Trends and industry analysts state that the efforts of the propagators will not relent. Last year marked the first ever mobile phone virus and Bluetooth technology, for example, compounds the threats to security. 35% of PCs in the US are infected while in China and India the rates hit 50%.

Experts in the field of security report the first virus was spread as early as 1981. Fred Cohen, however, wrote in his seminal paper that the first virus was conceived as an experiment on November 3rd, 1983. Since then viruses and malware have plagued and wreaked havoc among computer systems worldwide.

Risks through the Internet

With the advent of such communications advances like the Internet, mobile telephony and Bluetooth (a short range radio technology that simplifies wireless communication among devices such as computers and mobiles. It also aims at quickly and easily connect these devices to the Internet) computer viruses have spread at an alarming rate. The downside to such advances is that where before only a few computers would get infected, now thousands, if not millions, are at the mercy of virus authors.

Early Threats Disable 10% of Computers Infected

In 1987 a large network (ARPANET) used by universities and the US government was infected by a virus. Robert Morris, son of a computer security expert for the National Security Agency, sent malicious code through ARPANET, affecting about 10% of the connected computer hosts – at the time there were only 60,000 hosts connected to the network. The code reproduced itself and filtered through network computers; consequently, the size of the files filled computers’ memories, thus disabling numerous machines.

An alarming 66% of PCs today are Infected by Spyware and 35% are infected by viruses in the US. Today, an estimated 1.21 billion people (Computer Industry Almanac) are connected to the Internet with millions of computer hosts connected chatting, exchange files, emails and communicating in general. Can you imagine how easy it is to spread a virus or malware?

One anti-spyware developer, reports that the infection rate of malicious spyware at companies is approximately at 7% and adware appears on an incredible 52% of machines. 3 to 5% of enterprise machines had keyloggers. At homes, the percentages are much higher. The same anti-spyware developer reports that 66% of the PCs scanned by its online tool were found to be infected with an average of 25 spyware entities each. If one were to define cookies as spyware than the rate will shoot up to 88%! Adware was found on 64% of the machines. Viruses and Trojans, reports the company, were found on 7% and 19% of the machines respectively.

According to Panda Software, over 50% of PCs in India and China, for example are infected with a virus. In the US and the UK, the rate is 35%. All in all, this means that many people still remain without active protection today.

Anti-virus is not enough

In a study performed by security firm Checkbridge, the company ran 2 million email messages through three famous email scanners. None of the programs tested caught all the viruses. The success rates of the scanners varied from 97% to 64%. The CEO of Checkbridge also states that in many cases using two scanners at the same time does not guarantee pinpointing all the viruses all of the time. Similarly, many computer experts report that using two or three anti-spyware programs usually manages to delete 95%+ of spyware.

Pillars of Security

How can you protect your system and your data in the midst of so many threats to security coming from so many different sources?

Just think, malware (malicious code) has been around for almost 25 years already. Every year, millions of people and businesses lose substantial sums of money in terms of lost and, many times, irrecoverable data. To top it all, some viruses hog system resources and Internet connections making it impossible to work or play. And this does not include the frustration and anger at not being able to pinpoint the source of the problem.

One of the very first steps to protecting your PC is to make sure that the operating system (OS) is updated. This is critical as OS manufacturers such as Microsoft Windows update security features of their products continuously to cover any potential and actual loopholes.

Secondly you should have updated anti-virus software running on your system. Make sure to choose one of the better ones on the market today – a few dollars wont break you but a virus will. Make sure that the anti-virus software is updated frequently (sometimes even daily if needs be) with fixes to the actual engine and to the database files that contain the latest cures against new viruses, worms and Trojans. The anti-virus software must have the ability of scanning email and files as they are downloaded from the Internet to help prevent malware reaching your system.

Many users are using a third component for their home and/or computer system security – firewall software. A good system prevents unauthorised use and access to your computer from external sources (e.g. hackers or hijackers) plus giving you additional protection against the more common Trojans and worms. A firewall on its own will not get rid of the virus problem but when used in conjunction with your OS updates, anti-virus software and processlibrary.com information, it will give you deeper system security and protection.

