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COMPUTERS    Apple    Desktop PCs    Notebooks    PDAs/Handhelds    Servers SERVICE    Computer    Parts & Upgrades    Printer & Plotter    Enhanced Services INTERNET    Security    Setup & Installation    Troubleshooting    Wireless NETWORKS    Cabling    Design & Installation    Microsoft    Novell    Troubleshooting    VPN/Remote Access    Wireless PERIPHERALS    Accessories    Parts & Upgrades    Printers & Plotters SECURITY    Backup Solutions    Firewalls    IP Surveillance    Monitoring Software    Spam Solutions    Surge & Power    Virus & Spyware WEB SERVICES    Site Creation    Hosting Frequently Asked Questions HOT TOPIC: Making the Move to Microsoft Vista – Now or Later? Why is my computer running so slow? What is the difference between viruses and spyware? What is Norman's Sandbox™ technology? Why can't I connect to the internet after installing Norton Internet Securities? What is a firewall? What are temporary internet files, and how do I get rid of them? How do I defragment my harddrive (defrag)? How do I check my harddisk for errors (scandisk)? How often do I need to have my computer serviced? Can I use ITunes on a Windows 98 or Windows ME machine? What is the difference between memory and harddrive space? Instant Messaging: Is it possible to get viruses from using them? #1 - Why is my computer running so slow? If you have been having increased performance loss, it is possible there are spyware infections on the computer. Spyware is malicious code that can hijack your internet browser, open pop-ups unbidden, redirect to unsolicited sites, and even open a backdoor to allow unauthorized access to your confidential computer data. BACK #2 - What is the difference between viruses and spyware? By Dave Piscitello The differences are indeed subtle. Both are malicious software (malware): uninvited, intrusive, and potentially destructive. Both have the capacity to capture and destroy information, ruin performance, and disrupt business. Viruses and spyware programs are delivered via web visits and downloads, as well as email attachments. Both can attack systems through many vectors. Perhaps they both fall into the category of blended threats? But what the heck is a blended threat? While a Virus Seeks to Spread One way to distinguish a virus from spyware is by its behavior. A virus seeks to infect a computer; to replicate; and ultimately, to infect as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. When you accidentally install a virus onto your computer, the malicious code that is the virus tries to find ways to use your computer to infect other computers. For example, an email-delivered virus (a worm) may search your computer's file system for your Outlook address book, and send infected email messages to contacts it finds in the address book. Increasingly, a virus will not rely on email alone for propagation, but will try many attack vectors. These blended threats employ file sharing, telnet, FTP, IMs, or any services and programs on your computer that communicate with other computers. ... Spyware Seeks To Embed... Viruses seek to spread, but spyware tries to stay put, a behavior we typically associate with a parasite. In the world of espionage, spyware is closest to a mole. A mole will avoid any activity that might blow his cover; similarly, spyware applications are often content to hide on your system. Spyware disguises itself as a legitimate application or secretly resides as one more data link library (DLL) or registry setting Joe Average User knows nothing about, so that it can collect information about you, your messaging and browsing behavior and your online preferences. Spyware may have a heavier "footprint" on your computer than a virus: spyware will embed itself deeply into critical components of your operating system and bloat your memory with its monitoring and collection processing executables. So where virus activities are overt and sufficiently extensive in their impact to attract attention quickly, spyware activities are typically covert and their infestations are often long lasting. Fame, Or Monetary Gain? Another way to distinguish a virus from spyware is by its objectives, or more accurately, the objectives of the malware writer. Many viruses are written by malcreants who want to distinguish themselves among their underground peers and simultaneously thumb their noses at anti-virus vendors and network administrators. Viruses are written to outperform previous virus outbreaks, and to illustrate how the far the "science" of virus programming has advanced. Recent events such as the war between the authors of the Netsky, Bagle and MyDoom viruses certainly support the argument that at least some virus activities are a testosterone thing. Spyware wants to sap a host (your computer) of anything it can use for monetary gain, for as long as it can remain attached to the host. Spyware is content to sit on a single computer, to monitor what the user does, as is the case with tracking adware; or influence where the user visits, as is the case with targeting advertisers who use browser helper objects that pop up ads, substitute search engines, and hijack home pages. Like ticks, mosquitoes and mites, spyware leeches computer resources (e.g., processing capacity) and inhibits performance. But invariably, these pests stay with the host they've infested. Degrees Of Malice... Lastly, we can compare viruses and spyware by their malicious intent. Viruses can be intentionally destructive and have been known to erase or corrupt file systems or abet denial of service attacks; in fact, given their potential for destruction, we're actually quite fortunate that virus writers aren't more nihilistic, politically- or financially-motivated. A parasite, however, needs its host to survive. Spyware is more interested in having the host remain healthy: simply put, a non-functional computer has neither advertising value nor revenue potential to the spyware. So spyware typically remains non-destructive, unless you try to remove it. But many spyware packages are removal resistant: you may uninstall them only to find they reappear when you reboot your computer. Others modify many critical components of a computer operating system and incomplete removal often renders the computer inoperable. I Am The Spy-rus? Do hybrids—viral spyware—exist? I don't know of any "spy-ruses"—spyware that not only installs itself to track behavior and hijack browsers, but also tries to worm onto other systems through email. It's not inconceivable that such a hybrid might be developed, especially among peer-to-peer applications (instant messaging and file sharing), where the "free" client software may already be spyware. But propagation increases the possibility of detection, public disclosure, and subsequent mass removal of spyware, so I'm inclined to conclude that worm behavior in spyware is unlikely. Shades Of Gray, Even Among Countermeasures You Employ No classification of viruses and spyware is exact. Keyloggers, remote administration tools (RATs), and other trojan programs are examples of malware that is often embedded in both viruses and spyware. Keyloggers in particular illustrate the degree of overlap in the malware that anti-virus and anti-spyware programs detect. This "overlap" is a perfect segue for the question, "Why do we need both anti-virus and anti-spyware software?" There are many market and development cycle reasons, but no "scientific" reason why virus and spyware detection and removal can't be implemented in a single desktop security software program, or anti-malware server. I fully expect some consolidation in the desktop product segment of the anti-malware industry in the next 6-12 months, and anti-malware servers will follow. Until we see this convergence, use both anti-virus and anti-spyware at the desktop. SMBs and enterprises should try to complement desktop anti-virus with anti-virus, anti-spam and content filtering gateways from Trend Micro, Symantec and others, or security appliances like Watchguard and Fortinet, who incorporate such features into their firewall products. If you're a consumer Internet user, choose an Internet service provider who can complement your desktop security measures with anti-malware services. By Dave Piscitello BACK #3 - What is Norman's Sandbox™ technology? The threats against computer security are changing rapidly. New and more sophisticated computer viruses are constantly emerging. Norman alone detects hundreds of new viruses every day through its SandBox™ technology. In order to provide efficient protection for future threats, Norman has increased its SandBox™ technology enabling it to detect more viruses. Norman SandBox 2005 has improved support for several functions. The SandBox simulates a fake computer and network environment, completely separated from the internal computer resources. All files that enter the SandBox are expected to execute certain tasks or to behave in a certain way. If a file suddenly starts performing tasks beyond a defined framework, this will be detected as non-standard behaviour and Norman SandBox will make the file inoperable and deny access to your real computer system. The SandBox also informs the user of the kind of malware that has been detected and suggests further action. Norman has integrated the SandBox solution into all its antivirus products and has experienced great success with the solution. With the new and improved Norman SandBox 2005 it will be harder for the malware to bypass the SandBox. BACK #4 - Why can't I connect to the internet after installing Norton Internet Security 2005? Norton Internet Secerities installs a firewall that prevents unauthorized access to the internet. This can be very frustrating for users that have no knowledge of hardware and software firewalls. They are explained in detail here. BACK #5 -What is a firewall? In construction, a firewall is a non-flammable wall that prevents fires from spreading throughout a building. Homes, for example, may have a firewall between the garage and the rest of the house to prevent garage fires from threatening other rooms. With the rapid popularization of the internet, the term firewall is more commonly used in computer networking. Like the firewalls used in homes and buildings, computer firewalls act as a barrier between computers on a network. For companies with a computer network or for individuals with a permanent connection to the internet (such as through DSL or cable), a firewall is critical. Without a firewall, intruders on the network would likely be able to destroy, tamper with or gain access to the files on your computer. Firewalls can come in the form of hardware or software. Without getting into the complex details of how firewalls work, suffice it to say that function with a set of filters that are constantly monitoring traffic on the network. Whenever a packet of information triggers one of the filters, the firewall prevents it from passing through in the attempt to prevent damage. Of course, firewalls sometimes block wanted traffic, and through a continual process of refinement, the filters can be customized to improve their efficacy. Many computer users who access the internet via a broadband router, may already be benefitting from a firewall. The router itself may be configured to serve as a