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WARNING If you receive an E-mail claiming to be from your bank, building society, eBay, Paypal or other financial organisations never respond to them in anyway whatsoever.

If you are concerned about them and think they are legitimate, ring your bank, building society, finacial organisation, etc, first. I would bet a pound to a penny they are phishing E-mails (see below)

Updates to this page are constantly being added, please see the bottom of this page

Phishing

The vast majority of phishing scams consist of...

...a forged E-mail which links to a forged web page or site. The E-mail text urges you to complete an essential procedure by using a link which opens a forged web page. That essential procedure has included account verification, invalid credit/debit card details, attempted hacking of your account, prize draws and account suspension, to name but a few. In many cases, the E-mail has included a worm virus which creates a browser type form rather than opening a web page (such as the Mimail worm).

 Avoid becoming a victim of a Phishing Scam by following these simple rules ...

• Treat all E-mail with suspicion - What you see in the E-mail body can be forged, the sender's address or return address can be forged and the E-mail header can also be manipulated to disguise its true origin
• Never use a link in an E-mail to get to any web page. If you must go there, type the URL directly into your browser's address bar
• Never send personal or financial information to any one via E-mail
• Regularly log into your online accounts - don't leave it for as long as a month before you check each account
• Scrutinize your bank, credit and debit card statements and ensure that all transactions are legitimate. If anything is suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers
• Ensure that all of your software is up to date - for instance, if you use Microsoft's Windows, run Windows Update every day when you first connect to the internet. If you use other operating systems or browsers then check daily for patches or updates. Security loop holes are regularly discovered in software and many of these scams have utilized a vulnerability in Internet Explorer
• If you must use your financial information online, ensure that you have adequate insurance against fraud

An excellent tool here to download is site advisor (located at http://www.siteadvisor.com) this will tell you if the site is real or not

Spyware

A lot of people mistake spyware for viruses, therefore thinking they are safe because they are running antivirus software

What is spyware?

Spyware is software that gathers information about how you use your computer and transmits the data to a central server. This information can include which websites you visit, what applications you're using, or information about your computer specification. But, more sinisterly, the software can also transmit the usernames and passwords you've typed in online

The data gathered about you might be used to send adverts to your computer in the form of annoying pop-ups, to send you spam E-mail or, in rare cases, to impersonate you online.

The definition of spyware varies greatly. Some privacy enthusiasts argue that all cookies are spyware, but these small files can make using the web easier (remembering logins, for example). The truly malicious spyware programs are those that install themselves without your permission and send data silently without you knowing.

There are lots of free programs on the internet for detecting spywear spybot search and destroy has proved to be one of the best functioning for me (don’t forget to download the updates periodically within the software for maximum protection)

Anti Virus

What is a Virus, a Worm and a Trojan

To understand what an anti virus is, it's probably worth noting what a virus is. A virus is a program that, without interaction of the user, runs by its self in order to cause disruption to a computer. Like with a virus in the human body which infects other areas, it will infect other files on the computer, so that it will run when you run other programs. Viruses may just be annoying, pop up messages, shut down your pc etc..., they may also cause damage, such as deletion of data, or infecting special areas of a hard drive.

A worm is a program or similar that, also without interaction of the user, spreads from computer to computer. They are often inside files like viruses but not always, recent worms can enter a computer through holes in the Operating System

A trojan horse usually listens on a computer for some actions, and then will do something the user will not want. Trojans will exist as part of a program that to the user looks legitimate, but they will often open up your system to an exploit, such as listening for remote connections, or they may build patterns on the user, or log keystrokes, many trojans exist that steal passwords for example.

Most of the above require the user to unknowingly download or transfer the file for themselves. This could be downloading an attachment you believe is safe or downloading a document/attachment from another infected user. Trojans will not spread across your system or into others, viruses will infect other files in your system, worms will generally infect system to system.

What is an Antivirus

An Antivirus program is here to protect you! It'll probably work in two ways.

