First of all, I hope everyone knows the first rule in basic security (and I mean really basic) such as always staying up to date with your Antivirus Definitions as well as your program patches that are needed, unfortunately this means the dreadful long process Windows Updates too, and always staying in touch with your common sense, that if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t, it could range from a simple program file to a website, meaning to get online street-smart to protect yourself into being tricked by phishing websites or downloading trojan horses.

Now sure, you might do everything above and a little more, this goes for the non-technical people as we all know, that people like myself (the geeks), can well protect ourselves online, but what happens when you still feel insecure even staying up to date with everything? Well with a move from basic security tips to advanced security tips, you will be able to protect yourself better online with of course, please remember, that security is all about trade-offs. With most of these tips, what you gain in security, you lose in convenience, and believe me when I say that.

Knowing What Programs You Still Use, and Verify That They’re Up to Date

When I say know what programs you use, this means everyday use to once or twice a week, what ends up happening when you install and a program and forget about it, you forget not only that you have it but that program you downloaded will stay there and after a few years it may be nothing more than a security hole today. If you don’t use a program, uninstall it from your PC! To remove unwanted apps, visit the Windows Install/Uninstall section of the Control Panel. Bottom line, if you’re not using a program, lose it. From a security perspective, every program, especially popular applications, is just another path that hackers can use to break into your system. A useful security tool is the Secunia Online Software Inspector, which scans your PC for out-of-date software. Really useful for the less technical users.
This goes the same for browsers, if you notice that your browser is acting slow, you might want to consider removing plugins, and also updating plugins all the time since they are the most vulnerable when surfing the net.

Brute Force Passwords

Stronger Passwords!

Okay When I say brute force, I simply mean creating and using stronger passwords, I seriously doubt that the password “ballon12″ would do the trick, Hackers will be more than happy to use that against you, Often they steal a person’s password and user name, most likely via a phishing attack, they try that combination on other popular services–Facebook, Gmail, PayPal, Yahoo, to see if it works there, too.
How do you protect youself? Luckily there are free and simple password management tools, such as KeePass Password Safe, that are available to manage your passwords for you. But a note, using this is a bit more work, you may tire of constantly jumping between a password manager and your browser every time you want to log into a Website, but remember that security always involves trade-offs.
Consider using stronger passwords that use a symbol or upper and lowercase characters. And make one that YOU can REMEMBER, don’t make one that’s “!DF)xJSsl@” and hard to remember later on.

Back Out of Rogue Antivirus Offers

Rogue Antivirus

There’s about several popular antiviruses out there, but sometimes they might disguise themselves or act like an antivirus, it’s good to have a sharp eye into paying attention to the small details. Far too many users have had this experience recently when you’re surfing the net on a totally legitimate site when a scary-looking warning message pops up suddenly and alerts you that your computer is infected. You try to get rid of it, but more windows keep popping up, urging you to scan your computer.

If you do allow the website to do this, the scan always finds security problems and offers to sell you software that will take care of the problem. This is an example of 100%  rogue antivirus software. The only thing the software does is put money into the pockets of criminals.

These type of issues, especially rouge antiviruses have become one of the most annoying security threats in todays internet. Every time you try to close those websites, another popup appears. So next time that does happen or before it does, here are a few tips:
First of all, never buy the rogue antivirus software. It will never work and more than often it will trash your system. If the website keeps on nagging at you, either press Alt-F4 to close your browser directly or press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to open your system’s task manager and shut the browser down from there. Closing the browser generally puts an end to the pop-up problem.
Another way to steer clear of these attacks is to be careful when reading a popular story. Often hackers follow Google Trends and Twitter’s Trending topics, and they can quickly promote one of their malicious Web pages to the top of Google search results.

Avoid Scripting

You might ask yourself what avoid scripting is, let alone what scripting itself is. This piece will be the most important because mainly JavaScript is what hackers use to target and load malicious software onto your computer, so steer clear of JavaScript, especially the ones from websites you don’t trust.

For those who don’t know, JavaScript is very popular, and for good reason because it works in almost all browsers, and it makes the internet a lot more dynamic. But like I said, the bad comes with the good. JavaScript can also enables bad guys to trick your browser more easily into doing something that it shouldn’t. The deception could be something as simple as telling the browser to load an element from another Web page. Or it could involve something more complicated, like a cross-site scripting attack, which gives the attacker a way to fool the victim on a legitimate Web page.

