If you receive an email EVEN FROM SOMEONE YOU KNOW! That has a website link ending with “PHP” DO NOT OPEN IT, this is a link to a web page with one or more viruses!! Please pass this onto others. If you have an Yahoo, Hotmail or MSN account, change your login password (and secret question that proves it’s you) several times a year. The new “hackers” and using spyware programs to find your info so they can do this new way of passing viruses. Also FACEBOOK and MYSPACE DON’T SCAN THEIR SERVERS for viruses! Beware of viewing their pages!

Eight threats your anti virus program can't stop. Click here.

As the saying goes, "nothing is for free" and all of those programs offered on tv "for free" to speed up your computer or double your speed, is just a way to sell you their program. In fact every one of them are scanning for the same things, viruses, spyware, registry errors, etc. Allot of people blame every problem that you are having on viruses and spyware. People are shocked when we find them on their computer! If you are going on the internet THERE IS NOTHING TO KEEP THEM FROM GETTING INTO YOUR SYSTEM! It's part of the current internet life just by browsing the internet or checking email. The only way to prevent them from getting into your system, is to never go onto the internet!

Lately in the news, there have been a lot of articles and TV reports about “Spyware” or “Malware” or "phishing" programs. They have been around for years, but are increasing daily. They come into your computer through your web browser so you don't even see them, not necessarily through emails and then run their programs. They gather whatever information they were created to find and report back to the programmer through your web browser not by email. They can do anything that their creator programs them to do. These can and usually do slow down your system besides causing havoc. They are created by “hackers” or “spammers” to perform all sorts of things in your computer. Some are secretly keeping track of where you go on-line, what you purchase and then they can create pop-up ads or emails to get you to purchase those items them from their fake company, not the company you wanted to buy from. They have “web page high-jackers” that force your browser to go to whatever web site they want you to see, usually a pornographic one. They can also be “dialer programs” that while your computer is on, but not on-line, they can call to another computer, and after linking up, they can see all of your files on your hard drive. This might be done over a long distance phone call, say to Europe which YOU have to pay for the call! They might be a “cookie file” that looks for your personal information, or if you bank on-line, which web site you go to and how you log in so they can pose as you, and then transfer money to their factious company outside of the USA. In fact, there are phishing type of emails from EarthLink, AOL, MSN, Citibank, Ebay, Paypal etc saying you need to update your account by answering the email or going to the web site they provide, so you can give them your credit card or checking account info. You might get "offical emails" from Microsoft saying to from “representatives” of foreign investors who want to give you thousands or millions of dollars to invest. All you have to do is give them your account info and then they’ll take all of your money! How to prevent this?

The creators of viruses and spyware-malware, write their programs to hide in folders that most anti-virus and anti-malware programs don't scan. ALWAYS perform a FULL SCAN.

Beware of Brandjacking

Here’s a new term you might not be familiar with. Brandjacking refers to the act of pretending, online, to be a person or represent a company when you aren’t authorized to do so. Brandjackers target the brand’s customers and often occurs on social networks. If you discover that someone is impersonating a company’s or person’s brand, you can report them. This article contains information on reporting such abuse to Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook: http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=9952&rss

New version of "ransomware" holds your files hostage

This oldie and not-so-goodie seems to be making a comeback; with a couple of varieties currently going around. These are particularly nasty pieces of malware that look for your Office (Microsoft Office or OpenOffice) files and media files, encrypts them, and then demands money to unlock them. And like a true extortionist, they even include a veiled threat that you'll never get your files back if you tell anyone about the ransom note. Find out more about it here: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9198743/Ransomware_rears_ugly_head_demands_120_to_unlock_files

Spyware is a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party. Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses , however, spyware - by design - exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites . As of 2005, pundits have often characterized spyware as the pre-eminent security threat for computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems. Some malware on the Linux and Mac OS X platforms has behavior similar to Windows spyware , but to date has not become anywhere near as widespread. Malicious websites may attempt to install spyware on reader's computers. It may looks like security upgrade or plugin installation.

Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. There are concerns about adware because it often takes the form of spyware , in which information about the user's activity is tracked, reported, and often re-sold, often without the knowledge or consent of the user. Of even greater concern is malware , which may interfere with the function of other software applications, in order to force users to visit a particular web site. It is not uncommon for people to confuse "adware " with "spyware " and "malware ", especially since these concepts overlap. For example, if one user installs "adware " on a computer, and consents to a tracking feature, the "adware " becomes "spyware " when another user visits that computer, and interacts with and is tracked by the "adware " without their consent.

In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host. While computer viruses can be intentionally destructive (for example, by destroying data), many other viruses are fairly benign or merely annoying. Some viruses have a delayed payload, which is sometimes called a bomb. For example, a virus might display a message on a specific day or wait until it has infected a certain number of hosts.

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus . A virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program; however, a worm is self-contained and does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself. They are often designed to exploit the file transmission capabilities found on many computers. The main difference between a computer virus and a worm is that a virus can not propagate by itself whereas worms can. A worm uses a network to send copies of itself to other systems and it does so without any intervention. In general, worms harm the network and consume bandwidth, whereas viruses infect or corrupt files on a targeted computer.

Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan horse. In the siege of Troy, the Greeks left a large wooden horse outside the city. The Trojans were convinced that it was a gift, and moved the horse to a place within the city walls. It turned out that the horse was hollow, containing Greek soldiers who opened the city gates of Troy at night, making it possible for the Greek army to pillage the city. Trojan horse programs work in a similar way: they may look useful or interesting (or at the very least harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful when executed.