The problems with malware infecting computers are increasing. This week’s article focuses on how social networking sites are being exploited, things to watch out for, and what you can do to protect yourself. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.
What practices do you follow to protect yourself from malware? Which method used by hackers seems most likely to work in your mind? Choose one of the best practices that you should follow. Describe a situation in which that practice should be used and tell what you would do if you were in that situation.
Malware Article
9 comments:
Usually my family would trust me with this kind of stuff as I'm mostly the technology know it all in the family. I keep an up to date anti virus software and schedule express computer scans daily with full computer scans weekly. I than do not click on any suspicious sites, and for me at least, most are pretty obvious. The best practice in my mind is "don't assume a link is "safe" because its from a friend" because they could have easily been hacked and than posted something on your wall that looks unusually suspicious. If one of my friends was hacked than and posted something on my wall, i would delete that post and than probably message them reminding them that they were hacked.
To protect myself from malware, I do not open any emails that look suspicious or have a title that I am not familiar with. In my mind, the method used my hackers that works most likely is through a friend’s social network account. As the article said, people already trust that source and do not hesitate to click links from them. One of the best practices one should follow is updating malware detection programs, web browsers, and the system so that if a malware infects the computer, it can easily be detected and deleted. Throughout the years in which I have had my own laptop, it has been infected with multiple viruses and malware. The best solution that I have found is having updated protection. Or, if the case is really bad as it has been for me, formatting the hard drive is the best solution.
I follow the practice of using up-to-date browsers by using Firefox 3 & higher, I.E 8, Google Chrome & safari 4, which currently are the highest up-to-date. I think that in terms of hacking, hackers hack, or virtually break in, into one's user
& send some sort of unknown link to a bunch of his/her friends.
Somehow I already know that when one things a virus or not, unless a friend tells us.
I get an e-mail from a friend, saying that they want to add me as their friend on this website that I don't know. I would ask my friend if he/she sent me this.
If they say no, then it's surely a virus & I would tell them "you're being hacked". If they say yes, I would ask them what sort of website is this.
I don't really follow any practices I'm just smart enough not to click pop-ups, random emails etc. The most likely tactic to send a large spread malware virus is hacking someones account and sending it to their friends. This has tricked many of my friends so it must work well. The best practice in my opinion is the: Don't assume a link is "safe" because it's from a friend. One situation would be using MSN. Around two years ago there was a huge virus going around with "Open this link, this was such a great day!". In that situation I never accepted a link from a friend and warned lots of my friends.
-Tristan
Personally i use kaspersky antiviralware and a program designed by a friend to protect my computer from hackers and viruses. It is used to catch 98% of the viruses that are out on the internet and is updated every month to keep up with the newly developed viruses. I would guess what a hacker would do is to weaken my firewall with a virus such as the trojan virus and hack what they need or do on my computer. Best solution to protection from malware: to keep up with the latest versions of antiviralware and try and educate yourself with the simplest solutions or aids, if you are to be hacked or infected. If i was hacked or infected i would take out my hardrive first and take it to the closest pc repair shop, there it will be determined whether the damage was sever or managable.
I do most of what is mentioned in this article to protect my computer from such. It's fairly easy to tell when something doesn't seem right/that something could be harmful, and that is usually enough to keep my computer safe. But, I also keep my internet security/anti-virus programs up-to-date, to ensure safety. I think, for my generation at least, that fishing out what sites/links/advertisements are harmful is generally easy, because we have practically grown up with computers and they are a considerably large part of our life.
I would say that the email method is most likely the most fail proof. You can send emails to anyone, but hacking (which is involved in the other methods) is not something you can do to anyone. I have never had an online account of any kind hacked, and I have tons of them. Even if hacking does work, the chances that a large number of online users will far for it seem low to me. The messages these hackers use have become so generic and predictable that it just doesn't seem likely that people would still fall for them today.
Practice - keeping your computer up-to-date. Situation - this practice could apply to any situation, as it works in the background. Having internet security and anti-virus programs enhance your browsers, making them able to fish out dangerous sites more effectively, perform regular scans and generally prompt you when a threat is present. In any situation concerning malware, having an up-to-date computer/up-to-date programs is essentially the best way to protect yourself.
Well personally, my family knows I am careful with what I go on and what I do. I also make sure that no one knows my password or no one has seen my password. I think that most hackers like to use the "anti-virus" thing. I don't click on any sites that come up, I just exit from it and make sure it never comes up again. Most things that my friends send to me are links that are to be passed on. I don't always think they are safe. From experience, one of the guys I once knew hacked into my facebook account and I told all my friends that told me I had said that, I told them my account got hacked. I would tell the person I would never say that about them.
For my protection, I use the most biggest company's anti-virus program. These are very safe and I can believe it, because it is very famous company in Korea. I also don't check the email which looks suspicious, or email from unknown person. I think the best solution for protecting your computer from malware is to keep up with the latest versions of antiviralware and try and don't open links or email that looks suspicious. It once happened to me and it was very annoying.
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