Computer security deals with data protection on a standalone computer or a network of computers. With the increase in the development of malware and the expansion of the computer network layers so rapidly, the security levels also need to be constantly upgraded to ensure that the data storage is robust and safe.

Data is primarily protected by authorizing user access through passwords or encrypted data transfer. However, if such confidential data leaks out, the security of the system is highly at stake. Hackers can intrude into the system if they can somehow decode the encryption format or get access to the password through unethical means.

The following are some of the common security threats in a computer network:

• Trojan Horse: These malicious programs are commonly developed by hackers to gain unauthorized access into private networks and acquire complete remote access of a computer.
• Denial of Service: Hackers can bring a huge computer network to a complete standstill by gaining unauthorized into the network and disabling certain important services.
• Viruses and Worms: They are dangerous programs that can self-replicate and spread to other computers in the network.
• Sniffing: In this case, the hacker eavesdrops and interprets the network packets during data transfer.

Data loss occurs not only in computer networks but also in stand-alone computers. For example, hard disk crashes may result in irrecoverable damage resulting in data loss. Hence, it is necessary to take regular backups, rewritable as well as permanent storage mediums.

In addition, one has to ensure that the antivirus software is regularly updated in order to protect the computer from being hacked.

Website security is a primary concern of website owners across the world. It does not matter which framework you are using, you should still maintain the web application and server to prevent intrusions. Hackers can attack your website to get access to sensitive data and use the server for sending abused mails and hosting malicious files.

To prevent security attacks, you can follow the suggestions mentioned below.

Keep the Software and Frameworks updated:

All software development companies fix security bugs in updated versions of their products. You can keep hackers away from the website by updating the framework and software you used during web development. In this way, you can make your website more secure from attacks. Generally, hackers use security holes in a website to perform malicious activities. If they cannot find any vulnerability, they start finding another website that has security holes.

Use strong and impossible-to-guess passwords:

It is always recommended to use strong passwords for FTP accounts, cPanel, and email accounts to prevent security breaches. You should use small letters, capital letters, special characters and numbers in your password to make it impossible to guess.

Always filter HTML and JavaScript:

The Cross Site Scripting (XSS) is the most common method used for intrusion. Intruders can insert a scripting code in web forms or use JavaScript to run malicious code. To ensure security, you should check the data being submitted and remove the unnecessary HTML tags.

Display error messages carefully:

When users insert incorrect login details, a simple error message must be displayed on your website. However, you should be careful about what you will write in this message. Hackers use brute force attack method to find username and password. If you display messages such as “username is incorrect” and “password is incorrect”, hackers will know that their job is half done and can focus on another field. To put a stop to this, you should use a common slogan such as “either username or password is incorrect”. Captcha can also be used on a login page to give extra security.

Use both server-side and client-side validation:

To prevent any malicious data from being inserted, you should use both client-side and server-side validation. On the client side, JavaScript can be used for validation, but most browsers offer an option to disable it. Therefore, you should also validate the data on the server to prevent undesirable results in your website.

Scan the uploaded files:

If you offer the file upload facility to allow users to upload their images, you should be careful about what they upload. Hackers can also upload infected files to your server to run malicious code. You cannot rely on the file type to prevent attacks. To protect your website, you should check the file extension and change file permissions. For example, if you set chmod 0666, these files will not get executed. You can also store them on the different server by using Secure File Transport Protocol or Secure Shell Protocol for secure file transport.

Well, these are some security approaches you can follow for ensuring website security. In this way, you can keep your website safe from attacks and users can use it without any fear.

While cyber security is an important issue for boards, it has not always been top of mind. Because a major corporation like Equifax had a breach in its IT system, many companies are rethinking how to secure cyber security.

Boards around the world are examining the Equifax case to determine how to best secure their organizations valuable information stored in their IT systems. So who is responsible? Since the CEO has stepped down, it is apparent he was being held accountable. However, where was the board of directors?

