TFC - Technical Support

General Description

Your computer is just one machine among the millions connected to the Internet at any given moment. And a moment is all it takes for a hacker to get in. All your private documents and photos, credit card numbers and passwords are available to anyone with bad intentions and basic computer skills.

Hackers can get in, take what they want, and even leave open a "back door" so they can turn your computer into a "zombie" and use it to launch network security attacks, often against high-profile computer systems such as government or financial systems. Having control of your computer gives them the ability to hide their true location as they launch their attacks.

Virus protection is not enough. Many people think that anti virus software protects them completely from Internet-borne threats. But virus protection is only as good as the latest virus definitions, which are created in response to the latest viruses threats, many thousands of people must be infected before the makers of anti virus software can create a defense and anti virus software does nothing to protect your computer against direct network security attacks.

There is a bigger problem, today, for Internet users from spyware, adware, hijack programs, pop-ups, key loggers and other malicious software that may find it's way on to your computer and is not detected by anti virus software. Anti virus software is only designed to scan for virus activity attempting to install itself on your computer.

If you use dial-up Internet connection, it is more difficult (not impossible, just difficult) for a hacker to get in, since your computer only connects to the Internet when you dial up to send or retrieve e-mail or access a web page. Once you have completed your Internet tasks, you disconnect your computer or after a certain amount of idle time, the computer will disconnect automatically. Also, your computer is usually assigned a different IP address on each call. The risk of attack is greatly reduced if you are not constantly connected.

Broadband services are more of a target for network attacks, since your computer is always connected to the internet, ready to send or receive data and its IP address changes less frequently.

What you should know about the dangers of the Internet

We use computers everyday on the Internet searching for information, sending and receiving e-mail, communicating through chat programs, investing, shopping, and even banking. The responsibility for security of this information transfer falls mainly on the shoulders of each individual user. Banking information transfer is done through secure encrypted information transfer protocols but most other communication is not secured unless you personally setup encryption and security protection on your computer or the site you are connected to is a certified secure site.

Without proper protection your computer can be open for use and abuse from numerous people that may want to extract information from your computer or use your computer for other subversive functions. Intruders are discovering new computer software vulnerabilities every day that are used to exploit computers, which makes it increasingly difficult to protect yourself from attack. When these vulnerabilities are discovered, software manufacturers attempt to provide upgrades to patch the holes in their programming but it is up to the computer user to be aware of the latest patches available, download and install them to keep your protection up-to-date.

Spyware and adware is a growing and potentially dangerous activity on the Internet today. Essentially spyware is not dangerous. It gets on your computer from visiting sites that install cookies in your computer. Cookies are a little piece of software installed on your computer by the web site for the purpose of storing personal information about you so that the next time you visit the site they know you have been there before and what your interest where when you last visited. A lot of sites have taken this information gathering a step further and included software in their cookie that logs what other sites you go to and what your interests are, and sends this information back to the site even when you are not accessing this site. This information gathering is done without your express permission and is the reason why we consider it an invasion of privacy. Spyware is used by companies to collect marketing research about how individuals use the internet, what sites they explore, what type of products they look at or purchase and how often they visit certain sites. This provides Internet marketers with the information about what type of products are popular and also what sites to place their advertising. The gathering of this information contributes to the growth of SPAM e-mail that clogs up your mailbox with junk e-mail trying to sell their products. Spyware can extract e-mail address and these addresses may be distributed or sold to other companies wishing to market their product on the Internet and send junk mail to your mail box.

There are more invasive types of software that can infect your computer commonly referred to as adware, spybots or malware. These programs can be difficult to detect and remove from your system. There are a number of ways for these types of programs to get into your computer. The most common way is included with free programs you download and install from the Internet. Programs that offer to increase the performance of your computer or offer to make your internet browsing easier with enhanced tools for your browser toolbar almost always come with other bundled software that infects your computer with malicious programs that often hijack your browser default to undesirable sites, invade your computer with pop-up banner advertising or attempt to divert your Internet surfing to sites that advertise other products and services. Even many programs that offer to protect your computer, (especially free ones) may contain other malicious software as well.

Be wary of sites that offer fabulous deals and then require you to download and install software in order to qualify for the deals. The software you install may also come with a number of undesirable programs that install as well without your knowledge. You should only install software on your computer that comes from a reputable company that has been recommended to be safe. One of the most invasive programs you can install on your computer is free music exchange programs. These programs ALL include some kind of adware software bundled with their software package and they also install a program called Peer-to-Peer Networking. What Peer-to-Peer Networking is designed to do is to allow other people to access your computer from the Internet to download music from your collection to add to their collection. When you download a song you are actually downloading from someone else's computer, not some central secure repository of music. This concept in principal would be OK if everyone was honest, but as we all know that is not the case, if you were totally honest you wouldn't be downloading illegal music to begin with. You could be downloading music infected with other malicious software from someone else, with bad intentions, could use this access port to your computer to do damage or turn your computer into a zombie to attack someone else's computer.

Some malware is much more subversive than just gathering marketing information. Some malware is designed to steal much more valuable information from your computer such as detailed personal information, address, phone numbers, credit card numbers, banking information, address book information etc. Some of this extracted information will be used for illegal or immoral purposes. This type of malware is much more difficult to find and remove and can actually go out to the Internet and download more malware programs to infect your computer.

You can imagine what effect having a number of these programs on your computer can do to the performance. All these programs competing for access to the Internet can laterally bring your computer to it's knees and cause it to run very slow and reduce or prevent your access to the Internet.

