What Happened to the Conficker Virus?

Many of us were wondering that after all the hype generated from the media over the Conficker virus. For most of us, it was the exact same thing as new years day in January of 2000, lots of media attention with little to show for it. The truth is, Microsoft issued a patch for the Conficker virus back in January before the virus was even activated. The trouble is, many people ignore the updates or simply have no idea how to get them. Reports from Microsoft state that as much as 30% of users have not updated their systems yet.

The Conficker threat is still very real. The virus is estimated to be lying dormant on over 10 million computers and that's a very conservative estimate according to some sources. The biggest problem with this virus is that it has not activated yet. Some believe it is waiting for stage two commands to be given to allow it to do terrible things such as copying the personal information from your computer or holding your computer hostage and locking it up unless you purchase special software.

The most reported sign that you have been infected with Conficker, or many other viruses, is that your computer runs noticeably slower or if you can no longer update your operating system or your anti-virus software. Most of these programs target your antivirus software first to prevent them from being detected. Once they disable your antivirus program, they are free to run amuck on your system and spread throughout your entire system.

How do you know if you are protected from this virus? The first thing you should do is make sure your operating system is updated. On most Microsoft systems you can click on the START button in the bottom left side of the screen and then select the ALL PROGRAMS option to display a list of all the applications on your computer. Search through the list and look for the WINDOWS UPDATE or MICROSOFT UPDATE option and select it. You may have to do this several times to make sure you get all the updates. Some updates are dependent on others and will not show up unless the first update is installed.

Once you have your system updates it is time to make sure your anti-virus software is updated. If you do not have anti-virus software on your computer then I recommend you look at my website below for some good FREE anti-virus solutions and answers to your antivirus software questions. After you update your anti-virus program be sure to run a manual scan of your entire system. If you have updated your system from the Microsoft site and your antivirus software is up to date then you should be protected from most of the bad things going around the internet today. The trick is to keep your systems updated and schedule a scan several times per month just to be sure nothing slipped through.

Check out my website for a Free Virus Scan and Removal. It contains links to free antivirus programs as well as reviews of what is available and tons of other FREE help for your issues.

Use a Free Malware Remover Online to Keep Your Computer Safe, Fast & Clean!

I'm pretty confident my computer is safe. I run an anti-virus program, and I really don't go to many strange places on the internet. Most of the sites I go to are perfectly safe. But sometimes, I still worry. What if I type an address wrong and I end up on a bad site that infects my computer. Or what happens if I am not paying attention, and download an attachment that is from a friend and it really wasn't sent from your friend, but something that is in their computer. There is cause for concern, the amount of malware, spyware, and other viruses are on the rise. Sometimes, it isn't too bad, and is more of a nuisance. But some programs are designed specifically to log every stroke you make on your keyboard, or even worse steal all your private information.

Even as sure as I am, that my computer is safe, I still take precautions. I have gone online, and found a few programs that help keep my computer clean. Some programs you can download will run in the background and work by keeping the malware off your computer in the first place. Other programs are meant to be run by the computer user and will find the infected files on your computer. Then it is as simple as checking the boxes, and deleting the files.

I run two preventative programs in the background all the time. I have an anti-virus program that is constantly scanning my computer. These programs use minimal resources, and will let me know the second something is suspicious. I also have three other programs that I use to scan my computer every few days. All of these programs were free online. Some programs say they will scan your computer for free, but in order to get anything fixed, you have to buy their software. In any case, you can do a basic internet search and read reviews of the different products that are available. The more you research, the better the chances that you will find what you need to keep your computer safe.

The best software I have found for removing malware is:

MalwareRemovalBot!

Internet Fraud and How to Avoid It

Fraud on the internet is increasing, and in my line of business, I am shocked to discover the amount of people who do not know the basic things to look out for. They are hypnotized by colorful looking sites, the products they feature and the price. Fast delivery is important too.

So when you surf the net for a product, what are are you thinking? You browse a dozen sites, comparing the quality, the price and fast delivery. You think of nothing else. By now, you could be tiring of checking this site against another. All you want now, is to make your purchase. So you place your order in the shopping cart and make payment. Job Done !

Or is it?

You were totally focused on sourcing the website that best suited your needs in terms of quality, price and delivery. You never thought about the payment. It was just an action you completed. In most cases you never bought from a well known or branded retailer.

So who did you really buy from?

Here's some tips to check out:

1. Do they display an easy to find trading address? 2. Is there an easy to find contact number? 3. Is that phone number at a premium rate? 4. Are they based in your own country? 5. Do they have a returns policy? 6. Do they accept credit cards?

Here in the UK, for purchases in value of £100.00 or more, always use a credit card. You have buyer protection from your credit card company. I cannot comment for credit card holders in other countries. If you use a debit card or any other method, you will have no recourse.