In today’s world of cyberspace, corporate boards have to think about more than governance, CEO compensation and strategy.

As it stands, it is in the board’s best interest to ensure the company is not exposed to debilitating risks. Companies have workplace safety standards and sexual harassment policies to mitigate lawsuits. They even have disaster recovery plans in the event of natural disasters or occurrences like the World Trade Center plane crash. These plans and policies are in place to keep business running smoothly and perpetually. It protects customers and employees.

However, with sophisticated computer hackers around the world, it is no news that computer systems and valuable information can be breached and stolen. There are hackers who breach computer systems as a business. They ask for ransom in the amount of tens of millions of dollars. If it is not paid, they threaten to release the companies secure information, which sometimes could contain private email communication from top executives.

While many enterprises as large as Equifax may have disaster recovery plans for their physical operation, they may not have the same plan for cyber breach. The disaster recovery policies would include immediate action steps based on size of the breach, who made the breach, what information was taken, were company smart phones breached, what to communicate to employees, the public and shareholders as well as other important factors.

In some cases, it may make sense to inform the FBI. In other cases, it may be better to pay the ransom. The challenge with calling the FBI is that the hackers could be in countries like Russia. In Russia, the FBI may not pursue them. Why? Because the Russian government is always looking for good hackers. If the FBI exposes the hackers in Russia, the government may hire them, which can present long-term problems for the US. When it comes to paying ransom, it’s tricky. If you pay, they may hack you again as though you are an ATM machine. If you don’t pay, they may expose confidential information. These are also the kinds of challenges that directly involve the board.

What’s most important is that the board is talking about cyber security before there is a problem. There should be constant audits of the cyber security system to mitigate any risks. In addition, as a board, they should hold the CEO accountable for that security. Furthermore, there should be clear policies to guide the board and the executive team on how to handle the various moving parts in a delicate situation. Boards with disaster recovery plans and high accountability with the CEO are more likely to be forward thinking about cyber vulnerabilities and proactive about updating the security system.

Spyware, Keyloggers, Hackers, Cyber Terrorists, Cybercriminals, Cybergangs, etc. These threats are real and the fact is your computer is most likely infected already! Cybercrime is on the rise. You may not be the only one using your computer. Hackers may be using your computers and you may not even know it. Would you ever know it if your computer were taken over and being used by a hacker? Not likely. When a hacker hijacks a computer, the victim rarely knows. A computer that has been hijacked is one that is completely taken over by a hacker, or a group of hackers, to be used for their own purposes. The idea is that the real owner of the computer never knows their system has been hijacked, so the hackers can secretly use it whenever and however they want.

We have numerous other articles written on this very subject. Each one tackles a different aspect of this complex topic.

One of the hottest sliceing trends is called “chauffeur-by Hacking”. present wireless Internet access points have now become a foremost object for sliceers. Hackers easily take their notebook computers in their cars and instinct through corporate parks or residential neighborhoods vaguely scanning for open wireless systems. This is the hottest side of the instinct-by garage door detached theft where criminal would use common detached wheel to open garage doors lacking moving the suspicions of neighbors, regulate, or home wellbeing companies.

nowadays millions of corporatees and homes have implemented wireless systems for their convenience, and, miserably, for the convenience of the cybercriminals. And they dont even have to open your garage door to input your home or corporate.

Now sliceers can easily draw up exterior, up to 600 feet away, and grow access to the system, the Internet, and every computer on the system. This kind of sliceing has become so admired that you can even find open websites around the sphere that wholeretailing maps to all the known “open” wireless systems.

We hope that you have gained a clear grasp of the subject matter presented in the first half of this article.

Once your computer has been hijacked, the sliceer alleges ownership of your computer and there is little you can do except you shield your computer in increase agrowst this hazard. In fact, in many luggage when sliceers have taken over a computer, they will even “repair” the computer by finishing the wellbeing holes, so no other sliceer can space into the computer and use it too. (Can you invent? Criminals shield their hijacked computers from other criminals.)

