Protecting Your Business From Today's Computer Security Threats

  The internet security landscape continues to evolve because the threats against computer security keep changing and adapting to the industry's defense tactics.

From computer viruses to malicious software, the methods used to launch these attacks has increased significantly over the years - so staying up-to-date on the types of internet security threats - and how you can protect your company against them - is imperative.

Internet Security Threats: An Overview

Malicious users make a profession out of hacking and creating software that can be harmful to your security. Some of the most common internet security threats include:

o Spyware. This is any software that secretly gathers information about the user while monitoring what the user is doing on the internet. Spyware transports that information to a malicious user, which can have potentially damaging consequences www.scoutdns.com. Spyware applications are usually downloaded onto a computer with a freeware or shareware program. Once installed, keyloggers are used to monitor a user's keystrokes and online activity - which is how sensitive information, such as bank account numbers, often make their way into the wrong hands.

o Malicious Software. Often known as malware or simply as a computer virus, malicious software is any type of software that is designed to penetrate or damage a computer system without the consent of the user. Because of its invasive nature, malware often jeopardizes the security of the entire system and is well worth protecting against.

o Phishing. This type of internet security threat, involves a malicious user who tricks someone into giving them confidential information. More advanced malicious users will do something called "pharming," which uses virus technology to attack the internet browser address bar, so the next time a website URL is typed in, the victim is directed to the criminal's imposter website instead of the true website.

How to Protect Yourself

In the past, in order to protect your computer and network from malicious activity, you would have had to find a separate solution for each threat. For instance you would have had to purchase computer security software to protect against malware, as well as another solution to protect you against spyware applications.

Fortunately, today security providers like Websense offer security suites that not only protect against a variety of spyware, malware and phishing, but the software will also identify new and evolving threats.

When researching a computer security option, there are a few things you should look for before you buy. For instance, a security solution should:

o Block internet threats such as malicious websites, protocols, applications etc., before they can access the internet gateway and cause damage to your system. You should also find one that will identify e-mail-borne worms in the network and present them to the administrator.

o Proactively find new internet security threats. Make sure your security includes regular scanning of millions of websites so you can stay ahead of the game when new threats arise.

o Monitor activity on e-mail, IM attachments and file transfers to identify threats that could result in intellectual property theft.

o Watch your web server closely and alerts you to possible vulnerabilities.

o Immediately report web server attacks to the administrator and include information about the type of attack while providing recommended actions.

With the right information and resources, you will have the knowledge you need to make an informed decision regarding a computer security solution that works for your organization.

Chip Epps is the Senior Product Marketing Manager of Websense, Inc. He is responsible for providing strategic marketing direction for Websense products, and evangelizing the effectiveness of its security solutions including Websense Web Security Suite and Websense Express. He is also responsible for developing and directing go-to-market activity (working with local marketing teams and partners) to achieve planned business objectives and growth. Chip writes informational online articles sharing his knowledge and expertise in the fields of software, engineering, internet security and more.

Has your computer or laptop been working slower than usual? Then it's likely that your system has been compromised by a virus. And the only way to save it from further complications is by installing the best antivirus program. However, before you can remove the threats from your system, it's important to have proper knowledge of various threats that can destroy the compatibility of your system. Since the internet is now being dominated by hackers, they steal the entire information and disrupt the compatibility of your system.

Cyber security is no longer related to protecting your system from various devices but other things that matter. Here is the list of various threats harmful for your system:

1. Root kits: The threat can be easily hidden in your system and thus can avoid getting detected while running the utilities. Root kits help you create a back-door for target computers and thus help hackers to send you spam mails. Antivirus program scan very well protect your system from threats and perform denial on service attack on server. It's really tricky to conceal its presence thus virus detection comes into consideration.

2. Internet worms: This is a difficult to deal with the program as it can badly affect your computer on the same network. The threat works differently as it doesn't require being attached to different programs and can be harmful in many cases. It creates an exact copy and spreads it through network and bandwidth easily. So in case you find your system being slow it might be the worm that is affecting your server increasingly.

3. Email Virus: It can very well dispense itself by utilizing email as attachments. Whenever an attachment is launched the virus instantly targets computer to send various threats of the attachment.

4. Browser Hijacker: It can change the browser home page or the search engine of your system. In worse case sit can very well disable the internet option and can really change the home page to default. The hackers then register so that it can be run every time the page is restarted.

5. Mouse trapping: The website uses some sort of script to prevent the user from leaving the website. It opens a new browser and provides display on the website. It can prevent the data as the java disables it completely.

6. Phishing: This is the most common virus threat faced by everyone online. Phishing is a threatening as it helps protect private information that uses bogus mails and websites.

Be informed of various threats available online and take proper initiatives by installing the best antivirus softwares online.