A guide to internet security

Internet security is something which most internet users are aware of, but don’t understand, or know how to protect themselves. We have compiled this useful guide to assist you to protect yourself, your family, and your computer.

The internet is an international network of computers which are connected together via cables and telephone lines. There is a constant flow of information travelling between these computers (including your own) which leaves them open to abuse by other users. Most attacks by hackers or viruses can be stopped quite easily, and the attacks which cannot be stopped happen rarely anyway. Lets take a look at the issues:

Viruses

A virus is a computer program which has been designed to spread from one computer to another and interfere with the computers normal operation. The consequences of your computer becoming infected can cause it to continuously crash or fail to operate correctly in some way, you can loose all data on the computer, and this list goes on.

There is no good way of removing a virus from your computer, the best thing to do is prevent your computer from becoming infected in the first place. You should never connect your computer to the internet without anti virus software such as Norton or McAfee and ensure you keep them updated with the latest downloads.

The most common method of distribution of a virus is via your email system. The virus will often read the recipients email address book or sent and received emails and send itself to everyone on the list. If you receive an email with a file attachment which you were not expecting (even from someone you know), do not open it until you know what it is.

Phishing

Phishing is an illegal attempt to obtain sensitive information by deception. Often the information that is targeted is log on details for online banking, or your credit card details. The fraudster will set-up a website that looks exactly the same as the website for one of the big high street banks. They will then send a mass email out to thousands of people pretending to be from that bank, asking them to go to their fake website (by clicking on a link contained within the email). Once the unsuspecting victim has arrived at the website they are prompted to either log in or enter their credit card details, and once this is done the fraudster then has access to their online banking or credit card details.

Important; No one, not even your bank should ask you to supply any internet banking log in details. You should never respond to an email asking you to enter any such details no matter how innocent it may seem.

Wireless security

If you connect to the internet wirelessly from your home, there is a chance that someone else could steal your broadband connection without your knowledge. This is an illegal activity but there is a simple way to stop it. You must ensure you encrypt your wireless router (see your user manual for details). You must then input the password in to your computer or laptop to ensure you can still log on to your network, anyone without the password can not log on. It is estimated that 50% of residential wireless networks in the UK are not secure, and the owners of 80% of those networks don’t even know there is a risk.

Recommended software

There are a lot of top software providers out there, but there also a log of software providers to be weary of. Stick to the big name brands and you can't go wrong, here are some of our recommendations: