It seems like there is no end to the ideas people come up with to steal information from you and your computer. Most people lump all these threats into a single category of "viruses", but the term actually refers to a specific type of threat that is somewhat rare in comparison to other threats. While you may not need to know the specific terms for the myriad of threats we face online, it is important to be aware of the types of threats that we will face and how we can avoid falling victim to them.
Trojans - The term trojan comes from the Trojan Horse of Greek history, where Greek soldiers were hidden inside a horse that the soldiers of Troy took to be a peace offering. Trojans are usually installed along with a free download. Sometimes, the a person will write a free useful program and package it along with the trojan for download. However, it is more common for people to take a legitimate free download and build a new installation program that will install the program and a trojan. By getting toward the top of the search list, a person can trick many people into downloading the program from their site instead of from the legitimate site.
We can steer clear of trojans by being careful of what we install on our computers. Do not simply begin searching for free software to solve a particular problem. Do some research and select a legitimate software provider for a particular program type, and then make sure you only download it from the company's site. Also, make sure you stay away from sites that offer paid software for free or at a greatly reduced price. That $10 version of Windows probably has several of these threats built in to it.
Phishing - Phishing gets its name from the idea of catching fish: you throw bait out and see if you can get anything to bite. A phishing scam usually begins when you receive an email from a company claiming that suspicious or unauthorized activity has taken place on your account and provides a link for you to confirm your information. Then, you immediately enter panic mode, click the link, enter your information, and it gets sent to hackers in Russia or China who will then actually hack your account.
We can avoid phishing scams by staying away from those email links. Remember, no legitimate company will ever send you an email link asking you to confirm your personal information. They will always ask you to go to their website and log in. Also, for the few that do trick us when our minds enter panic mode, installing a browser add-on like Bitdefender's Traffic Light will double-check the sites we are visiting and warn us when one claims to be something it is not. (I actually clicked on a link once, and Traffic Light popped up a warning saying that this site was asking for my Amazon credentials but did not appear to be associated with Amazon.) Finally, if you use a password manager to generate random passwords, the password manager will recognize when an unaffiliated website is asking for you information and refuse to give it up. As one person put it, "You can't accidentally give your password to the wrong person if you don't know what your password is."
Pharming - Pharming is similar to phishing in that the goal is to get you to give up your personal information, but it differs in how it goes about getting it. In phishing, you receive an email and click on the link that takes you to the site. However, in pharming, software on your computer convinces your browser to go somewhere you don't want it to go. When you try to go to Ebay or Amazon, the software will step in and tell your computer to go to a similar-looking page that will steal your login credentials.
Unlike the two threats above, you actually do nothing wrong in a pharming threat (unless you allow the program to install on your computer.) You enter amazon.com, but the software on the computer automatically has your browser go to an illegitimate site. Besides having an up-to-date antivirus, the best way to stop a pharming scam is to check the address bar at the top. If you simply type ebay.com and end up at a site with a 1000-character address, you may be a victim of pharming. Also, be careful of the information you enter on a public computer. It would be very easy for someone to slip software on the computer to conduct pharming scams.
Ransomware - Ransomware is designed to hold your computer hostage until you pay a fee. The two most popular ransomware threats are the FBI scam and Cryptolocker. In the FBI scam, the computer boots to a message claiming that your computer has been locked by the FBI and you must pay a fine in order to access everything. Cryptolocker would encrypt all your personal files and then require you to pay a fee to get the encryption key in order to decrypt them.
The FBI scam was relatively easy to solve with a good software program that could boot around the ransomware, but Cryptolocker was much more dangerous because removing it still did not give you access to your files. While there were sometimes ways to recover your files, there were other occasions where you had to hope that important files had been backed up. Good browsing habits and a good antivirus would help you avoid these threats sometimes, but unfortunately, they may still find a way to get on your computer.
Spyware - Spyware is designed to track your activity and then transmit it back to someone else. Some people may use spyware to check on a spouse they think is cheating or to track their kids' internet activity. However, others will use spyware to steal your information or invade your privacy. Keyloggers are designed to keep track of everything you type and transmit it back to a location. When you enter your email password, banking password, or social security number, it is stored and then sent later. Adware is a little less threatening: it simply keeps track of the sites you visit and then begins displaying advertising for products it thinks will interest you.
Scanning with a good antivirus software (or even several programs) is the only way to stop spyware, although good browsing habits can limit your chances of getting it. If you suspect that your computer is infected, it is best to stop using it altogether until you can get it cleaned. Also, be sure to check the terms of use for everything you install. You may be giving the publisher of a program permission to install adware on your computer, too.
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