So if your purchase is under £100.00, what should you do?

You are taking a gamble. Make sure you know who you are dealing with. You can go to WhoIs lookup and enter the website address to inquire who registered the site. This should give you their name and address, contact phone number and more details. If the information states the registrant is "by proxy" and no other details, they are hiding behind a smoke screen. Avoid this site.

A typical fraudster will not display their trading address, or if they do, it is either fictitious, or they do not trade from that address. In the UK, it is illegal to display a website without a trading address. There will be no contact number, only email. If there is a number, it may be at a premium rate. Avoid this site

A reputable trader will publish their address and phone number in an appropriate place for you to find easily. Remember: For purchases of £100.00 or more - Always use a Credit Card.

I hope this article will assist you for your internet shopping.

Free legal advice and legal representation at the fraction of the price a solicitor would charge you. You can contact me: http://www.smallclaims.uk.com

How to Protect the Investment You've Made in Your Website

One night about two months ago I was on the phone with a client, discussing the content of a fundraising letter we were planning, when she glanced at her e-mail and saw a message telling her that her website was down.

She thought it must be a faulty connection on the part of her writer's ISP - of course her website wasn't down!

But it was. We both went immediately to check and found that it just wasn't there.

OK - she decided to take a deep breath and contact her "web guy." She hung up, telling me she'd call back in a few minutes.

When she called back the news was not good. Her web guy had decided he didn't want to work for her any more. The idea that she planned to solicit donations to help with the animal rescue work she was doing offended him.

And, since she had trusted him to "take care" of everything, he was able to take down her site, leaving her with nothing - not even control of her own domain name.

That happened 2 months ago, and she's still struggling to re-create her website.

Something similar, yet less drastic, happened to a friend of mine who let one of her trusted employees set up their web account. He was listed as the account administrator, because he was the one in the organization who knew how to take care of the site. All was well - until he passed away. She went through months of proving who she was in order to gain control of her own site.

So what can you do to protect your website?

First, and most important: own your own domain name. Do the work of purchasing it yourself and list yourself as the responsible party. You can give someone working for you access to your user name and password - and you'll have the ability to change those names should you and your web builder part company.

If you're thinking of buying into a "template site" check first to see that you'll be able to make changes to your title tags and other meta tags - and that you'll be able to add alt tags to your photo images. These can make a huge difference in your search engine optimization, so don't let anyone tell you it doesn't matter.

Next, even if you have hired a "web guy" to do all the work, learn how to access your site to make changes. Then set up a FTP program on your own computer, and download all your files for safekeeping. In addition, put them on a back up disk or an external hard drive, to protect against disaster should your own computer crash.

This is not only a smart move for protection - it will allow you to make small changes immediately without the expense (or the wait time) of calling in the web expert.

Host your site with a well-known, solid company rather than an off-shoot that may or may not be around next year. And before you choose, make sure that they offer solid customer support. I happen to love GoDaddy because I'm hopelessly non-techie. Their support people are on duty 24 hours a day and always willing to walk me through any problems I create or show me how to do something new.

Make sure the company you choose offers support for programs such as WordPress, so you're not limited in what you can do with your site. You may not want a blog today, but you could change your mind in 6 months. Keep your options open.

When you do choose that web expert, make sure he or she is willing to use copy you provide from any source. If he insists that only he or "his friend" can produce your copy, or if the price quoted includes all your copy, move on to another expert. Copywriting and website development are two different specialties, and one person is not necessarily going to be expert at both.

The bottom line: Maintain control of your site. If a programmer you interview has a problem with that, choose someone different.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in making people feel good about buying products or services, or donating to worthy causes.

She has extensive experience in writing search engine optimized web copy, direct sales letters, postcards, space ad copy, press releases, and more. She is also available for marketing plan creation and editing services.

You can visit her at http://www.marte-cliff.com. While you're there, sign up for one of her marketing ezines. She promises to gently nag you about ways to make your own marketing efforts more productive - whether you're selling a product or service, or promoting a non-profit organization.

How to Prevent Fraud While Shopping Online

Internet has greatly changed the shopping habits of the people precisely because of the convenience it provides in terms of saving time and money. You do not have to travel from one shop to the other; you can simply sit in the comfort of your home and browse through the various websites, do a comparison shopping and buy the goods online using your credit card. That said, there is a catch and that is online frauds. Today, making money online is very easy and there are lots of opportunities available on internet. Online retailers have to provide safety measures to build consumer confidence. If you have an e-commerce business you must ensure that it is 100 percent secure and the sensitive information they provide is completely protected. Keep in mind the following points to prevent your E-commerce website against fraud.