firewall; any nefarious attacks from the network, are halted at the router thereby sparing any ill effects to the computer. Such a hardware firewall can be further bolstered with a secondary line of defense in the form of a software firewall; you can never be too safe when using the internet! For more information on firewalls and Microsoft's Windows XP Sevice Pack 2 firewall, click here. BACK #6 -What are temporary internet files, and how do I get rid of them?? The Temporary Internet Files (or cache) folder contains Web page content that is stored on your hard disk for quick viewing. This cache permits Internet Explorer or MSN Explorer to download only the content that has changed since you last viewed a Web page, instead of downloading all the content for a page every time it is displayed. To delete the files in the Temporary Internet Files folder, follow these steps: Quit Internet Explorer and quit any instances of Windows Explorer. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Internet Options. On the General tab, click Delete Files under Temporary Internet Files. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the Delete all offline content check box , and then click OK. Click OK. BACK #7 -How do I defragment my harddrive (defrag)? Windows 95 and later operating systems come with a built-in tool call Disk Defragmenter. You can find it under START/Programs/Accessories and then System Tools. This tool is used to reorganize data on your hard drive so that the drive runs more efficiently. During daily operations of a PC, the system will look for empty space on the hard drive to write data to. When it finds free space it starts to write data to that blank spot. If the space is too small to write all the data in one go, it will write some of the data in one area and when it runs out of space it writes the extra data to another area. This way no disk space is wasted. You might think that it would start at one part of the disk and write the data in an orderly fashion until the disk is full up. The problem is data is always being written and deleted from a disk. So data holes end up on your nicely organized hard drive. The best way to understand this is to think of a storage closet. It makes sense for us to start putting stuff in a closet at the bottom and fill it up to the top. But in our daily lives sometimes we take stuff out of the closet. So holes start to appear in our otherwise orderly storage system. Let's say one day we take a box containing a Halloween costume from the second row of a nicely stacked set of boxes. The next day maybe we need to put old shoes away. It makes sense to stash the shoes in the hole where the Halloween costumes came from. Perhaps the shoe boxes will fit in that hole. So we fill it up as best we can and toss the excess shoe boxes in a different part of the closet. This is what a computer does with its hard drive. A computer is smart enough to keep track of where all data is kept even if some pieces of a file are located in different places on the hard drive. Data won't get lost, but over time it takes longer and longer for a computer to find that data as it has to move the heads that read the data across the hard drive to different places. This is when it makes sense to defragment the hard drive with the Windows Data Defragmenter or with the defragmenter that comes with Norton Utilities (the 2001 version just came out, by the way). I run my defragmenter once a month and it keeps the hard drive running efficiently. Depending on the size of the hard drive this can take hours, but it's worth doing. If you find you run the defragmenter and it hangs like D.S.'s system, be sure that your anti-virus program and other programs are turned off during the defragmentation process. Most bothersome programs that interrupt the defragmenter can be found in the System Tray. That's that group of icons at the bottom right of your screen, by the clock. Right click on them and select "close" or "exit". Your anti-virus program's system monitor will be there. Some programs, like anti-virus programs, make regular hard drive accesses. This interrupts the defragmentation process. If this happens too often, the system will give up. It's kind of like when someone is doing math in their head and you start yelling out random numbers at them. Eventually they'll get distracted and have to start over. BACK #8 -How do I check my harddisk for errors (scandisk)? WINDOWS 95/98 SCANDISK: Windows 95 improved the functionality of scandisk as did Windows 98 to run scandisk from Windows follow the following steps: Click Start Click Run and type scandisk in the run box Click ok Within the scandisk window select the drive that you wish to be checked. Choose the option between standard and through. It is recommended you run standard first, if you encounter issues with scandisk then run the through scan. Finally click start to begin scandisk. In addition Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98 will run scandisk automatically if the computer is shutdown improperly to check to see if the hard disk drive encountered issues when the computer was improperly shutdown. WINDOWS ME SCANDISK: Like Windows 95 and Windows 98 Windows me has scandisk located in the same location, to run Scandisk in Windows ME follow the following instructions: Click Start Click Run and type scandisk in the run box Click ok Within the scandisk window select the drive that you wish to be checked. Choose the option between standard and through. It is recommended you run standard first, if you encounter issues with scandisk then run the through scan. Finally click start to begin scandisk. WINDOWS 2000 / XP SCANDISK: Keep in mind