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P C. owners are constantly at risk from attacks by hackers. Spy
ware, viruses, trojan horses, and all sorts of other malevolent
programs are all trying to take control of your computer.
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What can we do about it? How can we be
sure that we are properly protected against them?
A hacker will generally not be interested in doing
damage to your PC. His main interest is in gaining control
over your computer so that he can use it to send out
hundreds and thousands of e-mails in your name with
the intention of crashing your mail server.
This can get you into very serious trouble with the
server. This is something that you do not want. How
are you going to prove that you were not to blame?
How do the hackers do it? What tools do they use?
A port scanner. What is a port scanner? A port scanner
can locate PCs that are online and checks them for an
open port. A hacker using a program such as 'Super Scan'
can find an open port to gain entrance to your computer.
Once in, he can use your computer as if it were his
own. The only difference is that to all intents and
purposes it is you that is causing all of the trouble.
The main port that the hacker is interested in is port
80. This is the one that you use to log on to the internet.
I am not going to confuse you with all the various
programs that are designed to show you what ports are
open at any particular time. What you need to know is
how to protect your computer against these attacks.
There are a number of programs designed to show you
what is going on inside your PC. I will give you a short
list of some that are recommended by some of the program
makers.
The one that I would not be without is: www.testmyfirewall.com
As its name implies, it will test your firewall for
flaws and scan for open ports and any other security
problems you may have. You do have a firewall, don't
you?
Another one is: www.pestscan.com
This will scan for any nasties that are already on the
computer.
Lastly, I use: http://security.symantec.com
This will run a security check on all of my systems.
Don't put off what you should be doing today. Make
sure that your protection is doing its job. Check that
you have the latest version of whatever protection you
are using. An out-of-date system is worse than useless.
It gives a false sense of security and suddenly you
find yourself in serious trouble with your ISP.
It is your responsibility to ensure that your computer
will not cause problems for someone else. There are
so many free systems out there that you have no excuse
for not using one or more of them.
Be safe. Be happy. Be responsible. All the best. .Bob.
About The Author
Robert makes a very good living from some of the
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