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November 3, 2004 Volume 3, Number 1 | |||
In This Issue | HAPPY NEW YEAR!Tips and TutorialsMedium Risk Viruses Up 130% in 2004 (extracted from a McAfee newsletter)Computer virus attacks reaching a Medium Risk assessment or higher dramatically increased to 46 in 2004, compared with only 20 in 2003. "The rise in viruses, worms, Phishing, adware and vulnerability exploitation surpassed what was noted last year," said McAfee Vice President Vincent Gullotto. "Although we saw a steady 5% (year over year) decrease in the rate of virus production from 2000 to 2003, we saw an increase in 2004 that can be partly attributed to Bagle and Netsky virus authors feuding, as well as a general lack of awareness in regards to adware and other such programs." Within the first half of 2004, 50 new computer viruses (of varying risk assessments) were discovered daily. Phishing Threats Increasing, TooAs reported by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association McAfee recently joined to help fight identity theft and fraud, 176 unique new phishing attacks—spam attempts to fool users into divulging financial information on phony websites—were reported in January 2004. By June 2004, that number skyrocketed to a 1,422. Expect More Spyware & Adware in 2005McAfee expects adware and unwanted content, transmitted via email and the Web, to increase in 2005, with threats becoming increasingly complex as they combine spam and Phishing. Worse, spyware-installing spam will also threaten users. Recommendations from Ruidoso Computer ConsultantsYou MUST have a good, up-to-date antivirus program running.The version of your program should not be more than a year old – that means nothing from 2003 or before. The newer versions of the antivirus programs also include some protection from adware and spyware. No one program catches them all. (Check the version by opening the program. It normally is shown at the top of the screen. If not click on help and then about.) I recommend Norton Antivirus 2005. The free antivirus programs will not include these features nor do they do as good a job catching viruses. You get what you pay for and this is cheap insurance.The antivirus must be updating its virus definitions automatically. The new definitions are published on Wednesdays, so I normally set the updates to run on Thursday or Friday. Of course, it does no good if the computer is not on.The antivirus program must be running and enabled. Look down by the time. There should be an icon for your antivirus program just to the left. If you move your cursor over that icon it should say “Auto-Protect Enabled”. If not, open the program and enable it.You must have adware and spyware removal software installed and you have to run it.I have recommended that you install free versions of Ad-Aware and SpyBot Search and Destroy. You can download these from http://www.download.comYou have to open, update and run these programs yourself. If you want them to run automatically, then there are versions available for $20 - $40.You should have some type of Spam filter in use.These are often provided free of charge by your Internet Service Provider or the company through which you get your email. If not, then buy the combination pack of antivirus, antispam and firewall package to upgrade all of these programs.You should have a firewall installedJust like many other things in our lives, we now have to complicate our lives because of thoughtless, careless or criminal behavior on the part of others. You need a firewall to protect yourself against invasion of your computer by unscrupulous individuals that set a program to search the internet for computers that don’t have one and then try to extract any information that they can – all by robot – all without your knowledge. They look for personal information (SSN, bank account and credit card numbers, etc), user names and passwords (stored in cookies so you don’t have to type them in each time or in files). Windows XP comes with a firewall and 2nd edition is much improved. This is sufficient and you should not try to run two firewalls. If you are not running Windows XP, then buy the combination pack of antivirus, antispam and firewall package to upgrade all of these programs.
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