that if Windows 2000 and XP is a networking operating system and it's possible that the privileges to run scandisk may have revoked by the system administrator. To run Scandisk we recommend you follow the recommend steps: Double click My Computer Highlight a local hard disk drive by clicking on it once. Right click the highlighted local drive Click properties Click the tools tab and click check now to check the drive for errors. The computer will need to restart in order to run scandisk in a safe mode. BACK #9 - How often do I need to have my computer serviced? Unfortunately, the old adage, "if it's not broke, don't fix it" does not apply here. For instance, dust can accumulate in the cooling fans and the heatsink of the processor, causing undesirable overheating. For the first 6 months or so, you think everything is fine. All of a sudden, this grinding noise comes from inside the computer case, and a strange burning smell is detected. You quickly power down, and bring your computer in, only to find out the power supply is burned up. (Good thing you were there to avoid a fire). You get a call that you computer is ready for pick-up, and the bill is over $150.00. And this is the inexpensive scenerio, because had the processor fan quit working, the repair cost could easily excede $400.00. Having routine maintenance performed on your system helps to prevent these kind of "meltdowns". At Madison Computer Works, we cover a 25 point system checklist, similar to having your fluids topped off when you get an oil change on you car. This includes blowing out the dust, deleteing temporary internet files, checking you harddirive for errors, defragmenting your harddrive, installing critical updates, and much more. BACK #10 - Can I use ITunes on a Windows 98 or Windows ME machine? Unfortunetly, the answer is no. To use iTunes for Windows, your computer should have: Windows XP or Windows 2000 500 MHz Pentium class processor or better QuickTime 6.5.2 (included) 128 MB RAM minimum/256 RAM recommended Latest Windows service packs recommended Supported CD-RW drive to burn CDs, video display card, soundcard DSL, cable modem, or LAN-based high-speed Internet connection (broadband) recommended for buying and streaming music BACK #11 - What is the difference between memory and harddrive space? Perhaps the most misunderstand concept amongst novice computer users/owners is the difference between RAM and Hard Drive space. Knowing the difference becomes very important when trying to figure out why the latest and greatest "must have" software won't work on your computer. It also helps you figure out what needs to be done so it will work. Hopefully this will answer the oft-asked question: "It says I need 32MB RAM, but I have 800MB storage - that should be enough, right?" Hard Drive The Hard Drive may also be called "Storage" or "Disk Space" and it is measured in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB). A Hard Drive consists of a metal platter which spins very fast. As it spins, the hard drive "head" moves along the platter and can "read" and "write" information. The hard drive is used for long term and large amounts of storage. In your everyday life, when you "save" a file, you are asking the computer to "write" this information to the hard drive. There is normally a slight delay as the computer finds the right space on the hard drive and actually saves the information. Once "saved", the information is magnetically encoded. As a result, it stays on the hard drive - regardless of whether you turn the computer off. The information stays there. And, later, you can erase your file and free up that space. Advantages: Relatively Cheap Can turn off the computer, and reload the information later. Disadvantages: Since it's a mechanical device (spinning platter), it can be slow. RAM RAM may also be called "Memory" and it is measured in Megabytes (or MB). RAM comes in the form of computer chips. These chips plug into special connectors in your computer. The purpose of these chips is to provide fast storage for the computer to use. When the computer loads your file from your hard drive - where does that information go? It makes a copy of the information from the hard drive and places it in RAM. Why? For speed. Information in RAM is stored based on electrical signals... so to change information simply requires sending a different electrical signal to the chip. This happens very quickly. Remember, the hard drive is a physical object that is spinning. It takes time to start it spinning, and move the hard drive "head" to the right position. Let's say you are typing in a Term Paper in your Word Processor. Every key you press on the keyboard becomes part of your Term Paper. You don't realize it but, every letter you press has to be remembered by the computer. It accomplishes this by saving those keys in RAM. It happens so quickly, you don't even notice it. So it's fast... but what happens when you turn off your computer? All the information is lost since the electrical signals storing the information have been turned off. Advantages: Fast Disavantages: "Forgets" when you turn the computer off More expensive than hard drive storage. BACK #12 - Instant Messaging: Is it possible to get viruses from using them? Posted in Security News - IT Security - on 20/07/2005 Instant Messaging: Communications godsend or security back door? IM is becoming increasingly popular as a business tool. According to Gartner, IM will surpass email as the preferred method of interpersonal communications by 2006. Even now, more than 85 per cent of businesses use IM according to a recent Radicati Group report. As well as the specifically developed services, like