- DO NOT TYPE IN DIRECT SITE URLS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM. (fandego.com instead of Fandango)Use a SEARCH ENGINE (Google.com) to find sites, and then bookmark safe sites to view them again.
- DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM A NON-TRUSTED SITE, Example: Trying to watch a movie from not a trusted site (YouTube is trusted) and the site asks to download something to view the movie. IF ASKED TO DOWNLOAD SOMETHING TO VIEW A MOVIE, IT IS 100% A VIRUS! .
- DO NOT DOWNLOAD A TOOLBARS FROM UN-TRUSTED SITES. This will install ad aware that will monitor your site traffic, and report it to someone, who will sell it to advertising companies, and they will spam you.
- IF NOT SURE ABOUT A SITE CHECK WITH GOOGLE PAGERANK, and download the Google Toolbar for Firefox and turn on the Google PageRank feature, this is Google's very own ranking system of EVERY site that exists, it is based on 1 to 10, 10 being the best, 1 being a new or not highly recommended site. Most sites with viruses do not even have a page rank, they will show up with 0 or not ranked. DO NOT USE THESE SITES, they have VIRUSES. (Yes Google will monitor your behavior with this tool bar on, but it is worth it, because Google is a huge multimillion dollar company, that is not going to abuse your information, or they would get sued)
- ALWAYS TURN ON WINDOWS FIREWALL. Windows users need a Firewall because there are hundreds of publicly known back doors into the system, that you need to make sure you have all of the ports to your computer being monitored, or else some one could be stealing your passwords and other sensitive information. I recommend downloading the Zone Alarm Free Firewall, and keep it up to date, every day.
- DOWNLOAD A GOOD ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM. For any computer you need to have an Anti-Virus program up and running at all times, if you are browsing the web, or checking email you have a very HIGH chance of coming across a virus, with out you even being told. I recommend downloading AVG Free, and keep it up to day, every day, and do full scans of all hard drives everyday. Also keep on auto-scan to have all files you are opening currently are automatically scanned for viruses before they are opened.
- DO NOT OPEN EMAILS from UN-KNOWN sources. Email is the most common #1 spread of viruses on the Internet. These viruses will infect your computer, and then automatically email every one in your address book the virus, and it spreads from there. Make sure to never open emails from people you do not know, and make sure to never automatically view pictures in emails. Pictures in emails is usually how a virus is automatically downloaded and installed to your computer, via the picture.
- DO NOT SAVE PASSWORDS ON PUBLIC OR WORK COMPUTERS. These computers are not only monitored by a system admin, but also can be used by other users in the future, these other users could not only access your account, but change your password, locking you out. Or even worse they could delete your account.
- DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD FOR MORE THAN ONE SITE. If a hacker finds out one of your passwords, and sees that you have other accounts on other service sites, then they have access to those sites as well. For example having an email account user name PaulK password PaulK123, and then have a Youtube, or Facebook, or Myspace account with that same user name and password, then you are at risk. Change all your passwords to be unique for each site.
- ALWAYS LOG OUT OF THE SITE ONCE YOU ARE DONE USING IT. If you sign in to your email and do not sign out of it, then anyone that goes on that computer can go to your email site and not need to log in, since you never logged out. This could occur either by some one physically goes on the computer, or if someone finds a backdoor way to access your computer via the Internet, they could open the web-browser and have full access to your private emails, or any account that you forgot to log out, or sign out of.
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3 comments:
Was this a top 10 of how users end up with hacked or infected PC's, or a top 10 of ways in which users can avoid hacks or infection?
Other than that query, good guide.
It's also good to see AVG being recommended again, although Zonealrm (great free product) doesn't work with Vista 64bit.
http://diesellives.blogspot.com
This is a top 10 recommendations how to keep your pc safe from hacks. thanks i tried to put together something useful and realistic. avg is a great product, and zonealarm does not need to be run in Windows Vista because Vista is a much more secure OS, since they do not have any ports open, as for Windows XP users, they need ZoneAlarm or a similar firewall app.
Great advice.
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