An internet firewall is a system or cluster of system that enforces an access control policy between two or more networks. Firewall can be a pair of mechanism in which one performs blockage and the other is permission. As said in above statement, firewall enforces an access control policy in which it depends on it of what kind of access to be allowed or denied. If you have a good idea about what access to be denied and allowed, firewall will be useful. Firewall has configuration which should be updated and given emphasis to enforce the policy. The importance of a firewall is that it protects you from being intruded or keeping out bad ‘stuffs’ out of your network while doing or finishing your job. Firewall is often used by huge corporations for the purpose of protecting the data about corporate products and services or files to download and the like. Firewall is like a preventive measure that guards your network from any harmful ‘stuffs’ that can corrupt important data.
Virus is a threat that is contagious for it infects your files as well as other programs installed on your computer. A computer virus should be attached on top of other program or document in order to launch. Once it is running, it will now start the onset of infecting other programs or documents. Maybe a lot of computer users would ask about from whom or where does computer virus come from? Well sadly, it comes from computer users also. These people write the computer virus in which he or she is required to write the code, put it to a test to be assured that if it will infects a program, it will run and spreads properly. If the test is successful, that person will release the virus. There are various reasons as to why some people make computer viruses:
1. For them, making unusual things such as making computer virus gives them thrill or excitement to boast that he or she knows much about computer programs to the extent that he or she may channel energy in creating destructive viruses.
2. Fascination pushes a person to make a computer virus in the sense that when the virus is already released, he or she would sit back and enjoy the scenario as things blow up with somebody’s computer.
3. Curiosity also is one of the components as to why some people are interested to make destructive viruses. One wants to exploit things first before others would. It’s like grabbing the opportunity to test something dreadful and see how masses would react.
Computer virus creators are overlooking the fact that they can cause real damage not only to hard disks of the computer, but with real people who are not aware about such things.
In the passed few years, there has been computer viruses that took great effect on global economic growth. However, there are these viruses that have cause millions, worse, billions of dollars loss. Here are the top 10 most destructive computer viruses of all time according to techweb:
1. CIH (1998)
Estimated Damage: 20 to 80 million dollars worldwide, countless amounts of PC data destroyed
Unleashed from Taiwan in June of 1998
2. Melissa (1999)
Estimated Damage: 300 to 600 million dollars
3. ILOVEYOU (2000)
Estimated Damage: 10 to 15 billion dollars
4. Code Red (2001)
Estimated Damage: 2 billion and 600 million dollars (2.6B $)
5. SQL Slammer (2003
Estimated Damage: Because SQL Slammer erupted on a Saturday, the damage was low in dollars and cents. However, it hit 500,000 servers world wide and actually shut down South Korea’s online capacity for 12 hours.
6. Blaster (2003)
Estimated Damage: 2 to 10 billion dollars, hundreds of thousands of infected PCs
7. Sobig.F (2003)
Estimated Damage: 5 to 10 billion dollars, over 1 million PCs infected
8. Bagle (2004)
Estimated Damage: Tens of millions of dollars…and counting
9. MyDoom (2004)
Estimated Damage: At its peak, slowed global Internet performance by 10 percent and Web load times by up to 50 percent
10. Sasser (2004)
Estimated Damage: Tens of millions of dollars
The effect of computer virus is really serious because it can harm not only computers, same is true with the life of others.
The famed micro-blogging site was again targeted by an attack that re-directed users to sites that took the usual form of malware laden sites, telling users to install software that in fact did nothing but loaded their system with exploits that is reserved for later by hackers. The detected problems had computer systems made ready for drive-by attacks that would get hold of their user data and log in’s for the many other social sites or those they find saved on the computer’s memory for their use in identity attacks. Much more dangerous that the previous attack which was more the result of a bored teen who wanted to become famous, responsible for the Mikey attack that victimized and spread much like malware, using the saved names in the database sending out copies of itself as it goes out to propagate. That time, there was a mere nuisance message that kept popping up everywhere but this time round, security analysts have found links to organized criminal groups that have been poised to take advantage of the security flaws should it have not been detected. (more…)
Symantec has long been recognized as one of the security software industry’s biggest players yet even these blokes are prone to make errors. Some while back as their developers were out to test some features of their virus scanners and other security software, they unknowingly released a test file without attaching a valid and proper security certificate, and what do you know, they tried to make it disappear. As it turns out, the file was supposed to be a valid test program and in fact it was, yet the lack of the security signature had it recognized as such and as an attempt to infiltrate the computer systems of their clients. On the client side, their firewalls set out and performed what they were designed to do, and that was to block the attempt to allow entry to their protected systems. System administrators and personal users alike got so worried that they flooded the support site for information due to fear of a large-scale hacking attack that may be trying to get into their system. (more…)
Continued from the previous post…………
There is also a facility that allows people to report attack sites that have either been pre-loaded with malware or exploits that can later be used for hacking attacks for whatsoever reason. The way Google searches also tends to expose the power of their bots that also gather data on the overall site statistics and other facts about a particular page where it finds the said information thus becoming a sort of data store for hackers to use. These hackers somehow managed to circumvent security measures in place, intercepting the data the bots gather and stores them in some remote area or hidden site on the web where hackers check regularly for the easiest sites to get into. (more…)
In security that is and the stuff of fiction has become reality when hackers developed a bit that uses it’s immense search capabilities to do their dirty work for them. Everybody knows that when it comes to searching for information on the internet, nobody can come close to Google’s never ending banks of data center servers and storage racks. (more…)
The world would be a better place if there were no malware around the internet which we have become so dependent on. May it be for research, casual browsing or ranting on your blog, we seldom go on each and every day of our lives without logging into the internet. The many malware out on the internet is one of the signs that it is well loved and hated by so many. There is one thing that you can do though, help the many security software developers out there, by enabling the ability of such software to send in samples of the virus/worm or malware into their laboratories for them to take a hack at.
These people are hackers themselves only on the good side of the law in the forever raging battle between good and evil in what is the internet. After all, what is life without a bit of spice, which these malware provides to the many users and developers out there who are out to get at each other.
Image source: www.mysafepc.net
Avast Home Edition 4.8.1229.80923 is a free antivirus, and it was released this year September 23, 2008. Even if it was just released less than a month (since the date today is Oct 8), 30,937,233 people have already downloaded this program at Download.com. Even the Editor of Download.com has given Avast Home Edition a perfect score 5/5. It just proves that Avast Home Edition is a program worthy for our attention. This program has the following workings, according to the publisher’s description: On demand scanner with skinnable simple interface, choose what you want to scan and just press the play button; On access scanner, special providers to protect the most of available e-mail clients; Instant messaging–ICQ, Miranda; Network traffic–intrusion detection, lightweight firewall; P2P protection for Kazaa, BitTorrent; Web shield–monitors and filters all HTTP traffic; NNTP scanner–scans all Usenet Newsgroup traffic and all operations with files on PC; Boot time scanner–scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does.
Anti-virus software is responsible in treating your computer if it is infected by some viruses. It is like the first line of defense or immune system of your computer. It acts in order to destroy the found virus automatically and with instructions, you can heal the infected area. The effectiveness of anti-virus varies according to its type. There are two in kinds. The free ware and the one that can be bought online via internet access and applying for their payment basis using credit cards or visa cards. The one that is being sold on the net is more reliable because it has technical support and customer service. In other words, the extent of its effectiveness is efficient compared to the free ware anti-virus. Because the developer or the authorized distributor of that software will be held responsible in updating versions of the anti-virus software where in every version, there is a special feature making way to convenience of having an efficient and effective anti-virus software installed to update your computer everyday