Firstly, it will install a shield or guard. This constantly checks files on your computer as you use them. For example, if you open the file winword.exe it will know this, and check winword.exe is not a virus. If it is, it will warn you and forbid access until you advice on further action.

Secondly, it will have a scanner. You can tell it to scan your whole system, it will look at each file in turn, recursively traversing directories and drives looking for, and reporting any known viruses.

In addition, some of the commercial virus scanners will do more. Many commercial offerings will scan e-mail attachments and e-mails as they are received. They will also scan adverts(why?), web pages, Java applets, and downloads.
It's common also for many antivirus products to include ad-blocking, pop-up blocking and script blocking.

My personal favourite here is avast anti virus (located at www.filehippo.com) you just install it and not only does it update itself with new virus detection libraries but it also works in real time too (meaning if you go on a website with a virus it will detect it)

Firewalls

A personal firewall is a software application which filters traffic entering or leaving your computer. When you're connected to the Internet, information is flowing to and from your PC in a near-constant stream through your PC's "ports". There are thousands of "ports" and they are like little gates that let information in and out.

Some of the information moving through the ports is obvious to you. For example, when you :

• · Send and receive E-mails
• · Access a website
• · Fill in and submit a form on a website
• · Download software like MailWasher Pro or Benign

• However, a lot of information flows to and from your PC without you knowing about it. This can include:

• · Your copy of Windows talking to the Microsoft website to check for security updates
• · Software applications talking to their own companies' websites to check for new versions
• · Antivirus software checking for the latest virus updates.

• Most of this invisible information flow is good. However, some of it poses a grave threat to your PC and your privacy.

Your E-mail isn't the only way bad things can get into your computer. They can come in through your PC's open ports without you even knowing about them. The "Blaster" worm of August 2003 was the most widespread example of this. In case you don't remember, that was the one that caused your PC to shut down about a minute after you'd started it up!

If you leave your PC's ports open and don't monitor them, you're at extreme risk of the following nasties:

VIRUSES: Programs or pieces of code that "infect" one or more of the programs on your PC. Basically, your programs "get sick" and start performing in weird ways, which sometimes can lead to a system crash.

WORMS: Malicious programs that propagate over a network, reproducing as they go. Worms cause the same effects as viruses but they are more dangerous since they spread by themselves.

PORT SCANNING: Hackers scan the open ports on your PC to figure out if they are open or exist at all. If your computer reports an open port, a hacker can send a worm and virus to it. They can even use an open port to take control of your PC.

COOKIES: Small data files placed on your PC by a website that you've visited. A cookie can store your personal information after you enter it online. For example, if you type in your log-in details, a cookie might store it till you come back next time. This is not a bad idea - most shopping sites use cookies completely legitimately so you don't need to keep entering your personal details. But problems can occur when other people decide to use your personal details too!

TROJANS: Programs that appear legitimate but do something illicit when run. Just like the wooden horse the Greeks gave Troy as a "gift", users mistake the Trojan for a useful or interesting program that they choose to download. Once installed and run, Trojans can secretly open remote access channels to hackers, relay passwords and credit card data or destroy user files. It's similar to a virus but generally does not replicate itself.

DENIAL OF SERVICE (DOS) ATTACKS: This kind of attack happens when a hacker finds a responding port on your PC and sends a huge amount of data to it. The port is just unable to accept all of the data, the system resources exhaust, and the system crashes and denies service.

An excellent free firewall is sygate firewall (located at www.filehippo.com) this has worked the best out of literally hundreds I have used in the past. (it’s not confusing and it’s also great if you are running a network)

UPDATES

Regularly clear your cookies and caches to keep your safety to a maximum (I run this program daily and it’s excellent, plus again it’s free

Ccleaner, read more and download it here http://www.ccleaner.com

I hope this page has been of some help to you, I will be keeping this page up to date periodically,

 Please note Worn2perform cannot be held responsible for any software you download to your pc.

Copyright of Worn2perform Ltd 2005