Fraud Detection Service

There is a fraud detection service you can avail of to prevent fraudulent activities. The fraud detection service asks the consumer to verify an address and compares it to what is one file with the credit card issuer. It the address matches, the customer is given permission to go ahead with making a purchase.

Credit Card Verification Codes

The credit card verification code is the three important numbers found on the back of a credit card. As a consumer, you would be asked to insert those numbers when you shop on a site. In order for someone to place website fraud, they most acquire the credit card numbers and the credit card as well. So if you have the verification system is place, you can decrease the risks of fraud significantly.

Site Design

You website design can also help to reduce online frauds. For this, your website should be designed with the latest versions of scripting languages and programs to fight off hackers and protect the integrity of your business. You may have to shell out extra money to make sure fraud is not occurring, but it is well worth it in the long run. Having a secure site will save you money and protect your customers, which is perhaps the most important aspect of online business.

Go for a trusted web design company to ensure that your website is protected against frauds. ITRIX Technologies, http://www.itrixtechnologies.com is one such company providing neat, clear-cut secure web design services customized to their customers' unique requirements. Their certified web designers have extensive experience in web site design and graphic art. The company understands that your website represents your brand and can help design a solution that not only strengthens and creates brand awareness but also fulfils your business objectives. ITRIX Technologies can take care of your web needs from web hosting to web page design to online marketing.

Mark Alter, the author of this article, writes about the benefits of a trusted web design to ensure that your website is protected against frauds. Want to know more about ITRIX Technologies and web design? Still lots of things remain to explore.

The Best Web Hosting For Your Business is Easy to Find

There's a massive amount of data out there on the Internet concerning how to choose the best web hosting. The really helpful thing is that there's really only a handful of absolutely crucial points that you genuinely have to have an awareness of. In this piece I will promptly run through a few of the the most important aspects that you should watch your step with.

Checking into the good reputation of the hosting service provider is a vitally key detail to make an effort to remember. Starting a business on the web is relatively straightforward. More or less anyone can have a go. In the context of these elements it is relatively easy to grasp why there are several shoddy companies around the Net. The quickest and best tactic for judging the dependability of the web hosting firm is to check how long they have been in business.

Make sure not to place too much focus on the headline figures. Some of the adverts you are going to see to do with web hosting are going to contain attractive headline numbers. What you're going to want is a sound and reliable hosting firm. These headline numbers will probably not expose a rounded picture of the offer. It's essential that you dig around a little deeper to locate the solid info that you will want before you make any commitments.

Please appreciate that what you're actually in need of is the best value. The-low-cost option will not necessarily produce very good value. The thing you actually need from a hosting service supplier is a superior mixture of various different components that ultimately, can give you excellent value.

As I mentioned during the opening of this article, this has been a brief appraisal of a few of the key details about the issue of how to choose the best web hosting. There is just a few other absolutely critical issues that you have to fully appreciate.

To learn about those other things right now please go to web hosting advice now. For the best tips http://info.answertrain.com/WebHostingAdvice.html

Can Google Chrome Help Secure Web Browsing?

If you have to share a computer either at home, work or school then you'll soon realise that you leave a trace of your web history on the computer each time you use it - it's not exactly secure web browsing. This can be quite annoying at times, if you're trying to arrange a surprise, buy a gift then leaving a trail of web sites behind you can slightly give the surprise away.

There is of course even more serious side when so many of use the internet for lots of private stuff like banking, investments or research. Using a shared computer has alot of risks to it so most of the browsers are introducing features to deal with this.

Google's Chrome browser has probably the most advanced of these features at the moment although there isn't a lot in it with IE and Firefox both offering similar features. The privacy mode in Chrome is called Incognito mode and it can help your web browsing become a little more secure.

To enable Chrome's Incognito mode just select a new incognito window from the file menu. Then all your web browsing is slightly more secure , no cookies are stored, no logons cached and history maintained on the PC you are using.

If you want to start this mode automatically follow this procedure.

1) Right Click on the Chrome Shortcut on the desktop
2) Click on Properties
3) On the Shortcut - just add the following to the target line -incognito

(make sure you leave a space and add outside the inverted commas)

Then every time you start Chrome using this shortcut it will run in incognito mode. This will prevent any details of your browsing being left behind on your computer and all the cookies will be automatically removed. There are unfortunately many other traces of your web history so this is not totally secure web browsing but it is an important step.

Of course, it's a long, long way from real secure web surfing, we still use HTTP which means your browsing is in clear text. Your browsing history and IP address are also stored on the web site you visit, on the ISP logs. But it is a start and at least can keep your PC holding a huge list of your web browsing.

If you want the ultimate secure browsing, have a look here - Secure Surfing Protection

Try the new free demo of Identity Cloaker on the link below.

Anonymous Surfing Program

Take care and stay safe.
Jim