Everything You Need To Know

Here are some simple steps to remove the spyware files off your computer:

1. Make sure your system can view system files and the hidden files
2. Close all applications
3. Restart your computer and enter into Safe Mode. Spyware programs usually fail to operate when Windows is in Safe Mode.
4. Check process that is running using CTRL+ALT+DEL and stop the program that is doubted. If you cannot use Windows Task Manager, you can try replacing it with Process Explorer Utility: http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
5. After spyware program is successful removed, MS-DOS to remove the spyware file.
6. Click Start->Run then type cmd.exe and click OK Command to remove spyware file is as follows:

del \folder\trojannamefile.exe

Command:
C:\> del \folder\trojanfilename.exe

7. If that file still cannot be removed, change the attribute file using :

attrib -r -s -h namafailtrojan.exe

Command:
C:\> attrib -r -s -h trojanfilename.exe

8. If it still not successful, try remove it using Move On Boot program.

In today's world, where the computers can be defined as a part of a network, the security in networking is a great area of concern

I. What's Phishing?

Phishing is a confidence trick. It involves sending a fraudulent email, supposedly from an organization that might have access to your financial details. the email asks for confirmation of account details, often forwarding you to a convincing looking web site to harvest your details.

II. Avoiding It

Avoid emails with forms in the body of the message, as it’s difficult to verify where the data will be sent to. It helps to avoid HTML email completely or make use of the picture blocking feature in the latest versions of Outlook and Outlook Express.

III. What To Look For

When you receive an email, remember that the sender information may be fake, as could any URLs quoted in the email. Be particularly suspicious if there is a note of urgency in the email or a threat to close your account. Never follow links in commercial email that you suspect.

IV. Latest Scams

Head to www.millersmiles.co.uk. This is a site that indexes recent phishing scams. You can look for your mail here or subscribe to the RSS feeds to stay up to date with the latest warnings. You can also report suspected phishing attempts here.

V. Commercial Help

Some commercial sites provide information and help for people who have received phishing emails. eBay provides a tutorial at,

http://pages.ebay.com.au/education/spooftutorial/ and it provides a service for reporting phishing attempts.

VI. Direct Access

If you receive an email from a company that contains a link, avoid clicking it. Instead, type the URL for the site you want to check directly into the address bar. This will take you directly to the site instead of wherever the phishing email intended to redirect you.

VII. Cookies

cookies are small files stored on your PC by web sites usually so that their site can identify you quickly. While this may be desirable at times, saving you log in procedures for example, cookies can report your browsing habits to their host sites for marketing or other unpleasant purposes.

VIII. IE Cookie Control

In Internet Explorer, select Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab. Now move the slider to the level of protection you want. The highest blocks all cookies.

IX. Exceptions

If you choose the highest level, you will need to create exceptions for the sites for which you want to enable cookies. Click Edit, type in the sites URL and click Allow > OK and Apply.

X. Privacy Policies

The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is a standard format of web sites to cite their privacy policy. If a site has a P3P privacy policy, Internet Explorer can display it.

XI. View Policy

To view such a policy, click View > Privacy Report, select the site you want to see from the list and click Summary. IE downloads the report for you to read.

XII. Privacy Clash

If your privacy settings differ to those cited in a web site’s privacy policy, Internet Explorer displays an icon that looks like an eye next to a no entry sign. This shows that cookies have been blocked and therefore you may not have full access to the site’s functions. Double-click the icon to see the site’s privacy report.

XIII. Beware Trojans

Even software that passes a virus scan can be dangerous. Some programs appear to have a useful function, but hide malicious content which is designed to trigger at a certain date or when you perform a certain action. Such programs are called Trojans, as they use a similar technique to the successful Greek battle plan of legends.

XIV. Spot A Trojan

It’s hard to spot a program that hides a Trojan. The best way is to scan for it using a program like the free SwatIt from www.swatit.org. It scans your PC in a similar way to a virus checker, looking for known Trojans. Just like an anti virus you must keep its database updated.

XV. Spies Like Us

Even if a downloaded program doesn’t contain a Trojan and has passed a virus scan, it could still be bad news. Many applications contain spyware, code that collects data on you and your browsing habits, occasionally passing the information back to its paymasters.

XVI. Certificates

These help you identify who created a web site or an element of a website. Content protected by a certificate should be safe, provided the certificate is valid. Choose Tools > Internet Options > Content tab > Certificates to see the current list on your PC.

XVII. Security Zones

In Internet Explorer click Tools Internet Options > Security and choose one of the four zones. Click Default Level to see what security level is in force for this zone.