Computers that have been hijacked and are under the contain of a sliceer are known as “automatons”. Some of the more admired uses for a automaton computer embrace using it to launch spam emails, distribute pornography, download dishonest copies of software, and to anonymously incident another computer, a corporate, a website, or even a government outfit.

There have been many luggage in the U.S. and around the world where a corporate or home computer has been hijacked and used for dishonest purposes lacking the computer owner’s data. These victims have had their computers used to distribute newborn pornography, vandalize websites, and even slice into government computers. In many luggage, the owner of the hijacked computer (the corporate owner or the homeowner) has been arrested and hauled off to jail, only to be humiliated, demoralized and even convicted for crimes they didn’t commit.

See the ABC’s 20/02 tape about an unsuspected 16 year-old high schooler who was arrested as a newborn pornographer after his pc was hijacked and used to distribute newborn pornography. Click this bond: ABC gossip’ 20/20 tape.

Hackers are very good at thrashing behind their slave or automaton computers. A hijacked computer is a sliceer’s shieldion of secrecy. As unbelievable as it may appear, hijacked computers, automaton computers actually have a boulevard souk assess in the sliceer district. The better the computer and the earlier the Internet connection of the slave mechanism, and the superior the hard instinct, the more it is merit on the souk. android computers are regularly leased out by sliceers to other sliceers, or even to prepared crime groups, to be used for dishonest purposes – lacking the computer owner’s data. If a sliceer or a cybergang can take over a hundred or a thousand computers, they have an military of computers at their disposal.

Here are some data:

* If your computer has become a “automaton” or a “slave” to a sliceer, the use of your computer could be for retailing anywhere on the Internet or an mart website. Your computer’s brawn is dear to sliceers.

* nowadays, there are organizations that allege “ownership” of more than 450,000 automaton computers around the world that they use to anonymously launch spam.

The best coldness are a combination of schooling and managed shieldion help. Off-the-shelve individual or united opposing-spyware, opposingvirus, and opposing-spam software programs may not be sufficient shieldion, because sliceers appear to stop one movement of these programs. The admired off-the-ledge crop tender you no delicateized verify. If you want help, you’ll pay for it over and over agrow! If you should a virus distant with these reduced programs, you’ll pay for it. You may get official verify from your PC manufacturer for wellbeing harms, but in most luggage, you maybe will not. Even if you do, it will likely be for a fee, and one that repeats itself should you should additional help down the path.

Because sliceers will likely forever be one movement before of the wellbeing business itself, software-based shieldion forlorn is not enough. 85% of present opposing-virus users have been infected with a virus or worm! Have you ever had a virus you couldn’t get rid of? Has your computer acted jest or has it slowed way down due to a huge spyware infestation? Does your computer have a virus, spyware, malware, or sliceer thrashing inside? Take a open Internet wellbeing review to conclude which trojans and sliceer spyware tools might be infecting your computers.

To shield manually, you should an Internet wellbeing bunch of authoritys making indeed that you, your family, and your corporate computer are forever cautious and guarantee. The best shieldion you can have in nowadays’s quickly shifting world of cyber-incidents is to have authority verify for all your Internet wellbeing shoulds that will bestow official verify lacking any hassles and lacking charging you beyond fees. It will become even more decisive than it is nowadays as time goes on. You should to find your own delicate bunch of authoritys to rely on. If you ever have a wellbeing hindrance, you will want to have a trusted authority you can call for professional help, lacking any hassles and beyond expenses!

To learn more about this topic, visit your local library or do a simple Internet search to get the information you desire.

There are many reasons why you should go for website security testing the top five are mentioned here.

* To avoid malwares installed:

One of the top reasons to check your website security is to avoid the malwares that are installed by the hackers on your website. These malwares infect the visitor’s web browser. Search engines have a very sophisticated way of detecting such malwares and block your websites before you even know what is wrong with your site. This could result to a great loss in visitor traffic to your website and also loss of ranking on the proclaimed search engines. Believe me you don’t want this to happen to your site.