A fourth component for security is manual intervention. This option may be daunting to any beginner, however, such intervention will definitely help you combat insipid Trojans that may not be removed by your standard anti-virus and spyware products.

I would like to explain two tools that may be used intervene when all else fails – the native Windows Task Manager to help you list all the processes running on your PC and a good online library that explains what these processes are for and whether they are legitimate or not. Of course, you need to use these tools with care. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to call up the Windows Task Manager to help you identify most of the processes running on your computer – this is an in-built Windows OS functionality. Go through the processes one by one and then search for the process names in one of the many process libraries available – I use processlibrary.com but there are many others including neuber.com, file.net, and bleepingcomputer.com. In any case, these libraries are directories of information (typically free of charge) with search functionality.

With this information you can immediately identify any possible new threats that may have infiltrated into your system. The definitions will help you cover that window of time until your preferred anti-virus and anti-spyware software vendors update their scanners. When identified just search the process within the processlibrary.com database and you’ll have an exact definition and advice on what to do.

Fighting Spyware, Adware and Other Forms of Malware

In some cases, it is not that easy to realize that spyware and related forms of malware are installed on your system.

In other cases, you will almost immediately notice changes to your web browser that you didn’t make. These changes include toolbars that you didn’t want installed, different homepage settings or changes to your security settings and favourites list.

Other signs of spyware include advert pop-ups which are not related to the website being viewed at the time. Many such adverts usually relate to pornography or emoticons or performance/security optimizers and are not displayed as they are usually shown on legitimate adverts. Adverts may also appear when you are not surfing the web. Spyware is not only annoying but it slows your system performance, causes start-up time to increase, hogs your Internet connection and on occasion will lead to system crashes.

You should install an anti-spyware software package. There are some good ones on the market and many experts go as far as suggesting installing two or three since any single package may not be powerful enough to find all the entries and changes to your registry and other files made by spyware. Such malware is installed like any other application on your system thus leaving traces of itself on the registry files of and other places with your system. Anti-spyware works by looking for these traces and deleting them.

Also beware of what you download from the Internet. Make sure that the sources that you download stuff from are know to you – and even here you have to pay extreme attention. For example, not all companies who claim their software contains adware are really offering adware only! There’s always the possibility that there is spyware disguised in the program. Make sure that you read privacy policies and license agreements. Also firewalls should help you greatly in the fight against spyware and malware.

New Forms of Security Threats

Malware authors and hackers are always looking for new ways of disrupting the normal operation of your system and, worse still, stealing your private data. Cross site request forgery (CSRF) is a form of website attack also known as session riding. According to leading security experts (e.g., Jeremiah Grossman) this form of attack is rare yet it is a “sleeping giant”.

Here is an excerpt that explains what CSRF is taken from an excellent CSRF FAQ: “Cross Site Request Forgery (also known as XSRF, CSRF, and Cross Site Reference Forgery) works by exploiting the trust that a site has for the user. Site tasks are usually linked to specific urls (Example: [http://site/stocks?buy=100&stock=ebay]) allowing specific actions to be performed when requested. If a user is logged into the site and an attacker tricks their browser into making a request to one of these task urls, then the task is performed and logged as the logged in user. Typically an attacker will embed malicious HTML or JavaScript code into an email or website to request a specific ‘task url’ which executes without the users knowledge, either directly or by utilizing a Cross-site Scripting Flaw. Injection via light markup languages such as BBCode is also entirely possible. These sorts of attacks are fairly difficult to detect potentially leaving a user debating with the website/company as to whether or not the stocks bought the day before was initiated by the user after the price plummeted.” Click here to read the whole FAQ

So What is the Solution? The solution is to try to work hard to minimize threats to security by using the right tools and by demanding that the websites you use on a regular basis take a similar approach.