XVIII. Adjust Security

Flick through the other three zones, adjusting the security level for each as you wish. High gives least functionality, but is most secure, Low allows all active content to run, but is least safe.

XIX. Add Sites

Now add sites to each zone by clicking the sites button, typing the relevant URL and clicking Add. Repeat for each zone, although the settings for Intranet are different as they include sites available on the local LAN.

XX. Virus Warnings

You’ve probably received emails telling you about the latest virus, urging you to warn everyone about it by forwarding the mail. Such warnings are fake 99% of the time. Don’t forward them. Go to www.vmyths.com to learn about virus hoaxes or check the virus encyclopaedia at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html to verify them.

XXI. Windows Firewall

Windows comes with a built in firewall, as part of its security center which is enabled by default. Check that it’s on by choosing Start > Control Panel > Security Center > Windows Firewall.

XXII. Automatic Updates

While your in the Security Center make sure that Automatic Updates are enabled to always to receive critical security updates.

XXIII. Rely On Windows?

The Windows Firewall is better than not having one installed at all, but it does have its limitations. There is not much room for user configuration and no protection against Trojans and other spyware dialling home from your PC.

XXIV. Free Firewall

The free edition of ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com) is well worth installing as it makes your PC invisible on the net.

XXV. ZoneAlarm Alerts

When you have ZoneAlarm running, you’ll be alerted every time someone attempts to access your PC. You may be surprised at the frequency of the attacks which goes to show how often certain IP addresses are singled out for port scans.

XXVI. Stop Alerts

Click “Do not show this alert again” to stop ZoneAlarm’s messages appearing. Your PC will still be protected, however.

XXVII. Monitoring

Each time a program tries to access the Internet, ZoneAlarm will tell you. You can check the box to remember your answer for most common programs, so you aren’t bothered by repeated warnings.

XXVIII. Scan For Spyware

There are several spyware removal programs, but Spybot S&D is free and well regarded. Get it from www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

XXIX. Search & Destroy

After updating the program, click Search and Destroy. Click Check for problems. Once complete you’ll see a list of identified spyware. Uncheck any items that you don’t want to remove. Click Fix Selected Problems.

XXX. Immunize

In the left hand pane, click Immunise. This blocks known bad products including spyware sites and browser helper objects on the Spybot blacklist. Check Enable permanent blocking of bad addresses in Internet Explorer.

XXXI. Real-Time

It’s safe to run more than one anti-spyware tool. so install Windows Defender alongside Spybot to give real-time protection.

XXXII. Stay Safe

Prevention is better than the cure, so avoid viruses and Trojans by deleting suspicious looking emails and steering clear of dodgy websites.

XXXIII. Password Protection Tips

Make sure all passwords are a mixture of numbers and letters of upper and lower case and are over six characters long.

Don’t email passwords to anyone – even support staff as email is not secure.

Change your passwords every few months to lessen the chance of them being cracked.

To help you create good passwords, use a random generator like the Winguides generator (www.winguides.com/security/password.php).

Any active content on web pages, including ActiveX components, Java and JavaScript can potentially contain malicious code, Use security zones to restrict suspected sites.

Think twice before installing unsigned ActiveX components. They can be particularly harmful.

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/security/default.mspx for Internet Explorer news and updates.

Clear your temporary files in Internet Explorer by clicking Tools > Internet Options > General > Delete Cookies and Delete Files.

XXXIV. Don’t Get Ripped Off

When buying online, check that you’ve been routed to a secure server before entering card details.

Secure pages show https:// at the start of the address rather than http://. You’ll also see a locked icon at the bottom of your browser.

Always check your credit card statements paying particular attention to Internet transactions.

Don’t use a debit card online. They don’t carry the same protection that credit cards do.

Anything that offers you the chance to get rich quickly or get something for nothing is a scam.

XXXV. A Secure Desktop

Take a quick trip around your desktop. Have you got any documents or data files saved to the desktop that contain sensitive data? Have you securely deleted any such files? Is your virus scanner up to date? Do you have programs to scan for Trojans, Spyware or adware? Are these up to date? Is your firewall up and running? When did you last update all your main applications? Run through this checklist every couple of weeks to make sure your PC is safe.

A computer needs some basic maintenance to improve its life span and performance. Following this simple guide you will save money on computer repair and computer support as well as have a secured computer.

Tip: Click On Images For Larger View

A. Disk cleanup: to access Disk Cleanup click Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools, click on Disk Cleanup, check all of the boxes except compress files by clicking one at a time, then click on OK or yes. Disk Cleanup should be done at least once a week.