* To gain trust of your customers:

The customers visiting your website are well aware of online buying threats. The best way to gain their confidence in your website is to get security website seals on your website. It is also an indirect way of increasing visitors’ traffic to your website and keeping the hackers at bay. Generally the hackers don’t waste time on such sealed websites.

* For the security of personal data:

You may never realize when and how the hackers got the access to your personal data unless one fine day you learn that from your competitors or web search. By the time you come to know it might be too late for you and then you think how such small negligence can hamper your business. If this happens your reputation in the online payment world gets crashed.

* To avoid SPAM mails:

If receiving SPAM mails does not sound that malicious to you; please think again. First of all you must think how come you are receiving unwanted emails? It’s obviously because you have been hacked. An email account receiving multitude of spam mails could get terminated from the web hosting company.

* To block redirection to black listed web links:

A web security check will block the hackers from redirecting the visitors of your site to other sites. This will also block them from replacing the contents of your page to unwanted advertisements which could be obscene or spam advertisements or even worse gambling sites. Think about what impression you might leave on the visitors if that happens to your site, it’s better to get the security check done rather than getting shunned by the potential customers.

Conclusion:

Better get the website security check done by the reputed online security providing companies than losing the privileged ranking on the search engine websites and the valuable visitor’s traffic. Once the ranking is lost and bad impression created on the customer it could take months to gain the original position back. These online security companies also give website security certificate for your enhanced credit.

Over the past few months I have noticed a large increase in the number of Facebook accounts getting hacked or hijacked by hackers using Facebook phishing. In order to understand this, let’s first take a quick look at why Facebook accounts have become such a target for hackers.

Why are Facebook accounts being hacked?…

Facebook now has over 500 Million users, and provides such incredible demographic information, that advertisers are now flocking to it for targeted advertising. The very same affiliate marketers that have previously resorted to spam email and blog comment spam to force their message out to the public, have now discovered that by hijacking Facebook accounts, they can deliver their marketing message to the friends and connections of those account holders. These “spammy” messages are more likely to be viewed, read, or even clicked on, because they are seemingly coming from a trusted source (the original account holder).

Exactly how are these Facebook accounts being hacked and hijacked?..

This is really just a new delivery method for an old phishing scheme. Phishing happens when you enter your login credentials on a fake Facebook login page or download malicious software to your computer. This may result in messages or links being automatically sent to a large number of your friends. These messages or links are often advertisements encouraging your friends to check out videos or products.

The hacker sets up a dummy Facebook profile and sends out hundreds of friend requests and waits for the requests to be accepted. Once some are accepted, they send out tricky messages via Facebook chat or by posting to the wall of their new Facebook friends. These messages appear as an enticement such as…

“hey, what exactly are you doing in this video (click here)…. how embarrassing…”

“this website has some sort of error and is giving away free iPads. Get there fast before you miss out (click here)…”

The above examples would include a link that goes to a page that appears to be a Facebook account login screen. The user assumes that they were logged out for some reason (which occasionally does occur) and re-enteres their Facebook username and password. What they don’t realize is that the page did not belong to Facebook and they just gave their username and password to a hacker.

Once the hacker has collected the user’s Facebook account credentials, they simply log into the account, change the password and begin sending out advertisements for affiliate programs, as well as more invitations to give up your account info. This process continues to spread because people are simply not aware.

How to avoid getting your Facebook hacked…

It is really quite simple to avoid getting your Facebook account hijacked. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Never, ever, ever give out your Facebook username and password to anyone.

2. Whenever you are at a Facebook login screen, make sure you are actually logging in on an official Facebook page. If you are ever unexpectedly shown a login screen, simply close your browser and open a new one. Then browse back to Facebook.com and login.

3. Share this post with any many people as you can. The more people who become aware of this, the less effective the hackers will be, afterall knowledge is power.

