or street address would in the offline world. A network is used in which electronic devices can communicate with each other. An IP Addresses will be configured like this: 127.72.16.137.

Thanks to IP addresses, your computer can be easily identified in particular situations. For example, most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a database in which they store each of their client’s IP addresses.

The IP Address and Privacy Read the rest of this entry »

As we rely more and more on the internet, between personal communications and businesses, we need to protect our computers. There are all sorts of hazards out there that can cause problems as simple as slowing your machine down to identity theft. Statistics show that about 80% of all the people on the internet report problems with their computers running slow, even with very little programs installed and a T1 connection. It is important to be aware of these threats and know how to prevent and eliminate them.

The most likely cause of loss of computer performance is called malware (spyware, adware, key-loggers, or drive-by downloader, etc.) that enter your system by various means, slowing things down to a crawl. This malicious software can gather your surfing information and send it to places you don’t want sent or track your personal information for future use. Unfortunately, these malicious software programs are everywhere on the internet, including some “friendly” websites such as websites run by the government and the large, reputable companies.

As the web technology advances, viruses and spyware get smarter and harder to detect and kill, too. In order to protect your computer from malware you need to understand what they are and how they work.

Basically, there are three types of malware presented in this article because they are the most common problems we encounter:

1. Viruses
2. Spyware
3. Adware

Let’s take a look at viruses first. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most disheartening and most frustrating spam problems to deal with is spoofing. When a spammer puts someone else’s email address in the “reply-to” field of their spam messages, all bounced message notifications and replies to the original message will be sent to the innocent victim. Using a false or fake email header to send messages is called spoofing.

The way you find out your email address has been spoofed is when you start receiving bounced message notifications for email you didn’t send. And it’s a horrible feeling when it happens!

While there’s really nothing you can do to stop it once it happens, there are some things you can do to try and prevent it from happening in the first place. But before we get into that let me offer some words of encouragement for current victims of spoofing who are receiving countless numbers of bounced message notifications. In my experience, a spoofing attack is an isolated incident, not an endless nightmare. Spammers generally use your email address for one mass mailing and then move on to another unfortunate victim.

Read on to find out if you’ve been spoofed and learn how to prevent future attacks. Read the rest of this entry »