How to Avoid Identity Theft

It’s fairly easy to protect yourself against identity theft when you’re online, since all you have to do is keep your softwares patched and up to date, install a good antivirus and anti spyware program, and to never visit untrustworthy sites as well as click links on untrustworthy emails. However, very few people know that a lot of identity thieves find their victims offline. Here are some ways you can protect yourself against ID theft:

Tips for Avoiding ID Theft

1. Shred bills, receipts and any documents that may have sensitive information before throwing them away. Lots of identity thieves do something they call “dumpster diving”, which does not literally mean they dive in dumpsters, but they tend to sift through people’s garbages for these things. Sometimes a credit card billing with your name and account number is enough to compromise your account.

2. Do not use universal passwords. Try to keep separate usernames and passwords for your different accounts. If you have trouble memorizing different account details, write all of them down in a single piece of paper, and protect that paper the same way you would protect your credit card. In fact, try to keep both in the same place - your wallet.

3. Check your credit history every once in a while. You may not be aware, due to the fact that you don’t experience your card being used fraudulently, but an identity thief may have used your name and details to sign up for another card and have used it without paying. You won’t be liable for the fraudulent purchases, but it may affect your credit score severely, so you need to be vigilant. - by Foo www.spywarenews.com

Webcam Hacker Jailed for Four Years

A middle-aged Cypriot has been jailed for four years after he was convicted of hacking into internet webcams in order to spy on teenage girls.

The unnamed 47-year-old computer technician used Trojan horse spyware to gain remote control of a webcam and take illicit pictures of least one young woman in her bedroom. The teenager's machine became infected after she made the mistake of opening an infected email attachment.After obtaining photos of the 17-year-old the cyber-stalker attempted to blackmail her into posing naked in front of her webcam by threatening to email earlier images to her friends. The girl refused to comply, and instead contacted local police, who tracked down and cuffed her tormentor in 2005.

"Most spyware is designed to steal your identity, your passwords or your banking information - but it is just as easy for hackers to program a Trojan horse to take over your webcam," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at net security firm Sophos. "It isn't a huge problem but there is a potential for targeted attacks, since more and more laptops now come fitted with webcams."

The incident is just the latest example of technically minded peeping Toms have hacking into webcams for illicit thrills. In January and February 2005 two unnamed Spanish residents were cuffed for webcam hacking in separate incidents (stories here and here). In the second case the Spanish computer science student was fined €3,000 for using the Subseven Trojan horse to ogle his victim. ®

By John Leyden → More by this author

Wipe Your Hard Drive

You may not know how to wipe your hard drive, but you should be aware of the process. Computer security is a major concern for both business people and individuals, these days. If you want to keep your data safe, you should consider clearing all of the files off of your computer using a wipe disk tool , when necessary.

What is a wipe disk tool? Well, it's a tool designed to completely delete all files on a hard disk drive. It even detects and deletes files that could potentially be used to restore regularly deleted data. There is no better way of cleaning files from your computer permanently than using a wipe disk tool.

What possible reason could you have for wanting to wipe your hard drive completely clean? Well, if you personally or your business decides to get new computers, you may want to wipe the data from the old units. That will guard against it falling into the wrong hands.

Another scenario where it could be useful is if your company is going out of business and you are selling your computers. This is especially important for business owners who have client confidentiality to consider. There's no telling who will wind up in possession of the computers, after all.

Simply using the delete key or dragging files to your recycle bin is not going to remove those files from your computer completely. You are probably only deleting short cuts, if you delete things that way. It can take hours and be totally useless for your data security.

If you don't learn how to permanently wipe your hard drive, anyone can access files on it. All they need to do is use some sort of system recovery software to access the files. System recovery software can be found all over the Internet.

You might also try clearing files from your computer by simply formatting the hard drive, but that doesn't actually protect your files. A skilled specialist in data recovery can still retrieve them. So, using a wipe disk tool is a much better and safer idea.

Disk wiping is one of the most secure ways of wiping your hard drive. It is a very thorough process, too. It can even delete licensed programs. How does it work? Well, a disk wiping tool is designed to overwrite your whole hard drive multiple times with data. That way, it's impossible for anyone, no matter how skilled, to recover files that were created before the disk wiping process was done. Not only that, but such programs are so thorough that they also usually wipe out the master boot record and partitioned drives, too.

The government has set a medium security standard that says that a hard drive should be overwritten six times, over the course of three different steps. The first step is to remove the hard drive data. The second is to replace it with a series of zeros. The third assigns a code, 246, to the wiped drive. It takes a while, but it's very important to wipe your hard drive, if you don't want people to access your files.