How to protect your computer

1) Use a firewall
A firewall is a software program that monitors all incoming and outgoing network traffic and allows only the connections that are known and trusted. A firewall program can be installed on your computer or it can be another device such as a router or another computer with a special firewall program installed to prevent security attacks by rejecting attempts to infect your computer or take control of your PC. A firewall provides a shield that makes your computer disappear from the Internet and makes it invisible to probes and network pings. If you cannot be seen, than you cannot be harmed. One of the good firewall program that we may recommend is Zone Alarm http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp where you can purchase the program or they also offer a free version but as with most free programs it does not contain all the security features that the purchased version has. Warning, if you use music exchange programs on your computer, the Peer-to-Peer Networking that is installed with such programs will open a pathway through your firewall for two way computer access reducing the effectiveness of your protection programs.

2) Use anti virus software and keep it up-to-date
Using a good anti virus program is a necessary requirement for security when using the Internet, and keeping it updated regularly will help to keep infection out of your computer. An anti virus program is designed to scan for programs attempting to infect your computer and it should also scan all incoming and outgoing e-mails that may contain virus infections. You should also run regular scans of your system to check for any infection that may have found its way into your computer. Your anti virus software can also be programmed to do a full scan at a pre-determined time or you can elect to launch a scan manually. There are some companies that offer free anti virus programs such as AVG anti virus at http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 or Avast at http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html but you should be aware that free versions do not contain all the protective features and scanning abilities of the purchased versions.

3) Don't open unknown e-mail attachments
Don't open any email attachments unless they are authored by a person or company that you trust. You should also be aware that email viruses can often originate from familiar addresses and still be infected with a virus. Some viruses propagate by stealing addresses from infected computers and sending infected e-mails to everyone in the stolen address book. If you need to open a suspicious attachment, first save it to your hard disk and scan the file using your antivirus software or setup your anti virus software to scan all e-mails coming in or going out.

4) Enable hidden filename extensions
Windows operating systems, by default, hide certain types of files from view as well as file extensions, which makes it more difficult to recognize suspicious files. Some email viruses take advantage of a hidden file extension. They use an attachment which may appear to be harmless (.text, .mpg, .avi) when in fact it's a script or executable (.vbs, .exe). The hide system files and hide extensions choices in the properties view choices of display boxes should be turned off

5) Keep your operating system and other applications patched
Most of the network security attacks would be reduced or stopped if all users kept their computers up-to-date with patches and security fixes. When holes are discovered (this happens frequently), computer vendors usually release patches for their software. Some applications automatically check for available updates, for others, you need to check, periodically, vendors' websites for updates.

6) Be wary of free programs offered on the Internet
There are literally thousands and thousands of program available on the Internet to do almost anything imaginable on your computer. There are potential dangers involved especially with programs that offer to improve the performance of your computer or offer to provide you with all kinds of free goods and services from the Internet. The most infamous being the free music exchange programs. Most of the free programs that offer all kinds of marvellous benefits, are actually smoke screens for invading your computer with a number of other potentially damaging programs that you don't want on your computer. Even programs that you purchase are not necessarily safe either. It may be the intent of the author of the program to extract money from you and provide a program that does not perform as advertised or may be so poorly written that it causes problems with your operating system and may be very difficult to eradicate. Check for program reviews by doing a search on the internet to see what other people have to say about it before you install it on your computer.

7) Disable Java and ActiveX if possible
Java and ActiveX are used to write code that is executed by web browsers. Although this code generally adds useful features, it can be used by hackers, for example, to monitor your Internet activity or extract sensitive personal information or your address book. You can disable Java and ActiveX in your browser at the potential cost of effecting interaction with some websites. Be aware though that disabling these function may effect other programs but it will increase the security profile on your computer.

8) Turn off your computer or disconnect from the Internet when not in use
If you use broadband (DSL or cable) high speed Internet connection, turn off your computer or disconnect it from the Internet when you are not using it. This not only helps to protect your computer from network security attacks, it may forces your ISP to change your computer's IP address more frequently, thus making it more difficult for a hacker to get in. An IP number is a unique identifying number that is assigned to your computer by your service provider that gives you an identity on the Internet. If a person with ill intent finds an unprotected IP address they can access that computer and use it for their own purposes without your knowledge. It's like leaving your home without locking your door. If someone with bad intentions happens by and tries the door and finds it unlocked, he will have access to your house to do what ever.

9) Make regular backups of important data
Being prepared for a disaster ahead of time is always good practice. A hard disk crash or physical theft of your computer results in the loss of all data stored on hard disk. Keep a copy of important files on removable media such as floppy disks, ZIP disks or recordable CD-ROM disks and store these disks somewhere away from the computer. It is inevitable that every computer sooner or later will crash and all your data could be potentially lost. If you don't do regular backups of your data stored on your system, it may be gone forever. Data backups also protect from permanent data loss in the event of a situation developing on your computer that can effect the normal operation of your computer and require that the drive be re-formatted and restore the operating system to return to good working order.

10) Develop responsible computing practices and procedures
Developing a responsible attitude concerning how you use your computer and be 'aware' of what to avoid on the Internet. This is the most important security function you can use to help keep your computer safe and make your Internet experience positive. Keeping your computer safe on the net is a combination of a number of procedures. There are no shortcuts or single program that can keep you safe forever. Using a computer without learning and understanding some of the basic operating functions is a potential formula for disaster. You can't protect your computer if you are not aware of the dangers. Computers are a very powerful tool and it shouldn't be taken for granted and expect it to provide top performance without providing proper maintenance. Everything you want to know about your computer is available on the Internet and I would recommend spending a little time learning as much as you can, if you want to use this marvelous tool you have in front of you.

If you use your computer on the Internet without an anti virus program with up-dated data files, and a good firewall program (at the very least), your computer WILL be invaded by some kind of malware or virus in a very short time.