Cyber Security and the Emerging Security Threats

Cyber security has been associated with the ever-growing complexities, threats and even costs which are popping up and growing unprecedentedly each passing day. Devices are getting interconnected and this has brought about the many perils in the cyber world. The interconnectivity has made it easier for hackers and criminals to compromise data both on the large scale and irrespective of where it is found. Security risk management has continued to be headache to many different groups of cyber users who happen to be the businesses as well as individuals. The need to proactively protect web applications, web processes and above all data has to be approached with a lot of seriousness and compliance to eliminate all types of threats both external and internal. Not only are cyber attacks the most feared threat but the sabotage of infrastructure is feared since incidences are growing in number each passing day.

The ever-changing cyber security landscape has people, organizations and businesses on their toes in identifying risks and vulnerabilities in their resources and systems. Threats as earlier mentioned have been on the rise due to the communication networks expanding and being in a position to gather humongous amounts of data. Yet another form of threat has been the rise of digital and cyber weapons which have been designed and deployed to target specific control systems or targeted at data stored in them with the intention of bringing each of these down. It should be remembered that the threats to infrastructure arises from the increase in access points within the network. Other threats have been the theft of data especially from governments, the theft of intellectual data property, the theft of financial information and cyber attacks aimed at the mobile devices.

The cyber security landscape this year has seen the problems and challenges which have been presented by mobile devices and applications. The use of the mobile devices has continued to grow and this growth has been matched in the growth of cyber attacks aimed at these devices. The growth of the mobile app niche has also seen an increase in the threats hidden and associated with many apps now found either free or at a small fee. The apps which are location based will have the risk of threat is when the applications are packaged with malicious code and malware such that they are then sold or availed to unsuspecting users. Other applications have been made in such a way that they will download malware and such programs like keyloggers and others that will record phone calls and the text messages.

The social engineering threat has been also on the rise with the intention being people will click on malicious links through the use of rogue antivirus and other many rogue and fake software like fake backup software mimicking the cloud computing services.

Hactivism has also been on the rise with different people or groups of people registering their displeasure and their non compliance with political decisions and opinions and other social factors through the staging of cyber protests. Their biggest tool has the denial of service attacks that are intended to bring down websites and systems. The DoS attacks will limit or totally disrupt the access of data on various websites and across a network. The other form of attacks has seen the posting of sensitive information such as the email information and credit card information which have been stolen or hacked.

The advanced persistent threat is another form of attack which takes the shape of a longterm hacking which is often targeted through subversive and stealthy means at intellectual property. Espionage is one form and the other is capturing network by working on vulnerable points. A network once captured will be used to store data and information and for other people a relay point. The spear phishing attacks are aimed at businesses and the top echelons of organizations with the aim of obtaining some confidential data or gaining access to networks and the businesses.

With so many threats faced in the cyber world, sound security practices need to be used both by individuals and businesses. The practices and measures taken are those that guard against attacks and cyber challenges and ally the impact of an attack.

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Computer Viruses and Threats and Staying Clear Of Them

Computer viruses have been on the rise and they have been giving people using the internet a very hard time and especially at the present times. The biggest danger with the viruses is that they are easily transmitted across computers and this is possible through very many avenues just as the people creating them have intended. Their intentions are also varied chiefly stealing personal data and secondly gaining control of networks and computers and lastly another of their intentions will be the malicious damage to information and infrastructure. The viruses are able to spread extremely fast and this is perhaps the biggest danger since they will be found in email attachments, as funny images, as even audio and video files and lots of other material which can be found online and downloaded for use on a personal computer.

Every computer owner and user should be wary of being a recipient of viruses. The fear of a virus attack is always very big and this arises also from the fear of the unexpected. Not everyone will really fear the viruses and some people especially in the cyber security niche will take their time to study various different computer viruses to identify how they have been programmed and the kind of damage they have been programmed to cause and lastly how they are able to spread. Having known these important pieces of information, an individual will have the necessary information to keep themselves protected and maintain cyber security. The information here is about knowing about the risk and how to deal with it far from knowing the consequences which when they finally happen are devastating. A look at some of the viruses frown at present will unearth different types which are the browser-hijackers which are usually aimed at raising advertising revenue by criminals via the directing of the browser to different websites and to voluntary download.

To mention just a few types of viruses known today, we will find the boot sector viruses, the web scripting viruses, the macro viruses, the file infector viruses, the resident viruses and the polymorphic viruses. These are just but a few of the viruses and are not an exhaustive list of the viruses known to man today. Aside from the viruses which are a big security threat, there are the worms, spyware, malware, rogue security software and the Trojans. These are threats which are equally devastating just like the viruses but are not as technically similar to the viruses.

The viruses have the potential to cause irreparable damage on the computer or the network and this has to do with the kind of problems that they are capable of causing. Of utmost importance is to have basic knowledge about the security threats and to know what measures to take to always be on the safe side. It is important that an individual knows some of the symptoms of the attacks by viruses. These will help prevent further damage being realized on the computer or on a network. The most obvious indications of the infection by viruses include the hard drive of the computer constantly running out of space. Computer programs will usually take quite a long time to load which is not normally the case. The programs will also be exhibiting inconsistent behavior which cannot be explained. The appearance and the disappearance of files in the computer is also a classic example of viruses having infected the computer. Other symptoms will be the display of strange graphics on the computer monitor, conventional memory reducing by a big margin among other changes which cannot be explained.