For Reviews of the Best Hard Drive Wiper Software, Internet Privacy Software and Registry Cleaners, Visit vistaprivacysoftware.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adrian_Brooks

3 Tips to Remove Spyware

Your computer is the portal to the Internet. It allows you to speak to friends via email or instant messenger, to play games on or even to educate you or your children. However your computer is at risk the minute you browse on the Internet. All kinds of nasty files from spyware, adware, malware to computer viruses which are lurking to attack your computer, all without your knowledge. I am going to give you three easy to follow tips that will enable you to repel and remove spyware infections from your computer.

Tip No.1 - My first tip is to practice safe browsing techniques. This sounds obvious, although it is tempting to visit those sites that offer downloads and goodies for free. Most of the time they come with a price, infected files within the download itself.

So to prevent spyware files from being downloaded onto your computer in the first place, do only download legitimate files or programs from safe and trusted websites. If you are unsure then ensure you have the latest browser installed on your computer. Preferably you should be using Firefox as this can warn you if you are visiting a potentially 'dodgy' website.

Tip No.2 - You should ensure that you have an anti spyware program that has an online guard contained within. Anti-spyware programs that remove spyware are great at removing infections, but that is all they can do remove after the infections has occurred.

The best way to combat spyware is to limit the amount of infectious files that will be able to infiltrate your computer. As this article is to help you remove spyware for free, then I can recommend two products at the time of writing this. The first program is AntiSpyware2008 , which has a free trial and is about the best I've seen or Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. They both do a great job, but I would recommend upgrading the Ad-Aware if you plan on using it as your only line of defense.

Tip No.3 - My final tip is to run a regular scan of your computer with whatever anti-spyware program you use. Ensure that you also regularly update your anti-spyware program for the latest file definitions so the anti-spyware program can find the latest spyware that is released to attack your computer.

How regular you run your anti-spyware program is based on how much you use your computer. Once a week is fine if you use your computer frequently but to not to excess. Personally I run a scan every 2 days as I do use my computer every day. My computer is pretty clean.

Unless you are using a Macintosh or Linux based machine, it is near impossible to stop spyware from infecting your computer. However, by following the above tips you can reduce the amount of infectious spyware files get through your computer defences and cause you too much havoc.

Want to discover more tips and secrets that can speed up and protect your computer for free? Then check out my online blog at http://www.john-french.net

John French has been breaking, repairing and building computers for over 15 years. He has expertise in computer security and maintaining a healthy computer.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_French

What is Spyware?

Most people who have spyware on their computers and laptops do not even realize it. The spyware lurks in the background doing it deeds within the shadows of their computer's hard drives.

Sadly, most are unaware of what spyware can do, the types of damage it can potentially cause and measures that can be taken to protect yourself from these annoying programs. This article will offer answers that will clarify what spyware is and tips you can use to protect yourself from spyware in the future.

What Exactly Is Spyware?

Spyware are computer programs that exist on your computer's hard drive. They come in a variety of types and flavors. Some spyware simply lurk in the shadows of your hard drive, watching your browser and taking notes of which websites you visit.

Often, it then communicates what it finds to other parties by using your internet access. Other spyware watch and take note of your keystrokes whenever you visit a financial services website.

Knowing as "keyloggers," this type of spyware then sends your sensitive financial information (including your username and passwords) to other parties across the internet.

How Does Spyware Get Installed?

Most often, spyware is downloaded through the internet. Sometimes, the download occurs when a user knowingly downloads another piece of software and the spyware is attached and enjoys a "free ride" on the user's hard drive. Other times, spyware can be downloaded by visiting websites.

Known as "drive by's," these downloads happen automatically without the user's permission once a user has simply visited a particular website.

Is Spyware Dangerous?

While not all spyware is necessarily dangerous, it does represent a risk because of the damage it is capable of doing. For example, the spyware that watches your keystrokes when you visit financial websites and then communicates this data to other unknown parties exposes you and your financial livelihood to risk.

These other parties can then potentially access your bank, investment and loan accounts online without your knowledge or permission, wreaking havoc. Other types of spyware can actually gain control of your computer and distribute that control to other parties. As a result, unknown parties can potentially gain access to any sensitive data on your hard drive.

How Can Your Protect Your Computer From Spyware?

The most effective way to protect you and your computer from spyware is to use a computer program that is designed specifically to identify and get rid of such bugs. Such programs include the well-regarded Spybot - Search and Destroy software. These types of programs are increasingly helpful as spyware creators become more savvy.

Some spyware tries to mask or disguise its presence on your hard drive by appearing as an anti-spyware program. That can make them difficult to identify and remove. Fortunately, dedicated programs like Spybot are constantly updated with the latest version of spyware that are being circulated. This allows it to keep up with new spyware, helping it to easily identify and remove them.

If you have never scanned your system, there is a good chance that you have a spyware program lurking on your hard drive. It could be relatively benign, content to simply exist.

Or, it could be maliciously communicating your sensitive data to outside parties. Use a dedicated spyware removal program such as Spybot - Search and Destroy to get rid of these bugs before they cause any significant damage.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ricardo_D_Argence