Hi folks,
I’m on a site called universal class, and it has various kinds of courses you can take. If you’ve got a library card, you’re signed up for the premium plan, you can take as many courses as you want, limited to 5 courses, and I’m taking one that is preaching to this blog. The course is entitled Internet specialist 101, and I only scored an 18 on one assignment because I was not clear enough. However, thats not why I’m writing this blog post. I’m writing it to share one of my assignments, which was lesson 5’s assignment on what to do to protect yourself from hackers. I’d like to share my assignment with you in case you’d like to comment on it. Below, is the assignment, and feel free to comment on it as you see fit. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the blog and podcast!
One of the things you can do to protect yourself from hackers is to install an Antivirus program. The Antivirus program is designed to pick up files and processes that may not be safe. This is done through pattern analysis, where the program is designed to look at what the file does, and if it thinks it is suspicious, it will remove or quarantined the file so your PC does not fall victim to whatever the file does.
The other thing is to install a firewall. Windows comes with its own firewall, and after XP service pack 2, it is turned on by default. Your router may have one by default and it may be on, so with that, plus the one for your PC, you should be fine. The firewall asks about connections outgoing, and will analyze traffic coming inbound to the PC. Zone Alarm was the first firewall known for the PC which asked about every process, and it learned over time.
One of the things not mentioned in this lesson is being careful what you visit. Today, websites can be compromised, even the legit ones. My own web site had a script on it, and the site turned bad, and my provider was contacted. After signing up for Google Webmaster tools, I learned about what the issue was, which is what I had thought. The web site was flagged as it was compromised. The Antivirus software such as Trend Micro has web analysis so it looks at the traffic and can block behavior that is melicious without compromising the good part of the site.
I have never clicked on adds. Being visually impaired, I tend to leave the add networks alone. While I do run one, I run one based on the site, and I even look at the site first. Add networks such as double click have recently been known to have some issues with add delivery and can pose a problem to users. It is suggested by the lesson to be careful what you click. For those of us who are visually impaired, it is best to be careful what we press enter on.
E-mail is another aspect of a problem. More and more spam is coming in, and a lot of it can have content not healthy to the computer. The lesson talks about making sure you don’t open the files, and to question what is sent if you are not sure. On my technology podcast, I talk extensively all the time about being careful on what people should open, and highlight what is out there to protect ourselves. Steve Gibson said in one podcast, there is no such thing as 100 percent security, and that is so true.
That completes the assignment, please have your thoughts in the comments, and enjoy!