The most important steps to take so that an individual is able to protect himself from the Trojans and the computer viruses especially when online, begins with caution. Beware of downloads and the exchanging of files and documents. Open attachments only in the event that the author and the origin of the files are known. It certainly helps to side step any form of trouble. Antivirus software is another way to keep your PC protected from virus attacks. The antivirus software should always be updated to surely prevent any attacks. The process has been simplified and this has been so through automated updates being enabled with the antivirus software available today. Configure browsers to make sure that they do not launch programs automatically like the MS Word especially with the continued risk of macro viruses. Lastly, do a back up of the system which allows that an infected file will be replaced with a non infected file.

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Staying Clear of Threats and Attacks While Online

With the majority of the people in the world today having daily access to the internet, their lives are to a big extent dependent on the internet to facilitate and effectively go about their businesses. The IT world has had a very big impact on the way that people are able to lead their lives and even interact with each other all made easy by the internet. But many of these achievements are offset by some very unfortunate incidences which have been brought about by the very large numbers of attacks which happen day in and day out. Most disheartening is the fact that the attacks are in most cases perpetrated on the unsuspecting users of the internet bringing them losses in in terms of data, personal information, time, and financial resources. Some of the threats and the attacks have been in the form of malware, scams, identity theft and hackers and people have to really educate themselves about these threats and how to stay clear of them to avoid getting ensnared to the devious schemes of the lurking cyber criminals.

To ensure that people are in the position to avoid the threats and many attacks which are prevalent on the internet, a number of steps and measures have to be taken to remain on the safe side. The biggest threat to internet security is the element of human error and indifference. How is this possible? It is common that good judgement and some common sense will usually be thrown to the wind and the results are fatal counting into loads of cash and lost man hours as the damage is rectified. The infection of a PC or any device will happen out of curiosity as people are keen to click on a link even when they know only too well that it might be potentially dangerous. Hence internet security calls for a proactive nature where an individual is keen to follow rules and guidelines which will guarantee that they protect themselves from and their networks when online.

First and foremost, access to the internet should be done only after a quality antivirus has been installed to guarantee security. A good antivirus or internet security suite can be gotten through the finding and reading of reviews and finding the most effective security software at the available budget. Second to installing the antivirus software, it must remain updated and must be renewed once it has expired to guarantee that threats and attacks are prevented. It will be a disastrously mistake not to have an antivirus and not to have it updated.

Other measures will be to have spam filters to an email account in order that spam and suspicious emails are quickly identified and deleted. Some other rules are that you should never download attachments or files without conducting a virus scan. It is even recommended that sharing files from dubious sites is avoided. In fact the best piece of advice is that the file sharing should be avoided at all costs since they become a potentially big source of threats.

Social networks have become very popular with people now having multiple accounts on the different social networks. Social networks have become a playing ground for cyber criminals whose intentions are not right. Users of the social media need to be aware of the threats and adopt steps which will help avoid attacks and unfortunate incidences. Some will be on the social media itself and most dangerous will be getting malware and the viruses on your personal computer which can be devastating in the kind of damage they can cause and the difficulty in eradicating them.

The smartphones have been an area of big concern since people carrying these gadgets which are miniature computers are often a threat to networks. This is best explained that smartphones and other portable devices are open to attacks by malware, Trojans and viruses and worms. Secondly, through access to internet on the workplace network, the smartphones are an area of weakness which can be exploited by hackers and criminals.

Having looked at the threats and forms of cyber attacks, the best way to stay clear of them is by having antivirus software or an internet suite which is running and is promptly updated.

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Computer Threats and Security Solutions

The privacy of our personal information and authenticity of all data communicated is an important fact today. Antivirus is used to prevent computer viruses, adware, spyware etc. and can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses. Antivirus software companies offer computer security which has many security suits such as Norton, Comodo, Kaspersky, Avira and AVG etc. Signature based detection and file emulation are the most common methods in virus detection. Many security antivirus provides protection against all existing viruses. Thus it acts as a powerful tool which increases the storage of flash memory devices. It has the defensive property against all existing viruses through its high-speed scanning mechanism. It gives the update of new threats in every hour.

Many free antivirus versions which assures a powerful real-time protection of your system. We have other free antivirus programs which include MoonSecure AV, DriveSentry, Microsoft security essentials etc. CalmWin is a free antivirus program for Microsoft windows 7/Vista/xp etc. We can use free antivirus download options through which it is possible to protect our PC from thousands of potential spyware, key logger and tracking threats etc. Malicious software or malware is described as cyber vandalism and the goal of viruses is to spread as much as possible. To protect our computer from crime ware it is essential to install security patches for operating system and applications.

