Internet Computer Safety

Nov 15

Please stop being hysterical postings about the “Ashley Mark James” virus hoax and other varieties of the same hoax on Facebook, Msn, and other sites. I am getting sick and tired of this hoax. I wish people would educate themselves on viruses and computer safety and how things work.

Here are a couple of links that discuss this:

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/imvirus.html
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/msn-contact-virus-hoax.html

To protect yourself from malicious code, viruses and other nasty stuff including the so called hackers that can figure out your IP address and get access to your computer, please install these software programs for protection:

http://free.grisoft.com (award winning antivirus and one of the best out there)

http://www.zonealarm.com (award winning firewall that protects your computer against hackers, viruses, and code that could harm your computer)

There are others, but I have found these to be the best and most user friendly solution for the average computer user.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox (web browser that is one of the most secure ones out there. If you use Internet Exploder from Microsoft, that browser is slow, insecure and potentially dangerous because it starts scripts and programs in the background without even asking you. Thunderbird never does that and is a much better alternative).

http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird (secure email client that works well with AVG antivirus from grisoft. This solution removes any malicious code, viruses, and other nasty things from your emails even before you get it).

Another thing you should notice, is if you get emails that look like they come from from Google, MSN, CNN, and other well known companies, they can be from people trying to gain access to your computer. You can find out if you use firefox (see above) by placing the mouse pointer over any links that appear in the email and look at the status bar in the browser. It will them tell you what internett address that the link points to. If it points to a place different than what it says when you read the link, it is a scam or a fraud email. Just delete it.

Any links in an email from google should point to a website saying google.com, not any other place ending with .cz, .ru or any other place.

Educate yourself on computer security. And NEVER open any .exe file sent over Skype, MSN, Google chat, Yahoo IM or in any email unless you KNOW the person that has sent it, and you KNOW they would never intentionally or accidentally do anything to hurt you or your computer.

Your computer can never get a virus unless there are some kind of file or code downloaded. Follow these guidelines and you will be safe.

~Olav

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