This is a tough security threat to dodge since JavaScipt attacks are everywhere. For example, if you use Facebook, you may have seen one of the latest ways that scammers use to lure in users. Scammers have set up fake Facebook pages offering things like a free $500 gift card if you cut and paste some code into your browser’s address bar, this is a big no-no. That code that they want you to insert is JavaScript, and you should never add it to your browser. Scammers are currently using this technique to open up unwanted surveys, fill your social networking profiles with spam or even to send you to phishing pages.

And it gets worse, even though a site might be popular or known, hackers can add JavaScript to hacked or malicious Web pages, too. To avoid attacks there, you can use a free Firefox plugin called NoScript that lets you control which Websites can and cannot run JavaScript in the browser. NoScript goes a long way toward preventing rogue antivirus programs or online attacks from popping up when you visit a new Website.
And better yet, by blocking scripting everywhere and then using NoScript to build a whitelist of trusted sites, you can eliminate most of the so-called Web drive-by attacks that currently plague the Internet.

If you don’t use Firefox, you still have some options for disabling scripting. Just like Firefox users, Google Chrome users can disable JavaScript universally and then build a whitelist of sites where it’s permitted.
Unfortunately, neither Internet Explorer nor Safari has a NoScript equivalent (aww how sad), but IE users can adjust their Internet Zones security settings to require prompts before scripting. And IE 8 includes new cross-site scripting protection to protect you from some attacks.

Bottom line, some of these tips might seem somewhat a little of out place for some non-technical users, but this can save you a lot, and make you  immune to some new attacks not known out there. Stay stay, surf safe!

Security has become an important factor today when it comes to the Internet. Back then when viruses and exploits and such were still new, it wasn’t as bad as it is today with online security. Mostly everyone with a computer in this technology era has been hit with a security risk, whether you know it or not, or if you haven’t, it will happen someday. The one question has always risen a lot, which is: How do i protect myself? While there is no 100% way you will be to protect yourself, there is software and tips to prevent getting infected and also methods to remove such security risks should you face one. It is very important to get some type of security software on your computer, and I say this a lot because there is still a lot of users online today that don’t have security software installed on their PC.Now what is security software? Security software can range from different functions, whether it’s an Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Rookit, Keylogger Remover, etc, etc. Existing and popular names of security software are products such as Norton (Symantec), AVG (Grisoft), CA (Computer Associates), McAfee, and many more. With so many security products going around, and saying they do better than each other, which one do you pick? There have already been tests to compare each other between speed, reliability, scanning capabilities, and features which is important overall.

Now to go over some of the Security Software Providers, some you might be familiar with or never heard of:

• Aladdin (eSafe)
• ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus)
• Authentium (Command Antivirus)
• Avira (AntiVir)
• Bit9 (FileAdvisor)
• Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal)
• ClamAV (ClamAV)
• CA Inc. (Vet)
• Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb)
• Eset Software (ESET NOD32)
• ExpLabs (Link Scanner)
• Fortinet (Fortinet)
• FRISK Software (F-Prot)
• F-Secure (F-Secure)
• AVG Technologies (AVG)
• Hacksoft (The Hacker)
• Ikarus Software (Ikarus)
• Kaspersky Lab (AVP)
• McAfee (VirusScan)
• Microsoft (Malware Protection)
• Norman (Norman Antivirus)
• Panda Security (Panda Platinum)
• Rising Antivirus (Rising)
• Secure Computing (Webwasher)
• Softwin (BitDefender)
• Sophos (SAV)
• Sunbelt Software (Antivirus)
• Symantec (Norton Antivirus)
• VirusBlokAda (VBA32)
• VirusBuster (VirusBuster)

Now this list is only the few that is out there, there could be some new ones we have haven’t tested yet. Hopefully some of you guys (and gals) have tried different antiviruses on your PC, but I will talk about some of the reliable and best antivirus I have used. I will go over each security software and talk something about them below:

Norton Internet Security 2009

NIS 09

I have used this only for a while, I first tested it with a 30 day trial then got a 90 day trial with a new laptop I got, now Norton Internet Security 2009 (NIS09) has been really reliable and fast on scanning and detection than its previous versions. Some of the features I like about NIS09 is its integration with Norton Confidential which allows you have one click logins on Firefox and Internet Explorer and at the same time, your passwords are secured. The speed and detection rate on NIS09 is much faster than other antiviruses I have used. NIS09 comes with features such as a firewall that is very flexible and allows to set custom rules on programs, the update is very easy, literally one click update, toolbar that handles both one click logins and prevent you from stumbling upon exploited sites (like siteadvisior and roboform but 3x better). One of the most important features I see on NIS09 is the Wireless Protection it comes to prevent others seeing you on your network or prevent other in your network to try to enter your PC’s data. Overall NIS09 is very useful and faster and this still remains my #1 choice for an antivirus.

