WATCH OUT THE HACKERS! How not to fall for the bait?

Dear readers. We are not ceasing from talking about the security. Security on E-commerce market is more than important, it`s hyper-important. Everything depends on security. HYIPs secure the codes of the pages, reserve hosting, investor should always watch "personal" workplace, i.e. PC. Today, we`d like to tell you about the programs, helping You to be protected from all the troubles.

There will always be people, willing to make a profit out of somebody's work, without doing anything. Sometimes rob the bank, sometimes beat somebody. More often the fraudsters try to cheat, without sullying hands. There are lots of people like that online, lust like in the real life. But they have nothing to do with physical contacts, and that`s why we are not going to talk about severe injuries and violent crimes. All the contacts are realized via PC, with the primary purpose to steal something. Stealing the money. The aim of these thieves (hackers) is mostly state or private online companies, having something that may be stolen.

However, now lots of these hackers have started to work on these companies, and their security became safer. It`s a joke. The thing is that the company does not only have financial opportunities (to steal $3 or $4 million), there are also serious problems, search and those hackers, standing guard the law, and å¸ not so easy to fight them. The other thing - common users. The number of Internet users has recently reached the mark of 1 billion people, that is almost 1/6 of the Earth`s population!
It`s a small planet actually!

From our point of view, there are several basic types of hackers: "safe", "useful", "malicious" and "thieves". The safe ones - those having no aim to harm somebody. They just exist online, make use of their knowledge, sometimes they get into some restricted sites, play a trick on their friends, but, by the highest standards, they don`t not strive for injuring somebody. The second type - useful hackers help to test safety systems, protecting the law and customers` rights online. The rest types - are "bad guys". They all aim to earn money, in a "dirty" way. The ultimate aim of them is to earn. Malicious hackers, as we called them, don`t always try to steal something. For instance, they can hack somebody`s system, spoil the site, set up the SPAM mailing from Your PC. The thieves are primordially aimed to steal something. They can chase after valuable information, the passwords for the accounts and things like that. Two last groups are the most dangerous ones for us. Why? These hackers (especially the second ones) chase after money. Will You answer the question: where is the money concentrated in the Internet? Bingo! In the sphere of e-commerce. Among the billion of Internet users, we are investors, private users, possessing e-finances and we are tasty morsel, hence, should be 10 times more careful than other Internet users. So, let`s get started with the protection.

There is a number of fundamental directions in PC protection. Any of these directions is open for a hacker to get into Your PC. Viruses - is a kind of an entrance ticket to Your PC for a hacker. First, launching a virus, then getting access. Very seldom the hacker tries to "get into" the PC, i.e. "physically" (just like You, surfing Your hard disks). That`s why the first program, installed on Your PC, should be good antivirus. We described it in details in one of our previous issues., that`s why let`s not repeat ourselves (we`d better go back to it later on). Basing upon popularity, as well as personal experience, communication experience with different programmers, we can build up the following rating: On the very top there are "AVG Anti-Virus", MÑ Àfee and Symantec (Norton AntiVirus) utilities. They are really reliable, fast and convenient to manage. PANDA ANTIVIRUS is also rather popular. Then we have eTrust EZ Antivirus, AntiVir Personal Edition. NOD32 is also very famous and widely used. There are also different means of anti-Trojan protection, these are: Trojans First Aid Kit, Trojan Remover, which can be used along with other antivirus programs. Then such software as F-Secure Anti-Virus, Dr. Web and other less famous programs are mentioned.

We can`t recommend something unambiguously. Each of them is good in its own way, and, choosing of a list of the first ones (see most popular), You won`t be mistaken, that`s for sure. However, one antivirus is updated more often than another, the second takes more memory, the third doesn`t look attractive or its interface is inconvenient. That`s why, You`d better try "in practice". But You simply must have a program like that. Besides it should check Your e-mails, incoming and outgoing messages, also removable devices - floppy disks and CDs. It can happen that a virus is somewhere on the floppy disk, You have taken from work, and then it links up to the "owner" (hacker) from Your PC.

But if it happened that virus bypasses Your antivirus safety system or Your PC is a target of hacker`s personal visit…nothing can stop him…in case You don`t have a firewall or a brand mower installed. These are different things per se. Firewall - is a PC, staying between local and external network (though program emulators are often called like that), and brand mower - is a program device, controlling incoming and outgoing traffic.. I.e. it controls what program, service or process tries to send, receive, and do something else and, in case the request is quite suspicious, it will notify the user. However, now vendors try combining all into one, so there`s no need to talk of the programs` difference. So, what are these programs like, to refer them as the second important program, installed on Your PC? There is a clear definition above, though it can be odd. So then, firewall is a program, protecting Your traffic from any negative processes.

First of all, it monitors it. And, in case something is wrong, it notifies You immediately. Actually, any action between network and Your PC cannot be imperceptible. Certainly, one can presume that hacker can bypass the detectors` system but it`s too unreal. Any firewall (let`s call it like that, without dividing in groups) "sees" the picture, You can set up manually, and applies the protection rules, You indicated personally. The following names on the firewall market can be singled out: Sygate Personal Firewall, Outpost Firewall, Norton Personal Firewal and of course, the most popular, Zone Alarm Pro. What can we say about them? These are all high-quality products. Moreover, it`s possible, and we didn`t mention some more worth ones. But, I`ll say I once again: firewall should be installed on e-businessman PC unambiguously.

Later on, we`ll probably go back to a question of choosing a firewall and discuss it in a more detailed way and consider the offers of the market.

To finish with, a couple of words about browsers. If we mentioned the programs that should be installed on the workplace of an Internet investor, we should mention the browsers as well. So then, we use…most widely used browser. Now, for example, Opera, or Internet Navigator have developed greatly enough to be used on the same level with Internet Explorer. Hackers, fortunately, don`t have too much time and are not in the same place, so can`t they "learn" to "hack" browsers at once. Besides, what`s the sense to learn to hack the browser, used by less than 20% of Internet users. So…draw conclusions.

See You soon, watch the security.

Author David Lowery