In June, Health Data Management hosted a gathering of information security experts to discuss ransomware and how to handle it. They agreed that it is likely that many entities would be hit by it. It is a large and growing problem. Paying the ransom only gives criminals more money to improve their ransomware.

Daniel Sergile director of security operations at CIOX Health, said, “But it also highlights another issue: Companies don’t do a very good job with their backup and recovery. If I were doing monthly backups and daily intermittent backups, then I wouldn’t have to pay a $17,000 ransom. I’d literally take a snapshot, lose a day’s worth of data, and it would probably cost less than $17,000. It goes back to the basics of information security: Do employees have administrative rights across the entire environment? Are those rights a little too elevated, allowing them to modify their systems? And at the system level, are we investing in all the latest and greatest flavors of antivirus and employee analytic tools? If we go back to basics and do what needs to be done-not to the point where it cripples the business, but secures it-then I think you’d see a lot less people paying that ransom.”

John Mertz, vice president and CIO at South Nassau Communities Hospital, pointed out that if the backups are off-site, obtaining them and restoring them is going to take too much time.

At good hosting facilities, SQL backups occur every 15 minutes. Complete backups are performed daily. These backups are first made on the same physical server on a different disk array from the live database and then are copied to a separate physical server, so they are stored twice. Backups are kept onsite, so in the event of ransomware, the data can be restored quickly.

If you are hosting your own software and database, Steve Dryer, administrator for a hosting facility advises that you do the following:

1. Be sure you are actually doing backups.

2. Be sure you are backing up what you need to backup.

3. Be sure that your backups are good and can actually be read.

4. Be sure that you can and know how to restore your system to a fully functioning state if you need to.

Regardless of where your data and software are hosted, he says you should not rely on backups alone. Have other security in place that monitors and alerts you if a problem occurs.

Keep everything up-to-date and patched. By that he means:

1. Operating system on the PCs

2. Operating system on the server

3. PC and server main board BIOS

4. PC and server drivers

5. PC and server driver controllers and RAID card BIOS and drivers.

6. All PC and Server firmware

7. All network equipment firmware including switches, routers, firewalls, access points and WiFi equipment

8. All virus protection (and of course make sure it is running.)

He goes on to point out that anything that is obsolete and no longer being supported, and therefore updated, MUST not be used. That means Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2003 and other no longer supported software and hardware should be replaced.

You must control employee access to only those Internet sites required for the business. Do not allow employees to connect their cell phones or other mobile devices to your practice’s WiFi.

What if a user gets a ransomware message? Maria Suarez, chief information security officer for Hackensack University Medical Center noted that if users ever see a ransomware message, they should disconnect from the network but not power their computer down.

Trying to figure out how to get rid of adware? First of all let me talk a little more about what adware is and to what extent it is harmful to your PC. Adware is one of several “malwares” or malicious software programs that are unknowingly installed on your computer when you visit online sites and download freebies. When you share filles with others and download free stuff from the web it may contain hidden adware.

The danger of these advertising-supported software increase greatly day after day. In the first three months of 2005 about 80 % of people using computers had some type of malware software program running on their computer, and they don’t have any idea, then started to ask how to get rid of adware?

Although it is much less a threat to your computer and information than spyware is, adware danger represented in its ability to collect info from your computer and publish it to any one. These advertisements run on your PC no matter what program you may be using. What the people who place this kind of nuisance software on you PC say is that adware advertising helps them to pay for resources that they want to make their offering of free programs continue.

Return to our main question “How to get rid of adware?”, what you want to do to stop adware from appearing on your computer is to use a software that can detect and remove adware. Run this program on demand regularly. In the same time when using the adware removal software use the anti-virus that you use on your PC.

The security level of your system has a great importance too. A medium security level would be enough to protect your PC from bad downloads.

If you don’t know that the website that have these free stuff on it is reliable, do not download any thing from it. When trying to download any program that is free the end-user license agreement. Some of these agreements will state that when you download their program you are also agreeing to accept a downloaded spyware that may be placed on your computer at the same time.

Now stop asking how to get rid of adware? and be aware of threats to your PC, and your personal information.