that used by Reuters, employees are downloading any number of different IM clients such as MSN Messenger from Microsoft, AIM from AOL and Yahoo! Messenger - currently the three biggest players in a market. Instant messaging is truly interactive, with an immediacy that email lacks. It is an ideal way for two or more people to communicate quickly, and the ability to see if someone is away or busy makes it extremely useful in the fast-paced business world today. Many organisations are already reaping the business benefits of instant messaging: productivity gains; increased global, real-time communication; and lower phone, travel and collaboration tool costs. It has also proved to be a highly popular form of personal communication – either at home or, rather more surreptitiously, in the office. In many cases people have turned to IM rather than face an email inbox that is clogged with spam. So much so that IM took only two years to get to 50 million users compared to the 16 years email took to reach the same number. However, in terms of security, IM is where email was five or more years ago, and therefore some of the advantages it offered over email are slowly being eroded. Not only does it provide another channel for ‘standard’ viruses and worms to break into the corporate network, there are now threats specifically designed to attack IM clients – as Reuters discovered. In fact, according to IM solutions vendor, IMLogic, there has been a 50 per cent increase, month on month, in reported security incidents since January this year, with more than 30 newly detected IM threats including viruses, worms and spam over IM (spim) malware. Part of the problem is that IM tools are so easy to download and install, with the result that many organisations find they have an IM communication culture that is completely outside the control of the IT department. Furthermore, files transferred through IM rely totally on desktop rather than server-based anti-virus tools, which don’t provide sufficiently comprehensive security. In terms of spam the advantage that IM offers over email is that users are in a closed group and have to give permission for other senders to join. Nonetheless it doesn’t prevent accounts from being bombarded with requests from unknown senders. Nor does it prevent people from accepting some of the more enticing sounding options! But still the biggest security issue surrounding IM is one of the very features that makes it so attractive in the first place: conversations and content are not automatically stored and therefore are not traceable or retrievable. As a consequence there is a totally unaudited communication path. While this is largely what puts the ‘I’ in ‘IM’, it does have serious implications for regulatory or legislative compliance. Some of the earliest adopters of IM as a business communications tool were brokerage firms, who send buy and sell advice through IM tools. It offers them the rapidity they require – but they face the potential of having to defend trading decisions without having the back-up of a traceable instruction from clients, for example. And even though IM products offer the facility to store a history of conversations, these are generally only held locally and are not secure enough to be used for auditing or compliance purposes. Besides, adding complex archiving facilities runs counter to the initial philosophy that led to IM being adopted in the first place. One option for companies wishing to boost their IM security is to put in place a central proxy server to act as a gateway for all IM traffic. This takes a similar approach to the type of perimeter email security deployed by most enterprises. Users log in as usual from their own machine but actually reach the outside world by going through another server. This enables audit trails and logging, as well as centrally controlled virus and attachment management. It also monitors information leaving the organisation both for compliance purposes and for protection of confidential corporate information. In addition there are gateway products emerging that provide further opportunities for making IM more secure. Companies like Bayshore are developing directory tools that can be integrated with LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), to create secure paths from private, internal networks, to the public internet. This can also act as a clearing house and point of control for IM content – and hence provides a similar level of perimeter security that protects many corporate email systems. However, while there are a number of different security measures emerging, there are currently no established tools for protecting IM. The emphasis therefore must be on establishing corporate policies on IM use, and educating the user base to follow them. It may be that IM can only be used for informal conversations rather than core business issues. Certainly the circumstances in which audit trail options are switched on should be established. Basic security rules that are already in place for email should be re-iterated: users should be instructed to check the source of any messages and only open attachments about which they are 100 per cent sure. Instant messaging has huge potential as a business tool, and can only become more sophisticated. It won’t be long before detailed visuals, and even video conferencing, will be added to IM capability. But for all that to happen, security needs to be taken seriously now, to prevent it being sidelined out of the corporate communications arsenal. Article contributed to Security Park by Ken Watt, INSL BACK ...computers that work for you!

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