With the rise of wireless network everywhere, there is becoming a need to be able to transfer your files in a safe and secured manner. A lot of people falsely assume that you are as safe on a remote network, as you are on your home version. This simply is not true. There are a lot of attacks that can affect you when you are on a strange network, especially a network that you have not been on before. One of the attacks that are popular on a public network is called a man in the middle attack. Or you can have someone sniff out your data packets that are transferring mid air. Whatever the attack may be, you need to be able to make sure that it doesn’t affect you while you are on a public network. One of the ways that you can do this, is by using a VPN. A VPN will protect your data when you are on a remote network. And when you use Windows 7, this process becomes a lot easier.

Before we get started in describing how to set up a VPN in Windows 7, I realize that some people do not know what a VPN is or what it does. So lets take the time now and describe it for you. The letters VPN stand for Virtual Private Network. What it does, is to create a smaller network that sits on top of a larger network, like the internet, that will only allow certain people permission to access it. If you set up the VPN, then you and whoever you allow access to, are the only ones that are allowed on it. That of course, is where the private part of the name comes from. Most of the time, you can set the VPN to be encrypted. This is why it is so effective for when you are on strange public networks. Your data can flow freely and even if they are able to see it, they will not be able to encode it.  This will prevent them from understanding what they are seeing.

So if you are using an unfamiliar remote network and you have important files that you need to protect, then your best bet is to set up your own VPN. You can either do this by using third party software or do this by using the software that is already available in Windows 7. You will need a VPN server to be able to connect to, when you are setting the VPN up. The connection must have two sides, the server and the client. Most of the times the actual server will be from a third party vendor. There are plenty of free and open source versions to choose from. To set up the client portion in Windows 7, you go into the Network and Sharing portion of the control panel. You then click on “Set up a new connection or network”. After that click on “Use my internet connection”. You then type the IP address or domain in the box and you will have a connection to that network. Anytime that you want in, just type your name and password.

Set up a secured VPN connection is very easy in Windows 7. If you are on a strange network, it pays to have one.

There are a lot of different threats that are on the internet right now but the one that anyone who has a popular web site fears is the dreaded botnet. Sure, your server may be able to be taken down by a virus or any other piece of malware but they are easy to recover from. A botnet is a whole different story. A botnet has the ability to shut down your web site without ever having to touch one piece of your hardware. It can send its zombie bots to do that. If this is the first time you have heard of a botnet then you might not know how it is able to do this and why it is such a big threat. In the following article we will explain the dynamics of the threat to you and your web site and how it is able to spread.

A botnet is a network of computers that are able to take commands from one central location. The amount of computers can be as little as a hundred or go up to as much as 100,000. They are able to get control of these computers by placing malware on the unsuspecting victims system. Once the malware is activated, it sits quietly waiting for the person who created it to give it commands. The person who is in control of these networks of computers is able to get them to do whatever they like. This means that if they want to send a large amount of spam email, they can without being detected. And the important part if you are a web site owner is that they are able to get these computers to focus on committing a DDOS attack. A DDOS attack is a Distributed Denial Of Service attack. They are able to do this by getting all of the computers that they control to focus on one server. They then start to make request to this server for certain resources. The amount of request become so much that they start to overwhelm the server. Now other people who are trying to get to the server are not able to get on. They have no idea that there is an attack happening to your server and they think that your site is broken. This makes the user not trust your now.

As you can see, a DDOS attack is a good reason for a web master to fear a botnet. You never know why someone is going to attack you with a DDOS attack. It might be a competing web site or it might be someone that is upset with you. Whatever the reason why someone is trying to attack you, they picked an effective way to do it. A DDOS attack is very hard to stop but there are ways to combat it. Make sure you check with your web site host to see if they know how to stop one.

When you have an operating system with as many features in it that Windows 7 has, there is a lot that you have to look over. You have to make sure that your decisions allow you to keep certain components of the system safe from being compromised. This attention to security also has to be paid to your home network as well. You have to be sure that you are able to keep all of the threats that you possibly can, out of your system. So we have put together a couple of tools that will allow you to keep your home network safe and as an extension, your personal computer as well. When it comes to the threats to your network, you have to worry about both the internet and the physical threats that can happen. Most people only worry about the threats that come from the internet. They never think about the threats that can come from your next door neighbor.

Some of the tools that we mention may be overkill for a small network but they will help keep you and your network safe. Other tools that we mention are easy to use and made for normal consumer usage. We do not expect you to use every tool that is at your disposal to protect your home network but we want to let you know that the option is available just in case you need it.

One of the tools that you can use to keep your network safe is a tool called NMap. It is a free piece of software that you can find on the internet. This tool will scan your network and tell you what computers are connected to it. This can help expose if someone is connected to your network that should not be. You can also use the tool to help expose any weakness in your network. It will show you open ports that are vulnerable to someone being able to get into your network. Seeing which ports are open on your system will allow you to be proactive against any threats before they happen.