What to do if your Facebook account has already been hacked or you suspect you may have been “phished”…

1. If your computer has been infected with a virus or with malware, you will need to run anti-virus software to remove these harmful programs and keep your information secure.

2. If you are able to access your Facebook account, change or reset your account password as soon as possible to block any outside access to your account.

3. If you have been locked out of your account, or it has been suspended due to phishing or sending unwanted messages, your best bet is to simply start a new profile. I have heard from many that trying to get Facebook to reactivate an account is a lesson in futility.

Let’s define the term “Social Engineering.” Simply put, it is the art of manipulating people into doing something, like divulging confidential information or performing actions that would expose information, and making them feel good about doing it, I.e they “solved” a problem or helped someone, etc. This allows the hacker to obtain information in a non-threatening manner. Let us now explore some examples how easy it is for a hacker to utilize social engineering to obtain confidential or sensitive information.

There are several examples where social engineering can be used for personal gain, other than divulging information. One very common example that is employed by many people on a frequent basis: paying a compliment to the hostess at a fine restaurant thinking you may be seated at a nicer table or seated faster, or doing the same to your waiter or waitress to get faster service.

All too often in today’s society, social engineering is being used for dubious reasons, so a hacker can obtain sensitive personal and/or company information. This has now become a real threat to the security of your employees, confidential client information and company records and/or banking information.

Here are some of the social engineering tricks and scams:

The IT Support Person Scam:

The social engineer gains access to your computer systems by calling as an IT support person. Generally, this is easier to do when there is a lot of buzz about a virus or malware in the media. It can, however, happen at any time. The person posing as IT support (the imposter) calls a user and attempts to lead them through some sort of fix for the malmare. The imposter continues to stress how important fixing this is and causes the end user to become frustrated. Once the user becomes frustrated, the imposter says something along the lines of “Let’s save us both time. Why don’t you give me your password, I’ll deal with the problem and call you back.”

A variant of this scam, with some additional twists, has been used to take significant amounts of money (six figures in this case) from a law firms bank accounts.

Jury Duty or Subpoena Scam:

The phone rings in the early evening. The caller states the person answering the phone has failed to report for jury duty, or appear as required by a subpoena. This usually takes the answerer by surprise. The caller then asks for the answerer’s full name, social security number, and date of birth, so they may “verify” they are the person who failed to appear. The unsuspecting readily supplies this information and ends up becoming the victim of identity theft.

The Foreign Traveler Scam:

This generally happens when a hacker gains access to an email account or a Facebook account. The hacker then uses the account to send a bogus email or Facebook posts to the real account owners contacts. The post reads something like this:

Subject: “Predicament (Sad news)!!!”.

Email Body: “I feel terrible disturbing you with this but I don’t have any other option. I had to travel to Alaska for something urgent but now I am in a tight situation here. Please I need your help with a loan of $1800 to sort myself out. I will refund you immediately when I return this weekend. If you can help with this let me know so I can tell you how to get it to me.

Click this to send funds.

Thanks, Becky”

Of course, Becky’s close friends would hate to see Becky stuck in a foreign country so they will click a link and follow the instructions to send money to “Becky”. The bank will look like a legitimate bank website (Chase or Bank of America) fooling even the most observant individuals. It will ask Becky’s saviors to send funds to her via a bank account setup in her name in that foreign country.

Disaster Relief Scam:

This scam usually happens right after a disaster such as a hurricane or has happened most recently the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Fake donation sites appear on the internet by the hundreds or even thousands. The purpose of these sites is to use the emotional appeal of helping victims to capture credit card or bank account information from those who are well meaning, and would like to help. We definitely encourage those who wish to help in these situations, BUT, check out the website and the foundation set up before you donate.

