Securing computer from viruses and hackers
Internet, Computers and Networks are merging in our real lives so rapidly that everything is now depended on it. The more things are merging into computers and internet the more it become unsecured. Internet is a blind world you can’t trust on any thing, even if you are communicating with your family on internet or receiving a file from your friends, you can’t trust the file being sent or your communication, as they might interrupted by a third person sitting in the middle of you communication and monitoring your packets.
You have to be very careful while using internet, especially for sensitive stuff, like credit card transactions, buying something online, or sharing your personal data. There can be hackers who are spying your internet activities, or viruses that slowed down your computer or messed up your computer behavior and lots of other malicicious programs like Spywares, Trojans, Adwares, Worms and rootkits. All these malicious softwares are also called as malware (MALicious softWARE). Lot of people miss use the concept of these programs, they all call it a virus, which are different due to their behavior and their influence.
Viruses
In simple words, a computer virus is just unwanted code designed to damage your computer. It is a program which adds up extra codes to your operating system, your files, or your programs, and because of these extra codes it changes the behavior of you computer.
Some viruses spread from one file to another and keep on spreading it self and infect all your programs and files, it can also spread one computer to another and so on. Most viruses have the ability to re-generated their selves or re-install their selves even if you remove or uninstall it. It can hide itself as hidden process or service, so you will not be able to see it as a file or process, but internally it does its job.
There are some types of malwares which also affect your computer.
Spywares
Like its name, spy your activities. Mostly it doesn’t damage your computer but keep track of what you are doing on internet like keyboard typing, websites visited or your downloads and secretly gathers your information and send the data that it’s made for to its master.
Trojans
Trojan is also called Trojan horse. There is no such specific definition of Trojans as the functionality sometime similar to viruses or spywares. The most common behavior of a Trojan is that it can change itself. Trojans are very destructive and can damage all your data. The moment Trojans get into your system, it change its shape and pretending to be another of program which you might thing of a system program. Some Trojans destroy it selves as it install in your machine but before vanishing itself it completes it mission.
Adwares
When an adware program is installed on your machine, you may see some strange automatic pop-ups or advertisement displaying on your screen. These advertisements may contain downloading ads or promotion of products. An adware can be a spyware. Most adware are installed automatically via clicking on some links or some advertisement. Some adware advertisement looks interesting and attracting users to interact like with, like you won $5000000 or click here to claim a laptop or your machine is infected with viruses, click here to download antivirus or scan your computer from viruses etc the moment you click on the ad it automatically install on you computer.
How to deal with all these malwares and viruses
There are some programs which are not malicious but they slow down your computer or internet speed, like the Toolbars, which are embedded with some useful softwares and when you install that software it also install the toolbar. But it always ask at the end if you want to install that toolbar etc, for example you have Google toolbar and are happy with it, but you also need msn messenger and yahoo messenger, when you install these softwares by just clicking next-next-finsh, these toolbars also get installed into your browser and every time you open your browser it has to open the embedded toolbar’s modules and your browser takes ages while opening, so watch carefully and don’t install extra toolbars etc.
Some time you may see a tricky popup claiming that your computer is infected with viruses or spywares we strongly recommend to download XXXXX.
Do not click on any link even don’t click on close button, as the close button also has the script of triggering the code. Open task manager and close your browser’s process, restart your computer and check if you still see that message.
If the message is still there, Restore your machine from last state (the time when your computer was fine)
Here is how to restore your computer from last working state.
Click on start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
And select the previous date when your computer was fine. Or download Hijackthis tool scan and fix the bugs it find and restart your computer.
Lot of people installs different spyware softwares, antivirus softwares and Internet security softwares, but that slows down computer so much that sometime people uninstall these softwares and happy without antiviruses etc.
What antivirus to choose?
Personally I have tried lot of antiviruses, anti spywares and internet security softwares and with some of these I had some bad experience with them. Currently there are two antiviruses that I have used and I’m satisfied with, Kaspersky and Nod32.
Nod32 is very light-weight application, never slows down your computer and catch most of antivirus. it also daily update its virus definitions database.
Kaspersky as for as my experience, is a little bit better than nod32, as it catch more viruses and Trojans than any one else. And its also isn’t too heavy.
If someone want to get rid of spywares, Trojans, viruses etc, I would recommend them to install either Kasperksy internet security or Nod32 Internet Security as it include all-in-one protection. This also has its built-in firewall.
If you want a free antivirus, then use AVG Free antivirus, its better than most paid antivirus.
Always double protect your computer from hackers, secure your internet gateway (router) and also secure your computer with firewall. Almost every router comes with built-in firewall facility, check your router if firewall and be sure that its protected.
How to check firewall?
There are some websites where you can check if your router is protecting you from outside world or not. Before testing your firewall try to stop or disable your windows or software firewall first as you can enable it later.
http://probe.hackerwatch.org/probe/probe.asp
You can check which port is insecure and which port is secure. If you see that your ports are closed but insecure, this means that your router or modem isn’t protecting you from outside. If you see that ports are closed and secure mean that router’s firewall is ON and working provided your windows/software firewall is disabled.