B. Disk Defragmenter: Over time files become defragmented on your hard drive, this happens when you open a file then make changes to it, then when you save it, its to big to put back where windows retrieved it from, so windows saves one part there and another part somewhere else on the hard drive, so now the file has become fragmented and the more fragmented a file is the longer it takes windows to open it. To access Disk Defragmenter click start/All Programs/System Tools, click on Disk Defragmenter , if you want to analyse the disk before defragmenting it select the (Analyse) button. A colour chart will show the amount of fragmentation. The more red you see in the chart the worse the defragmentation is. Disk Defragmenter can take several hours to complete so its best done when your away from your computer for a while, you should disable your screen saver and close all other applications before starting a Defragmentation of the hard disk, when your ready just click on the Defragment button to start the process. You can defragment other drives as well, just select which drive you want to defragment on the defragmenter.

C. Computer virus protection: As we all know that new viruses are being introduced almost daily its very important to keep you anti virus program up to date with the latest virus definitions. Viruses aren't the only security problem, these days we are in a real worry about spy ware, ad ware, malware, key loggers and root kits. There are plenty of free anti spy ware and ad ware programs available to download. Spybot -search and destroy is a good free security software utility and should be run at least once a week. The software called Lavasoft Ad aware is a good free ad ware program which should be run at least once a week. A good free virus software is AVG free anti virus protection.

D. Run a full anti-virus scan: you should run a full anti-virus scan of all your hard disks once a week as well as any other security program you might have.

E. Keep Windows up to date: Make sure automatic updates are turned on, these updates are are fixes for security vulnerabilities and patches from Microsoft.

F. Back up important files: most of your important files will be in your my documents folder and should be backed up at least once a week.

G. Install a firewall: Lets face it, the Windows firewall isn't exactly up to scratch, so installing a third party firewall Will greatly increase your security and there are some good free one's available to download, i recommend Zone Alarm or Ashampoo's free firewall. Only one firewall should be used.

H. Clean up your start up items: The more programs that start with your computer the slower it will boot up, everything you see in your system tray (down by the clock in the right hand corner) starts with your computer, to clean these up click Start/ Run, and then type msconfig in the open box then click OK. Click on the startup tab the uncheck any items that you don't need to start with windows, if your unsure what the item does, do not uncheck it.

I. Clean up programs that you no longer use or need: Just deleting a short cut or icon doesn't uninstall the program, to uninstall a program click Start/Control Panel/Add Remove programs and go through the list and remove any computer video games and computer programs you no longer use, if your unsure what the program is for or what it is, do not remove it.

J. To check your drive space: To see how much space is left on your hard computer system, open my computer and right click on C: then select properties, a pie chart will show you how much space is left on your hard drive. You can do the same with any other drives or partitions you may have.

K. If computer is freezing or hanging up: press Control+Alt+Delete to bring up the task manager, select the offending program and select end task, if all else fails, press the power button (you usually need to hold it in for about 5 seconds) to shut down your computer, wait about 10 seconds then restart your computer.

L. Tip: If you keep getting the same error message, try to copy and paste it into a search bar like Google, this should give an explanation of the error code as well as links to try to resolve the matter.

PROBLEM:

Do you ever wonder if the Antivirus, after installing it is working or not? The answer is a test virus. For this technique to be done, anti-virus makers throughout the world developed one standard by which the users can verify their anti-virus installations.And the output is an EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File which can be used to test the antivirus


SOLUTION:

Here is the solution. To test your anti-virus installation, copy the following line without brackets and quotes " into its own file (notepad,text document), then save the file with the name EICAR.COM. More detailed instructions are found below.

("X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*")

The file size will be 68 or 70 bytes.

If the Virus Scan is running and configured correctly, when you try to save the file, Virus Scan will detect the virus. If the Virus Scan is not running, start it and scan the directory that contains EICAR.COM, or right click on the file and select scan with your anti-virus program, When your software scans this file, it will report finding the EICAR test file.

[NOTE] This File Is NOT A VIRUS:

Delete the file when you have finished testing your installation to avoid alarming other users.

The eicar test virus is available for download from the following web site:
http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com

Steps to create an Eicar.com file:

1. Click on Start.
2. Select Run.
3. In the Open box type: notepad
4. Maximize the notepad window
5. Copy the following line of text written in green color

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

6. Go back to Notepad.
7. Click the Edit menu on the top and then select 'paste'.
8. Click the File menu on the top and select 'save as'.
9. Alter the 'Save as Type' to 'all files'.
10. Name the file as eicar.com.