AVG Internet Security plus Firewall

AVG Internet Security

AVG is very feature rich and useful but there is some goods and bads about AVG, it still remains as a useful and top Antivirus but there’s a reason for it being #2 on my list. AVG Internet Security has the basics that a good antivirus products should have, AVG has an Anti-Virus (of course), Anti-Spyware, Anti-Rookit, Firewall, and the previous Linkscanner is integrated into the AVG Editions. AVG also has routine scans you can set (every 4 hours is the default) to update and scan your computer. While the program and scan is very heavy on the system, it can do a slow, auto, and fast scan depending on how fast the user wants it to scan. The neat thing about AVG Internet Security plus firewall is it installs a toolbar (optional) to protect you from stumbling on exploited sites that can give you nasty spyware and trojans. The toolbar has a “Active Surf-Shield” and a “Search-Shield” to scan you searches you do on google, msn, and yahoo. Very useful unless your searching for things you not suppose to search for .

Linkscanner Pro

Explabs

While this is already integrated with AVG Editions, it is very useful in protect in single situations alone, if you a security researcher like me, you want to make sure that every time you stumble on exploited sites, the security risk is blocked. In this case, exploits always hit you and start to make your computer into a zombie, but Linkscanner Pro allows you to scan links manually before you goto them and also scans link automatically when you search up terms on google, msn, and yahoo. Linkscanner is a stand alone security product for anti-exploit solutions. A good example to use this is if you run a web directory (like I do), you want to make sure that users aren’t submitting nasty infected sites into your web directory. If you’re a big web surfer like many people are, it is recommendable to use a security solution with anti-exploit features to prevent anything infecting your computer from websites.

Comodo Internet Security (Free)

Internet Security

If you’re not into buying security products (which I recommend you do because paid security products are better and have more features to protect you and your data), you can always combine a firewall and a free anti-virus. Anti-virus for the inside area, and a firewall for outgoing connections (as well as incoming connections) to prevent a virus (should you get one) to connect the Internet and download more security risks onto your PC, but luckily for those who don’t like paying, Comodo has introduced a new security solution that combines both their Free version of their firewall and their antivirus into one, making it very easy to protect yourself with such good freeware products. It includes their firewall (which I think is great and better with Zonealarm because of its compatibility with Vista), and their antivirus which also is great for free security.

AVG Free Edition

AVG Free Edition

The free edition of AVG is also useful but not very feature rich if you have very sensitive data on your computer. You should only use AVG Free Edition if you use locally on your PC and for surfing websites. AVG Free is very useful if you don’t have a paid security solution otherwise, it has the necessary functions to make your computer survive from attacks, its features has a Anti-Virus, Anti-Exploit (Linkscanner Integrated), And the AVG Security toolbar, which is about it that it has for free basic protection. What I would recommend in doing so with this is to install a free firewall and combine it with a free Anti-Virus only if you know how to use firewalls. AVG is good in basic protection but not really giving you what other free providers give you and what really need.

Overall these are so far the ones I have found really useful and best in free and paid solutions. If you have another antivirus that you think is great, let me know, and I will add it to the list and test it out myself. Security is very important today, I try to advise my friends and co-workers to let them know security online is become very tight with more security risks going into action and spreading quick. It is important that you also (if you don’t have any security on your PCs) to get something at least to protect yourself from online attacks and security risks. If you think Windows Firewall and Windows Defender will keep you safe, you better think again because those only do so much for security. Your better off using a free edition of AVG, Comodo or any trusted antivirus provider. Let me know your experiences you had with antiviruses listed here. Stay safe my friends!

Norton Internet Security 2009

Chances are that you have gotten a virus before on your computer and most of the times, you either reformat cause you’re too lazy or don’t have enough knowledge to remove the virus from your computer. I have too been through that madness when suddenly your antivirus (if you even have one installed) pops up and says “virus detected“, you know don’t know what to do and have to depend on your antivirus. Now your antivirus may have detected the virus, but can it remove it every trace of it and blast that piece of sh……… code away?

Norton Internet Security 2009 (30-Day Trial) is the antivirus I currently use (after using Norton Internet Security 2008) and have used previous versions that I really trust and depend on when I go surfing on the Internet. One of the best features that have improved on this version of Norton Internet Security is the speed. I have no idea how to tell everyone that speed is very important on scanning and detection capabilities (especially when your handle clients work such as their logos, websites, or programs) and a security risk is detected. Every time I used to start up my computer, I always used to experience long wait times with Norton Internet Security 2007 and somewhat with the 2008 version. When I used Norton Internet Security 2009, I could tell the difference very well in start up & scanning.