I’ve worked with computers for over 30 years and see how software companies want you to spend money. Our discussion centers on how people have been taught to buy protective software before they try it. My concern is that large computer virus software companies have people buy their software to quickly!

When you buy a new computer you’re exposed to a trial copy of a brand name virus software package and then they hit you with the purchase price in 30 days.

Of course most people buy that software and then are bombarded with requests to buy their spyware, disk defragment software, system optimization software, security software, registry software, privacy software, malware, disk optimization software etc…

Now most of these large virus software packages are very heavy on size and slow down your computer to a crawl. If you set up all the switches to check everything your system will slow down for sure. However you can run software that would not slow your system down and it is highly recommended by independent reviewers who check it out for you for free!

Remember! PREVENT your computer from being exposed and maintenance is a very important part of the process. 

The Backup process on any Computer system is:

• Back upyour work files onto a USB drive on a regular basis.
• A USB Drive starts from $10.00 – $299.00 depending on the size.
• If you download movies & TV shows you will need a 1 – 2 TB external drive. If word docs, email, and bookmarks are backed upped use a 4GB – 360GB external drive.
• Create a restore point on your system once a month depending on how much you use it.
• Make sure your Microsoft Update Automatically Updates at a time when your system is on. (Not 3:00am when the system is off)
• Backup Emails & Email Contacts onto a USB Drive.
• Backup Bookmarks to a USB Drive.
• Most laptops have built in software that can be reinstalled automatically if your hard drive has to be reformatted. Actually it is a good idea to reformat your drive every 2-3 years if you have this feature and backup your data on a USB drive.
• Make sure your Microsoft Firewall is ON
• Do not leave your monitor on when the system is not being used.
• If you have a router make sure it is locked with a security code or people will steal your signal.
• Set your browser to remove cookies and your internet trail when you turn it off.
• Backup your Registry.
• Use an Anti Virus program
• Use a Defragmentation program
• Use an Anti-Malware program
• Use an Anti-Spyware program
• Use a Keyscrambler program
• Use What’s running program.
• Use an Overall Cleaning program.
• Use a Web Cleaning program.
• If you down load movies or music use a Peer Blocker program.
• Use a Reliable and Fast browser.

This sounds like a lot to do and it sounds expensive.

Actually all of the above software can be found for FREE!

You can try it for free and upgrade later if you like what you see! Each software is independent of the other. You can load each program separately without using all your computer resources which slows down your computer.

Antivirus 360 and AV360 pop ups : If you are getting annoying pop ups which states your computer is infected with Trojan and Virus, then chances are your computer is infected with fake alert Trojan which installs Antivirus 360. Please don’t panic, you can safely remove this infection from your computer.

What is Antivirus 360 : It is a fake Anti-spyware software, build to confuse computer users with legitimate security software. These fake software’s are spreading through Internet very fast. There are thousands of illegal websites which promotes Antivirus 360, because the producers of these fake Anti-spyware software’s pay huge money to promote their products.

What will Antivirus 360 do to your Computer : This spyware shows several misleading warnings which states your computer is infected with Trojan and Viruses. It will run fake scanning report which shows the name of several Spyware’s and Viruses, and to remove these infections it will force you to buy Antivirus 360. It displays warning in such a way that computer users will be frightened and will end up buying this product. And the worst part is that the program Antivirus 360 you just bought is a fake software which shows many more misleading warnings.

How computer gets infected with Antivirus 360 : Computer gets infected with this spyware, when you download video codec for Media player from unknown websites or when you visit malicious websites. Infection through media codec happens when you download video files from file sharing websites. Most of the video files posted at file sharing sites and p2p sites are infected with Antivirus 360. When you visit these malicious websites, it shows fake scanning reports and fake virus alerts. It will force you to click the link to download Antivirus 360.

Free Antivirus 360 Removal : It is very important to remove all the infected files from your computer. Yes, the good news is you can easily remove Antivirus 360 infection using Free removal tool.