Free Gift cards or Airline Tickets:

This type of threat happens often via email on Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest. The user is prompted with an “ad” that indicates that the user will receive a free gift card or software upgrade or perhaps even some of Bill Gates fortune, for filling in a survey. Stay away!!! These companies are not really giving away anything. They are merely collecting information from the unsuspecting that can be used to steal an Identity.

Unauthorized Access to Your Building or Offices:

Typically someone will be hanging out in a smoking area and chatting it up with fellow smokers who have access to a secure building or office. When the real employees go to enter the facility, the imposter merely follows them using a technique called “tailgating.” If the employees ask the imposter for their ID, access card, or badge, the imposter will simply tell the employees they left their access card in their office. “Cigarettes, a Social Engineer’s best friend.”

Another way of gaining unauthorized access to your building or offices is for the “imposter” to have lots of packages or simply say “I’m in a hurry, please let me in”.

Social Engineering is here to stay. If it sounds too good to be true or employees feel something just doesn’t feel right, they should trust their gut instinct. Odds are unless you are vigilant, you will not know you are a victim until it is too late. It is very important to have a stated IT policy in place, as well as a safety policy, and to have your employees familiar with both of them. The more aware they can be the less likely you, your employees, or your company will become the victim or an unwilling hacker.

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse.

For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can’t access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions. A computer security risk is any action that could cause loss of information, software, data, processing incompatibilities, or cause damage to computer hardware, a lot of these are planned to do damage. An intentional breach in computer security is known as a computer crime which is slightly different from a cybercrime. A cybercrime is known as illegal acts based on the internet and is one of the FBI’s top priorities. There are several distinct categories for people that cause cybercrimes, and they are referred to as hacker, cracker, cyberterrorist, cyberextortionist, unethical employee, script kiddie and corporate spy.

*The Hacker.

The term hacker was actually known as a good word but now it has a very negative view. A hacker is defined as someone who accesses a computer or computer network unlawfully. They often claim that they do this to find leaks in the security of a network.

*The Cracker.

The term cracker has never been associated with something positive this refers to someone how intentionally access a computer or computer network for evil reasons. It’s basically an evil hacker. They access it with the intent of destroying, or stealing information. Both crackers and hackers are very advanced with network skills.

*The Cyberterrorist.

A cyberterrorist is someone who uses a computer network or the internet to destroy computers for political reasons. It’s just like a regular terrorist attack because it requires highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars to implement, and years of planning.

*The Cyberextortionist.

The term cyberextortionist refers to someone who uses emails as an offensive force. They would usually send a company a very threatening email stating that they will release some confidential information, exploit a security leak, or launch an attack that will harm a companies network. They will request a paid sum of money to prevent the threat from being carried out, a bit like black mailing.

*The Unethical Employee.

An unethical employee is an employee that illegally accesses their company’s network for numerous reasons. One could be the money they can get from selling top secret information, or some may be bitter and want revenge.

*The Script Kiddie.

A script kiddie is someone who is like a cracker because they may have the intentions of doing harm, but they usually lack the technical skills. They are usually silly teenagers that use prewritten hacking and cracking programs. *The Corporate Spy.

A corporate spy has extremely high computer and network skills and is hired to break into a specific computer or computer network to steal or delete data and information. Shady companies hire these type people in a practice known as corporate espionage. They do this to gain an advantage over their competition an illegal practice.

Business and home users must do their best to protect or safeguard their computers from security risks. The next part of this article will give some pointers to help protect your computer. However, one must remember that there is no one hundred percent guarantee way to protect your computer so becoming more knowledgeable about them is a must during these days.