Another tool that you can use to help protect your home network is the firewall that already comes with your router. Most people will plug the router in and never mess with it again. If you actually explore all of the options that are available, you will find that it has a whole suite of applications that will be able to keep your network safe. It is up to you to actually turn these features on. On the newer routers, the firewall is turned on automatically. But it still may not be optimized to best protect your network. Read your manual and see what you will need to do to make sure that the router is using all of its abilities.

Unfortunately, when it comes to software security, there are many fronts on the battlefield. There are a lot of ways that black hat hackers are able to expose your computer to software that will harm it. They have to be tricky in their attacks because if they used the same way every time, then security researchers and the companies that make the operating system would be able to catch on. So to avoid that from happening, there have been many different methods of attack created. We will list the different types of malware that are out in the wild and tell you how you can watch out for them. If you use common sense and the right software then you can avoid any trouble.

Malware types

We will start off with the most basic type of malware infection and that is the virus. A virus is a piece of software (malware) that will run through your computer and start to infect it in different areas. It travels from computer to computer by regenerating itself onto other systems. It keeps doing this until the antivirus companies are able to match its signature. Unfortunately by the time that happens, it has already infected thousands of computers.

The second type of malware we will talk about is the Trojan. A Trojan is a piece of software that hides another piece of software underneath it. The software that it is hiding is the one that will do damage to your system. The job of the Trojan malware is just to deliver the package and make sure that the antivirus software is not able to detect it. Trojans will fool you by looking like innocent pieces of software that you may know already. But fooling you is only half the job of a Trojan. The other half is to fool any software protection that you may have as well.

A third type of malware that will infect your computer is a worm. A worm malware is self replicating and it needs no intervention from a human user. It will create copies of itself and spread itself all over your network. One of the main ways that it is able to travel is through the use of networks, both the internet and local. This is a big reason why you need a firewall on your home network. A worm is one of the many threats that you can get from online when you leave your network unprotected.

For all of these malware threats, there is an easy way to defend yourself from 90% of the attacks. Make sure that you have an effective antivirus running and that you are careful where you go when you surf the web. Make sure that you do not go to web sites that look shady and try to avoid sites that you do not know already. Some sites are just breeding grounds for these kinds of infections.

These are the main types of malware that you can receive on your computer. Each of these pieces of malware can be at different strengths depending on the variant of that particular strain. You must make sure that you do all that you can to protect yourself from these types of threats.

When you are using the internet at home, you have to deal with a multitude of attacks that may be floating around waiting to strike. But when you have a corporate network that you maintain, you have to not only deal with the attacks that are already on the internet, but also attacks that may be created especially for you. Many black hat hackers see breaking through a corporate network as a big achievement. They know that a corporate network will have real security compared to a home user. So this means that when they are able to infiltrate past a corporate network, this will lead not only to more valuable data but also more esteem in the hacker community. To stop them, you must have not only the latest in software security, but the latest in hardware security as well.

When you have a corporate network that you have to secure, you have to make sure that your hardware firewall is one of the best in the market. A firewall becomes your mainline of defense when you are dealing with outside threats. Yes, you may have the latest in corporate security anti virus, but that is only good if the infection has already gotten past your first line of defense. You have to make sure that this doesn’t happen. So to avoid this type of intrusion from happening, make sure that your corporate firewall is top notch. A company such as Cisco will have what you need to keep your organization’s data protected from outside threats. Also, you can look into hardware that will scan the incoming emails for your organization. The email process is another way that attackers are able to get their malware on your corporate networks. So having a dedicated piece of hardware that will scan your incoming emails will help in being able to thwart the bad guys before they enter your system.

After you have the right hardware that is needed in protecting your organization, you are going to have to look at the right software solutions as well. When you are securing your computer at home, usually software is your first line of defense. But on a corporate network, it is used more as the secondary line of defense. The official back up just in case anything is able to get past your hardware protections. Also when you are looking at software solutions for a corporate network, you are not going to be able to use just the normal anti virus software. You are going to have to go with the enterprise edition since it is going to have to protect so many people. All of the top vendors have a enterprise version of their software that you can take advantage of.

But anti virus is not the only software that you are going to need when you are protecting your network. You are going to need some sort of enterprise anti spyware solution as well. While spyware can be just a nuisance on a home computer, on a corporate network it can give away lots of insider secrets. This is why you need to make sure that your network is protected from the tracking software that goes along with spyware.

To stop black hat hackers on a corporate network, you will need these tools to get the job done. As long as you make sure that everything is up to date and you should be fine.

If you are a person that surfs the internet a lot, you are bound to run into web sites that can be considered sketchy at best. When a person encounters one of these sites, instead of being on alert as they should, they go to the normal human instinct which is to be curious. Unless you are a really pessimistic person, then you probably have faith in most people. Unfortunately when it comes to the internet, that faith in people can cause you and your computer to be vulnerable. If you visit a web site and you feel that something is wrong, then you should really trust your instincts. In this article we will show you what to look for when you detect a web site is up to no good. We will walk you through the many signs that will let you know if you can trust the web site or not. Some of these signs may seem basic to the advanced user but to the newer people that are on the internet, they can be a life saver.

