Safe From Hackers? Think again

[guitarman]

After my pc was hit by spyware or virus, the next worst thing that could happen is hackers. I stormed around the web for information about hacker and found this article (about 3 years a go) at my office PC and thought it may be interesting to post it here. The hacker article is shown below:
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The Straits Times 4 October 2002

Safe from hackers? Think again
JUST because you have anti-virus software installed on your personal computer does not mean it is safe.
New forms of software that are widely available for download allow even amateur hackers to disable firewalls and anti-virus products silently, giving them remote control of your PC without your knowledge.
Known as security-targeted attack tool (Stat), the software was the focus of Governmentware 2002, the annual government security seminar, which was open to private-sector participants this year for the first time.
Stats target popular security products like McAffee and Norton anti-virus software. They render them useless and trick the user by simulating their behaviour.
Then, with the PC's defences down, online bank accounts become insecure and the computer is used as a stepping-stone to attack others, or becomes a storage area for stolen information like passwords.
'The bad guys are adapting faster than we can keep up in a lot of ways,' said Mr Lance Spitzner, senior security architect at Sun Microsystems and a speaker at the seminar.
All is not lost, though.
There are some things that you can do to protect yourself, said the experts.
· Log off the Internet and turn off your computer when it is not being used.
· Be selective about visiting Internet sites. Avoid those whose origins you are unsure of.
· If possible, use one computer for surfing the Net and another for functions where security is important.
· Update anti-virus software regularly.

[aaliyah]

Agree...
Nowadays having firewalls and anti virus software installed are not enough, but is a must. They act as the first line of defense to detect and remove some of the "primary viruses".
Bascially, there are 3 main types of security threats: viruses, worms and trojan horses.

- Viruses are small programs that can be replicated and affect other programs, like deleting and erasing information form the computer hard disk.

- Worms are self contained programs which means they can be replicated without affecting the other programs in the computer. Thus hard to detect when it is active.

-Trojan horses do not replicate but give hackers direct access to your computer. Often left unnoticed that hackers have been downloading, uploading files from your system, obtaining your passwords without you knowing. (Worms and Viruses can still be detected, but Trojan horses are really hard to be detected, and often result in more devastating effect to your computer as compared to the other two.)

So remember to frequently check for the latest updates for your respective OS systems and renew your antivirus software for better protection to your computers.