Today each website has its own privacy policies. Web bugs are typically small images placed within the source code of the web pages of a site. It is used to measure the traffic of users who visit a web page. Similarly cookies are the small amount of information which can identify you as specific user. It allows you to save your personal and technical information just like the pages you have visited. If we do not wish to receive cookies we can configure the browser to get that effect. For system security it is necessary to reject cookies from certain domains.

Generacion 4.0 is a new antisparm version which has special features like collective intelligence engine, motors using signatures and engine heuristicos etc. Engine heuristicos is the automatic defense mechanism which acts against new malicious codes. It identifies viruses, worms and trojans that are not present in the database. A virus signature can copy a portion of the executable code to reproduce the infected host applications. There are pleomorphic viruses which are not detected easily so that the heuristic method is used for this purpose. Collective intelligence engine is also help to detect and disinfect viruses.

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The Evolution and Expansion of Computer Virus Threats

Virus software is unauthorized software which is designed to replicate itself on a computer without the owner's knowledge or approval. From the original virus threats which would erase a hard drive or slow the computer to a crawl, new virus threats have developed over the past decade and more. The major additional new threats have been characterized as spyware and malware.

What are the distinctions made by software security professionals between spyware and malware?

Spyware is designed to quietly run on a computer and gather data. The spyware software silently monitors and records user input and network traffic. Eventually the spyware sends this personal information from the infected computer to another computer where the data may be used for monetary advantage. This advantage does not usually mean the fraudulent use of credit card information. The monetary advantage could mean providing records of sites visited to companies wishing to make targeted sales. Or it could mean providing email address book data to scammers looking to distribute scam email in hopes of obtaining bank account or credit card information.

Malware is a more generic term than spyware. Malware refers to any malicious software which has installed itself in an underhanded or deceptive way. There are five main categories which are often included under the heading of malware: adware programs, spyware programs, hijacking programs, toolbars and dialer programs.

An adware program causes pop-ups which display an ad on your computer screen. These pop-ups may occur when you click on a link in your internet browser or they may occur when you open and run a program. There are legitimate adware pop-ups provided as helpful short cuts on some business web pages. The malicious adware pop-ups mimic the legitimate ones in order to deceive the user.

We have already described spyware programs above.

A hijacking program generally uses Internet Explorer and redirects your web connection to sites which you had not intended to visit.

A malware toolbar emulates Google or Yahoo toolbars and like them it offers additional functionality. But the malware toolbars function in order to gather data or redirect web searches or display pop-ups ads.

The final category is the dialer program which generates an automatic dial out over modem connection to a 1-900 toll charge number.

To meet the evolving threats from spyware and malware, security software has been developed by operating system developers and by anti-virus software companies. The new threats constantly call for new counter-measures in this ongoing battle for user security in the networked computer environment.

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How To Delete Adware Threats That Norton Antivirus Can't Delete?

Before coming down to the crux of the matter, let us understand what 'Adware' is and how does it affect your computer system. In short and simple words, 'Adware' is advertising software, which is considered to be a legitimate alternative offered to consumers who do not wish to pay for software. So, when you use that particular software, advertisement will be displayed on your computer screen in the form of Pop-ups. However, this very adware becomes illegitimate, when it starts keeping the track of your activities that you do while surfing net, and sells your personal information to other sources. And then, this adware turns to 'Spyware', which is harmful and risky, for it leads to a number of threats, such as identity theft, phishing scams, etc. Thus, it should be removed without any further deferral to stay away from the dawning conundrum.

Now, it's quite obviously asked that why so sometimes Norton Internet Security can't delete the adware threats? The most common answer to this may come as that the Norton Antivirus set up has become ineffective due to raging technical follies or it has probably got outdated or expired. But having said that, instead of uninstalling Norton Antivirus, you have to update it and run it as usual, if it lists the adware threats in the summary, pen down their names. Afterwards, follow the mentioned below steps:

Step 1 Click the name of each threat to open a small box that contains the full path to each offending file. Then close Norton Antivirus.
Step 2 Click Start>Run.
Step 3 Type 'cmd' in the text field and click OK. A DOS window will pop up.
Step 4 Type 'cd\' and hit Enter key. This will 'change directory' to the root of your C: drive: C:>.
Step 5 Type 'cd ' followed by the path to the first of the offending files (eg. 'cd WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files' - note the space after 'cd') and hit 'Return/Enter'.
Step 6 Type 'dir' once you get to the directory. You will see a 'directory' of all files in the folder. Ensure the offending file has been listed there.
Step 7 Type 'del ' followed by the name of the offending file (eg. 'del bridge.inf') to 'delete' the file.
Step 8 Type 'dir' again to list the directory, and then assure yourself that the offending file has gone.
Step 9 Repeat the process from Step 8 until all files are gone, if you have more than one file and the remainder are in the same directory.
Step 10 Repeat from Step 5 if you have more than one file and the remainders are NOT in the same directory.
Step 11 Type EXIT and hit return/enter to close the DOS window when all your files are gone.

A freelance writer and a blogger-to-the core, Namita has got her brownie points by writing for core technical concerns pestering PC users on day-to-day basis. She has been aligned with many technical firms including http://www.pccare247.com/ - a known technorati in IT Technical Support Services including virus removal, peripheral support, windows tech support, network support, data back-up and many more.

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