Whether you are a system administrator of a large company or a casual user, viruses and worms can easily effect the computer system if the right precautionary measures aren’t taken. The type of damage caused to the computer can vary from minor to severe with common issues related to slow performance, email spoofing, or total destruction of the PC. The most severe issues could lead to the hard disk being erased. Here are six basic rules to help safeguard the PC:

Strong security software

Install a top-rated security software package on the PC and make sure it is kept up-to-date. Any proven software package will increase the ability to fight-off attacks from spyware, hackers, and trojans, and includes many different technologies, such as anti-phishing, anti-spam, firewall, anti-spyware, and anti-virus. Plus, use the most advanced software that constantly runs in the background and will continue to scan files, email attachments, websites, or other programs while in use.

Internet service provider

Sign up to a reliable internet service provider (ISP) that uses strong anti-phishing and anti-spam technologies to prevent many of the viruses even reaching your PC.

Automatic Windows updates

Let the Windows OS update automatically to ensure the latest software is always installed on the PC. Windows often release patches which help to fix known vulnerabilities. If these aren’t downloaded as soon as released, there is a greater risk of spyware or Trojans infecting the computer.

Email attachments

Avoid opening email attachments unless they are sent by someone you know and trust. Most security software programs can be set up to automatically perform a scan of attachments when received. Also, the preferred email program shouldn’t be setup to automatically render graphics or open attachments.

Peer-to-peer file sharing

Use extra caution when using Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology for sharing digital media because it is easy to conceal trojans in this type of program. Similar to email only open these files when they come from a trusted source. Certain file extensions should be avoided including those that end with bat, bin, cmd, dll, lnk, scr, and vbs.

Back up regularly

Backing up the important files on the PC is certain to be beneficial in the unfortunate event of being attacked by a virus or worm. Should the PC become unresponsive or files are lost after an attack, the backup will make it easy to recover lost personal information (bank statements or tax returns), movies, music, photos, etc.

Hacking is the unauthorised access to or control over computer network security systems for some illicit purpose. Hacking needs total understanding of a computer security system.

A hacker can simply be said to be someone who can breach into a computer system and network because he can exploit and detect the weakness in that security system or network. Hacking really seems to be difficult for people and that’s because they have no true understanding of Computer, but the really truth is that anyone can hack.

WAYS TO HACK

There are different ways to hack but the easiest way is to plant a virus in the targeted system, and this cam be done by sending the virus via an email. The virus will not be seen or noticed by the target.

Now this virus has been designed to send information from the targeted device (Computer or Phone)to the hacker.

BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS A VIRUS?

A Virus is a malicious software that can replicate itself by modifying other computer programme and inserting its own code. There are different kind of Virus and the kind you need to hack is a SPYWARE

A SPYWARE is a software that aims to gather information about a person or organisation via their device(Computer or Phone) and sends back informations to the user via the internet.

Spyware are just simple written codes that acts like programme on a device( Computer or Phone).

SPYWARE are not superior to database security softwares but the spyware can be design to act like a programme which the security software might not sense to be a treat. These is the reason why anything can be hacked, all the hacker needs to do is find a loop hole in the security software.

The best way to prevent against hacks is to regularly check for change in your devices, as I said early, spyware are designed to act like a programme and these can cause a slight change in the device performance, the change will be noticeable but most a times people don’t really notice it and these is what leads to a hack.

Another way to prevent hack is not to open an email from an unknown users, you never can tell who want to hack you, when they want to hack you, or why they want to hack you.

Hackers a times hack for fun, a times they hack because they are getting paid and most times for selfish interest.

Softtechgeeks@gmail.com

Do you want to learn how to remove virus malware Trojan bot from your computer? In today’s high technology world whereby a lot of confidential information is being transferred online and in computers, it is important that every PC user address the issue of security on their own systems. This means that they need to be careful to protect important data in their computer systems.

1. How to Ensure That Your Computer’s Security is Maximized?

One of the most important things to do is to continually update your system with the latest security patches as soon as they become available, such as Windows Live Updates. Another important thing to do is to download a high quality piece of spyware and virus protection software.

