|
|
|
Published 12-Jun-2008
Give your computer some OneCareConsidering how much money the criminals are making on the Internet by fooling users into clicking on a link - in some cases, a click is not even needed - to steal bank account details, for example, then it's worth some of your time and a few dollars to protect your valuable savings. webDotWiz has been posting links to the Spyware Sucks site for some time. Sandi, over in Perth, runs Spyware Sucks and her goal is to track down the criminals behind misuse of Flash Player advertisements that automatically redirect a user to a site that tries to load a malicious program called Winfixer. Sandi estimates that the criminals behind this scam have netted about $130 million from unsuspecting Internet users. The first task to protect yourself from malvertisements that Sandi talks about is to go to the Adobe website (www.adobe.com) and download the latest version of the Flash Player (version 9.0.124.0). If you feel you and and your family may still be open to abuse from Flash Player malvertisements, then uninstall the Flash Player until its security is improved beyond doubt. The Rushworth Community House IT department has encouraged everybody to have at least the free AVG antivirus program installed to help protect against all the nasties out there on the Internet. However, the IT team have reconsidered and are now strongly suggesting it's better to spend a few dollars to purchase Windows Live OneCare and reap the benefits of this multi-facetted program. A good place to start using Live OneCare is to take advantage of the 90-day free trial. Go to the Live OneCare website at onecare.live.com to read up on the details. You'll notice you firstly have to uninstall your current antivirus program before downloading the free trial. So what do you get? Live OneCare can be used on as many as three computers. It not only protects you from Internet nasties but also keeps your computers performing at their best and forces you into backing up your documents, photos and videos on a regular basis. A performance tune up is carried out on a regular basis according to a schedule you set and a regular backup regime can be organised. A detailed report is available after each performance tune up and there's lots of information to peruse including the number of threats to your computer that Live OneCare has detected. Backup of your important files follows an old fashioned requirement, namely, that your files be backed up to a device or medium external to your computer. In other words, you'll need plenty of blank CDs or DVDs, or an external hard drive. External hard drives that connect via a USB port are cheap these days. The first backup usually takes a fair amount of time and space but following backups are done on an incremental basis (only new files or files that have changed since the last backup are added to the main backup) and only take 30 minutes or so. Live OneCare has other useful features, one being it can set up any printer so that printer is shared among other computers on a home or work network. As well, if you have two or three computers using OneCare, then the other(s) can be managed from whichever computer you choose in the OneCare hub. Finally, Family Safety was recently added to the OneCare program for Australia. If you're undecided about spending a few dollars on Live OneCare so you're protected against Internet nasties and have a solid backup procedure in place, just take a moment to think about the consequences of losing all those photos you have on your computer. Here are some sites to get you started:
• All this week's Wiziest sites are listed on the webDotWiz Column sites page. Help | About• Need help finding your way around? It's just a click away...» • The webDotWiz Column is published fortnightly, on the same day as Rushworth's volunteer, fortnightly paper, The Waranga News, and updated regularly as sites are added to the webDotWiz Sites Directory. • Comments? Questions? Contact the webmaster webdotwiz-column [at] hotmail [dot] com. • © Bernie Halpin, webDotWiz Online 2000-2008. |
Focus on
|
Back to the top