The first thing that you want to look out for when you a visit a site that you suspect may be a phising site is the domain name. Yes this seems simple enough but you would be surprised by the many phising sites that are using a domain name that look nothing like the web site that they are trying to spoof. People just remember what a site looks like and if it matches, they think that they are there. They have no idea that a web sites design can be faked pretty easily. So if you are a person that does not understand how the pinning’s of the internet works, then you should learn how to spot if you are on the right domain name or not. It is as simple as looking at the address bar but you must also be sure that the domain name is spelled right. If the spelling is even a little bit off then that means that you are on the wrong web site.

The next thing that you should look out for is if the site is secured or not. What we mean by that is that there should be a little yellow lock at the bottom of your browser. This means that the web site is operating under the SSL security protocol. This is especially important if you are putting any kind of personal information, such as your credit card or social security number in the web site. If the site does not have that lock, then you should be very suspicious. The SSL certificate can be faked but most of the time people who create a phising site would not go through all of that trouble. So if the site does not have a lock when they are asking you to place your personal information in it, then it should be avoided at all cost.

Spotting a phising site can be very tricky if they are made especially well. Fortunately for you, most are not. If you run into the average phising site then there will be signs of it being a phony right away.

The biggest security threat that we have in 2010 is the threat of botnets forming and becoming too powerful. Everyone who has hosted a web site that was the victim of a DDOS attack has most likely seen the damage that a botnet can do. Even some of the bigger sites are falling victim to the ever increasing powers of a botnet. They have grown bigger over the years and this is a real problem. At one point, they were mainly used for a DDOS attack; but now they are now being used for sending spam and delivering viruses and other malware across the internet. If you own Windows 7, you are already half way there from keeping your computer from becoming infected. But even though the security protection in Windows 7 is good, there are several things that you must do to make it even better.

I guess that we should explain what a botnet is before we go any further. It will be hard to explain to you on how to defend yourself from something that you don’t even know what it is. So in short, a botnet is a bunch of computers that a remote black hat hacker has taken control over. After they have taken control over the computers, they are now known as zombie computers. The owners of them may not even know that anything has happened to them. Most botnet owners these days like to keep their ownership of the computer quiet. If the owner of the computer knows that they are on there, they will try to get it fix and erase the program that is controlling the computer. So the botnet owners only take control of the computer when they need it. This means that if they have something that needs to be distributed to a large amount of people, or an attack needs to happen, they turn on the zombie network and then let it go to work. They also rent out the botnet to other interested parties so that they can do their dirty work for them as well.

To keep your computer safe from becoming part of a botnet, you need to make sure that it is safe from infections. Most systems are turned into a zombie from a Trojan that was able to access your computer without you realizing it. You can stop this by making sure that your antivirus is up to date and that you run a scan over your computers hard drive frequently. Stopping these little pieces of malware will help keep your computer out of larger trouble.

Windows 7 is well equipped from protecting itself from infection. But the use of a good antivirus and common sense can go a long way in keeping your computer even safer.

The one thing that has been proven to get someone’s attention is a catchy headline. Especially, if the headline is about a celebrity or some scandal that has happened to a politician. It is like driving past a car accident, you do not want to, but you cannot help but look at the accident scene. Everyone gets mad at the person ahead of them who does it, but by the time they get to the accident they are looking as well. Black hat hackers use this curiosity against you to get what they want. They use a sensational headline that is popular that day and make it so that you just have to click on it. Once you have click on the story, then you computer will pay the price.

A good example of this is what happened when Michael Jackson died. There was no bigger news story than Michael Jackson dying for the next couple of weeks. The stories were especially prevalent on the social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Michael Jackson stories were everywhere and so were brand new ways to infect user’s computers. People were eating up the Michael Jackson news so black hat hackers took the opportunity and spread infections to a lot of unsuspecting people. So much so, that several popular web sites had to issue warnings telling people to watch out for this kind of attack. The safe thing to do was to only get sensationalist news such as this from web sites that you were familiar with. At the very least, get the news from web sites that were visited by people that you knew already. Randomly clicking on links in Twitter was bound to lead you to some bad places on the internet.

The Michael Jackson story was not the only time this has happened. There have been a few others stories over the past couple of months that this has happened to as well. Every time you hear about a big story breaking, you can be sure that there is a black hat hacker waiting to take advantage of the commotion. Lately they have even been making up stories so that people will click on the infected links. Even though the stories get debunked soon after it hits the internet, that still gives an attacker enough time to infect a lot of computers. A short burst like that can probably give them a better click ratio than they would get by using their normal tricks.

When you see news breaking or a story that seems unbelievable, always check a site that you know first before you go to any strange web sites. You have to remember that there are people that are trying to get into your computer. It is your job to head them off at the pass. You can do this by going to reliable web sites and not clicking on every link that seems interesting.