With outstanding technology, often come drawbacks. Take the cellular telephone for example. Now they're saying that excessive use of your mobile phone can cause cancer. This notion alone makes me refrain from using my cell phone much. Then there are the issues with computers and the Internet. No, I'm not telling you that your WIFI connection causes brain tumors or your laptop will cause a cyst in your abdomen. I have no idea about those things. I'm referring to computer crime. You know, all the negative activity that takes place over the Internet. At this point it seems endless.
People all over the world become the victims of identity theft. Apparently conniving little hackers with little ambition for a career would rather steal someone's identity in order to acquire things free of charge. But not free for the victim of course. Nope; they are the ones that pay and have their credit ruined. A minor bout with identity fraud actually happened to my wife a few years back. Someone had stolen her identity and gained access to her bank account. They proceeded in purchasing a cell phone plan. Fortunately for us, the bank took care of the charge and investigated further. They thought my wife's account information was retrieved via the Internet, hence making this a computer crime. Be very careful with your bank access on the web, and guard all passwords with your life.
Identity theft is not the more serious of computer crime issues. Certainly the major one at-hand concerns sex offenders. Every day sick individuals are using the web to pinpoint minors. They acquire their information on a chat forum, and/or pose as another minor to converse with them and find things out. A major medium where this computer crime often begins is on websites like Myspace.com. Although these free chat sites were designed with good intentions, sex offenders and criminals naturally took total advantage of them. In order to avoid computer crime and keep your children from conversing with strangers, be vigilant when surfing the web and monitor your kids when they use the Internet. Also, never be afraid to talk to them about these issues and how to remain safe.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Computer Virus
Computer Virus
There are many things you have to watch out for when you’re online, and one of the worst of those is the computer virus. Now that broadband Internet is more common, there are more and more viruses out there that can sneak onto your computer without you knowing it. This is why it is very important to have a very good firewall on your computer, as well as a good antivirus program. It is also important to make sure each of them is updated on a regular basis.
Most protection software will update on its own, however your firewall may stop your computer virus software from updating. You must make sure that you have your firewall set to allow these updates to come through. If you have something like Zone Alarm, it will ask you if you would like to allow the software to access the Internet. You will see the same type of activity when a computer virus is trying to get onto your system. Your firewall and your computer virus software should both stop this type of activity, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep an eye on things.
Sometimes the computer virus can get onto your computer and can do damage very quickly, while other times the process is slow and you may not know what is going on for quite a while. Sometimes a computer virus will be planted that does nothing but plant other viruses. This can be very confusing, and can lead to a lot of problems if your software is not up to date. At times you may get a virus that your software has not picked up on. If you think this is the case, update your antivirus software immediately and run another scan.
With broadband Internet service you can surf the Internet much faster, but you can also pick up the computer virus much faster. Sadly, a nasty computer virus is all it takes to completely destroy your system. There are people out there with nothing better to do than to try to create a new virus to take over your computer. I am not sure why they do this, but I guess it doesn’t matter if we know why. Even though we don’t understand why they do, it is important that we realize they do. You should make sure that you do everything it can to keep in a computer virus from destroying your system.
There are many things you have to watch out for when you’re online, and one of the worst of those is the computer virus. Now that broadband Internet is more common, there are more and more viruses out there that can sneak onto your computer without you knowing it. This is why it is very important to have a very good firewall on your computer, as well as a good antivirus program. It is also important to make sure each of them is updated on a regular basis.
Most protection software will update on its own, however your firewall may stop your computer virus software from updating. You must make sure that you have your firewall set to allow these updates to come through. If you have something like Zone Alarm, it will ask you if you would like to allow the software to access the Internet. You will see the same type of activity when a computer virus is trying to get onto your system. Your firewall and your computer virus software should both stop this type of activity, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep an eye on things.
Sometimes the computer virus can get onto your computer and can do damage very quickly, while other times the process is slow and you may not know what is going on for quite a while. Sometimes a computer virus will be planted that does nothing but plant other viruses. This can be very confusing, and can lead to a lot of problems if your software is not up to date. At times you may get a virus that your software has not picked up on. If you think this is the case, update your antivirus software immediately and run another scan.
With broadband Internet service you can surf the Internet much faster, but you can also pick up the computer virus much faster. Sadly, a nasty computer virus is all it takes to completely destroy your system. There are people out there with nothing better to do than to try to create a new virus to take over your computer. I am not sure why they do this, but I guess it doesn’t matter if we know why. Even though we don’t understand why they do, it is important that we realize they do. You should make sure that you do everything it can to keep in a computer virus from destroying your system.
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