When you transfer information over a network it has a high security risk compared to information transmitted in a business network because the administrators usually take some extreme measures to help protect against security risks. Over the internet there is no powerful administrator which makes the risk a lot higher. If your not sure if your computer is vulnerable to a computer risk than you can always use some-type of online security service which is a website that checks your computer for email and Internet vulnerabilities. The company will then give some pointers on how to correct these vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center is a place that can do this. The typical network attacks that puts computers at risk includes viruses, worms, spoofing, Trojan horses, and denial of service attacks. Every unprotected computer is vulnerable to a computer virus which is a potentially harming computer program that infects a computer negatively and altering the way the computer operates without the user’s consent. Once the virus is in the computer it can spread throughout infecting other files and potentially damaging the operating system itself. It’s similar to a bacteria virus that infects humans because it gets into the body through small openings and can spread to other parts of the body and can cause some damage. The similarity is, the best way to avoid is preparation. A computer worm is a program that repeatedly copies itself and is very similar to a computer virus. However the difference is that a virus needs to attach itself to an executable file and become a part of it. A computer worm doesn’t need to do that, it copies itself to other networks and eats up a lot of bandwidth.

A Trojan Horse named after the famous Greek myth and is used to describe a program that secretly hides and actually looks like a legitimate program but is a fake. A certain action usually triggers the Trojan horse, and unlike viruses and worms it will not replicate itself. Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are all classified as malicious-logic programs which are just programs that deliberately harm a computer. Although these are the common three there are many more variations and it would be almost impossible to list them. You know when a computer is infected by a virus, worm, or Trojan horse if your computer displays one or more of these things:

* Screen shots of weird messages or pictures appear.

* You have less available memory than you expected.

* Music or sounds plays randomly.

* Files get corrupted.

* Programs are files don’t work properly.

* Unknown files or programs randomly appear.

* System properties fluctuate.

Computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses deliver their payload or instructions through three common ways.

1 – When an individual runs an infected program so if you download a lot of things you should always scan the files before executing, especially executable files.

2 – When an individual boots a computer with an infected drive, so that is why it’s important to not leave removable media in your computer when you shut it down.

3 – When an unprotected computer connects to a network. Today, a very common way that people get a computer virus, worm, or Trojan horse is when they open up an infected file through an email attachment.

There are literally thousands of malicious logic programs and new ones come out by the numbers so that’s why it’s important to keep up to date with new ones that come out each day. Many websites keep track of this. There is no known method for providing 100% protection for any computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected by one of those malicious programs. Whenever you start a computer you should have no removable media in the drives. This goes for CD, DVD, and floppy disks. When the computer starts up it tries to execute a boot sector on the drives and even if it’s unsuccessful any given virus on the boot sector can infect the computer’s hard disk. If you must start the computer using removable media for any reason, such as when the hard disk fails and you are trying to reformat the drive make sure that the disk is not infected.

How can you protect your computer?

The best way to protect your computer from any of the above is by using good quality internet securities software. Purchasing this from a reputable security company is recommended to ensure that your software is kept up to date with the most recent virus signatures. If you are not up to date an unrecognised virus will not be stopped by the software. A full security package will protect you from viruses, Worms, Trojan horses, keyloggers and will detect when a hacker is attempting to hack into your computer and prevent them from gaining access when you are online or connected to a network. It is not advisable to use a free antivirus service as these do not provide adequate protection and are a false economy. Recommended internet security software companies are:- Norton, McAfee and others.

Many of you become innocent victims of hackers who break in your computers and steal all they can from the credit card details, bank information, emails, passwords, to professional documents among other critical things. You cannot really avoid hackers, their viruses and malware software when you are online but yes you can certainly avoid being a victim. This free virus removal support guide discusses how you can find out if someone is hacking your computer.

Step 1

When you reboot your computer, it reboots twice instead of once. It happens because the hacker has to boot his server in order to keep accessing your Windows or Mac computer. Thus, your computer quickly reboots after you reboot it and the startup screen appears twice. Another symptom of being hacked or virus-infected is when your computer reboots or shuts down on its own time and again. It means it doesn’t seek for your mouse or keyboard prompts to be shut down or restarted. When you attempt to access a program on your computer, you are not able to do it. You cannot access Task Manager, the Start menu or anything on your computer.