2. What Are the Damages that Virus Malware Trojan Bot Can Do to your Computer?

Once a computer virus or malware such as spyware or adware has infected a computer system, it will start running code that starts infecting other files on the system and also other PCs connected to its network. Viruses such as worms are able to duplicate themselves many times and typically cause the computer’s processing speed to slow down significantly. Other harmful effects include loss of data, slow processing speed and frequent crashing as well as strange behavior such as redirecting of the web browser and unauthorized changing of browser homepage etc.

3. How to Clean Out Your System of Virus Malware Trojan Bot?

The fastest and most effective method would be to download antivirus/antispyware software with scanning and cleaning capabilities. I have personally used a highly quality protection software that helped me clean out more than 300 errors on my system before. Once the cleaning process was done and my computer restarted, many of the strange pop ups were gone and the system started running quickly like new again.

Green Antivirus 2009 is a sleek, professional looking rogue spyware scanner that tempts it’s users to ‘upgrade for full real-time protection’ for a fee. The reality is that Green AV is a big, stinky scam. It’s hoping that in fear, you make the mistake of purchasing the full-version. All you will get if you do is more spyware and security holes, making your computer a hotbed for viruses. So let’s remove Green Antivirus before it does you any serious damage!

How Do I Know I Have It?

Green AV will slow your computer down and attack your browsing activity with loads of annoying popups. It will conduct a fake scan of your system at every startup, and will scare you with results, showing your computer to be filled with malware and spyware. The reality is that if there’s any malware on your computer, Green AV is putting it there. You have got to get rid of this malicious software.

How Do I Get Rid Of It?

If you’re an IT professional or just a really geeky tech-nerd like me, then you can attempt a manual removal. Nowadays I am so busy with spyware removals that I elect to automatically remove viruses like this one with automatic virus removal tools.

If you are feeling brave, try to stop all Green AV processes (greenav2009.exe), block all associated websites (green-av.com, green-av-pro.com), delete all associated registry values in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder, and delete all Green AV Directories.

But again – I do NOT recommend you attempt any manual removal unless you consider yourself a pro. One wrong move in the registry folder and you could render your computer un-bootable. Not cool.

How Do I Get Rid of It Right NOW?

You are asking me to reveal my automatic removal tool of choice? There are more than one that I recommend. All 3 provide great detection and deletion of spyware, viruses, keyloggers, and more. All 3 will protect you in the future when the next virus tidal wave hits the internet, and all 3 will give you great customer support.

If you are tired of worrying about the security of your computer, then you should head over to my review site and try out one of the removal tools. Don’t wait, Remove Green Antivirus 2009 now!

Are you searching for computer virus protection software? If you suspect that your PC is infected with a virus, it is highly recommended that you get rid of it quickly to prevent loss of important data.

Luckily, there are many tools on the internet today that deal with computer viruses, and one of them that I have used is called Xoft Spy SE. It helped me remove the PC infection that I experienced a few weeks ago quickly, and I will be talking more about this piece of software in this article.

1. Why Do You Need To Get Rid Of a Computer Virus As Soon As Possible?

There is an increasing number of new viruses introduced onto the web today, and more computers are being put at risk of being infected, especially for users who download large quantities of files from the internet. A PC virus has the ability to install itself into the user’s system if it is not well protected. Once inside, it seeks to delete system folders and files, ultimately aiming to wipe out the entire hard disk.

2. What Is Xoft Spy SE, and What Does It Do?

It is a piece of antivirus, antispyware software that can detect the widest range of viruses and bugs that exist today. It is continually updated with the latest virus and spyware definitions to help users get protected from the latest bugs. Once installed, it can help users deter viruses from infecting their PCs, and also detect and remove any existing ones that may be hiding in the system.

3. What Are The Signs of a Computer Virus Infection?

Some of the most common signs of PC virus infection include error message popups, desktop items that are not created by the user on the screen or any other changes in the system that are not initiated by the user.