NIS09 Main

Another feature that it still has and I find very useful is the Norton Confidential that it comes installed with. What it does is it adds a toolbar on your browser(s) such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, the only sad thing is that it isn’t compatible with Google Chrome but if it does, Chrome will be kick***. So anyways, Norton Confidential has all your logins stored in a protected area and requires a login everything you want to use it, or course you create that login the first time you run it. When you login in your email or website administration section, you will have the ability to save the password so next time all you do is, login, find the login, click it, and then Norton will automatically redirect you in a next tab and login automatically for you. Very useful if you are always on the hunt for keyloggers on your computer (which is what its basically made for, to prevent any keyloggers from writing your keystrokes.)

The last thing I want to comment on Norton Internet Security 2009 is how much the GUI (Graphical User Interface) has improved in the past few years, It is recommendable for every company that makes such a great product to at least have a wonderful interface that looks good. In this case, the GUI is see-through, I’m using Windows Vista Premium at the moment so It might look different if you use Vista Basic or Lower versions of what I’m using. In Windows XP, it might look a little Windows-XP..ish. The functionality on a XP system is actually a lot greater since XP doesn’t eat most of the system resources.

Overall I would give Norton Internet Security 2009 a really thumbs up because of the speed and features that have gotten better over the past few versions. The price has lowered from $69.99 to $59.99 for a 3-PC user license, with the use of some coupons you can save a lot more on that price on Norton, I’d recomend searching Google. Keep it up Symantec!

Internet Explorer, Opera, and Firefox

Browsers today have gotten really popular (some have at least), but some have been proven to help a blogger and actually become really more than just a browser to a blogger. With the new release of Firefox 3, a good things has been shown by Firefox 3 and has proved itself that it has increased in Speed, Reliability, and Security. Blogging has really increased around the internet world, with many new blogs opening and getting popular there is nothing stopping these bloggers, except maybe lags and security. With Firefox 3, your post typing speed will increase and so will your visitor rate if you are able to complete more and more posts. How does this help you? Well, we will point out a few things to you.

I’m not sure if a blogger has ever told you that they missed a day’s post because of the lag or a browser/computer crash that sometimes they experience. Mainly the CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress has been blamed a lot for the lag, but sometimes it really isn’t the CMS or the Database (which sometimes it can be), but really, your browser plays an important role in blogging.

How are browser important? Well, for example, if you use Internet Explorer 6 (which some users still do, believe me), and that becomes your default browser to edit, upload, and add things onto your blog, chances are that somewhere along the road, Internet Explore will crash and lag many times which will cause many of us bloggers to go crazy. On the other hand, if you use a fast browser such as Firefox 3, the loading speed has increased in Firefox 3, the memory used by Firefox 3 has been decreased, and security has gotten better since the Version 2 of Firefox. This is really important to a blogger because

1) Security

With many exploits and being implemented into sites, Firefox 3 can prevent malware and exploits from going onto your computer and also prevent it from disturbing you while you are working on your blog or even typing up a post. This will allow you more time and patience on writing posts without having to bother with a pop-up that shows every single minute or so.

2) Speed

Speed is another really important feature to a blogger, nobody will wait 13 minutes for a post (unless it’s a long one) because some browsers will give you a connection error and you will have to restart, losing all your information, but Firefox 3 with JavaScript 1.8 (and other tech words you guys won’t understand), Javascript that now includes expression closures, generator expression and array reduce. Means that pages, website, just about any media online is loaded faster for you, and with more speed comes more faster page load. To make this more understandable, it is like using Dial-up to download a 300MB file online instead of Cable.

3) Reliability

I know that there is a bloggers who are reading this post that have either yelled, kicked, or tossed their computer out the window because of some program errors and/or crashes. Many users today need a reliable browser that can save their work in time of a crash, load pages without showing a error every second, and a browser that doesn’t take much space. New features in Firefox 3 that increases the reliability of Firefox 3 is features such as the One-Click Bookmarking which can be useful to us who need fast bookmarking when reading a site. Even the Firefox 3 session restore is important because if Firefox 3 crashes anywhere in typing a post or even an email, you’ll pick up where you left off, even down to the last word you typed with Session Restore.

These are very important to regular users and bloggers because all these can affect not only them, but their blogs as well. If security was crappy in a browser, chances are that a hacker would be able to get to your computer via browser then to your account and passwords. If speed was slow, the amount it would take to save pages or even load them would turn many of us mad. Without reliability, we would have 30 different programs installed on our computer instead of Firefox 3 (which has it all). As you can see, these are very important, if you want to test drive the new Firefox 3 and see just how serious and dramatically Firefox 3 has increased, goto Mozilla and download Firefox 3!