Step 2

When you open your web browser, some other website loads up but not your regular home page. When you search for something in your search engine, you are being redirected to websites that you have never browsed or even heard of. These can be adult or malicious websites prompting you to download adult materials or fake virus removal tools. If your web browser has a new toolbar, add-in, or plug-in that you did not install, it indicates that your browser and computer has been hacked. You do not see your usually plug-ins, add-ins, or toolbars when the browser is hacked. Besides, if your internet speed is really slow, it indicates your computer has a virus.

Step 3

If your CD- or DVD-ROM drive opens up without your action. Your computer has missing icons like Network Places, antivirus, or Outlook etc. However, you see new programs like virus removal tool (that you didn’t even download), music file etc. showing up on your desktop. If you see that your computer clock shows a different date & time, time zone settings, and daylight savings etc. (unless you have changed them), it has a stubborn, dangerous malware.

Step 4

If you have a firewall program like ZoneAlarm installed on your computer, it can tell you if someone has tried hacking it. Open ZoneAlarm or the firewall program you have and check if it has logged any malicious program entry that was attempting a server setup on your computer. If your firewall or antivirus program takes forever to scan your computer, it indicates that it has been compromised. If your antivirus icon is missing from your computer and it does not even open once you have found it, it has a virus that has disabled it to prevent itself from being removed.

Step 5

If you run a virus scan from your antivirus software, it shows multiple infected files and programs that you never even downloaded to your computer. All of a sudden you have multiple files with weird names like mslove.exe, abcd1234.exe, or giaehi45.jpg etc. in your computer. all of a sudden your computer starts taking forever to open a small program like Run or Command Prompt etc. The CPU usage shows 100% (maximum) for a small process like explorer.exe.

Step 6

When your friends tell you about the new links or posts you have shared (that you have never actually shared) on your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter profile. When your friends or relatives receive bogus emails containing adult or objectionable materials, link etc. from your email address. When your credit card or online banking does not accept your password despite that you have it correctly and have not changed it in the recent past.

There are many things that are possible at a click these days, thanks to the services of the internet. But along with this, there are also a number of risks and crimes related to the internet that have now increased and one of the most serious ones is hacking.

Hacking refers to entering computer systems of companies in order to get information. This is illegal and dangerous to the company and all the information that is kept with the company records. In order to prevent such an intrusion, companies are now appointing professionals who are experts in preventing hacking and these professionals are called white hat hackers or ethical hackers. This is why hacker training is becoming so popular.

Significance of programming in developing certified ethical hacker training skills

The main functionality expected out of a person who is undergoing ethical hacker training is to check the information system of an organization to test if there are any flaws in the system and also to check if there are any viruses. The certified professional is also expected to find solutions and make necessary changes so that penetration into the system is not possible by any unauthorized person. In order to be a successful ethical hacker the person taking the ethical hacker training needs to have some skills.

One of the most important skills is the knowledge of programming skills. A person who aims at getting certified ethical hacker training needs to have knowledge of programming languages like Java, C++, Perl, Python and Lisp. If you just starting afresh, then it is a good option to learn Python first because it is easy to learn and less complicated compared to the other programs. After you learn this program you can go on to learn Lisp, Perl, Java and C.

Other required skills

Apart from the above mentioned skills there are some other skills that need to be picked up as a part of honing imparted certified ethical hacker training skills. One of them is learning and understanding UNIX. This is very important because it is the very basis of the internet and without learning this operating system, rewriting and modifications are not possible. The best way of learning it is by practicing on the Linux or UNIX that is on your own computer. The next skill is to learn HTML which is very important in ethical hacker training.

If you need to have hacker training the knowledge of how to write HTML programs is a necessity. In order to understand all this and to make the ethical hacking training effective it is necessary to be fluent in English too. This is because all the resources that are available in this regard are accessible in English and if you are not fluent in the language then no amount of training can make you an expert. Also you need to develop a habit of reading and gathering information from the net because the more informed you are the better. There are many institutes that train people but a lot of work and research needs to be done on your own.