Spyware is a program that once loaded on your computer unknowingly collects information from your PC and sends it to another party. The most dangerous types of Spyware programs copies personal information that you would not share with anyone such as passwords, files and credit card numbers.
Other types of spyware programs act as a forced advertising program. The program will track your keystrokes and web surfing habits. Once the program, and company running it, knows your habits they will try to change your web page to get you to go to specific sites and purchase something or surf on their site.
The corporations who create and distribute spyware, get many benefits from their dishonest marketing practices. They can build up a huge database of so called opt-in marketing participants, sell you their own products or terrorize you with unwelcome pop-ups.
They

I Spy...Something Terribly Wrong In Your Computer
This really chapped my lips...
I recently bought a new computer. Mine was getting old, had lost its whistle, and the few remaining bells didnt ding a nicely as they had in the past. Yep, it was time for a new state-of-the art dream machine with CD burner, DVD player, a bazillion gigabyte drive and more RAM than Rambo has. I whipped out my trusty credit card and told my local CompUSA to ring it up.
Well, needless to say I was enthralled. Blazing speed, working whistles, and bells that were more like the Big Ben gong! I could tear through spreadsheets with one CD-ROM tied behind my back. One day, about three months later, my Son came home from college. Having heard all about my new pride and joy, he sat down behind the keyboard and fired that puppy up. He put it through its paces for about 30 minutes and then turned and said Its nice Dad, but I thought it would be faster. HE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FASTER What was he, crazy This box was so hot that it came with its own fire department.
Then he started poking around the hard drive. Dad, he said, You need an exterminator. Your PC is infested. Infested with what, bugs. Nope, he said Spyware. Spy What. Spyware, he replied. And then he explained.
Even thought I had a good virus prevention utility installed, it didnt protect me against Spyware. Spyware, it seeks, are nasty little programs that get downloaded in similar fashion to the way a virus does. It can be attached to an email, or even one of those new talking E-Cards. it can hide in one of those Click Here to close this window boxes, or in any of seemingly a hundred other secret ways.
There are essentially two types of Spyware. The less dangerous type either causes lots of ads to pop up every time you go on the Internet, or records your shopping and surfing habits in order to report them back to Big Brother somewhere. Of course, these steal your PCs clock cycles, and cause your hard drive to get bloated, which ends up slowing your entire system down. The problem is, the loss of speed is gradual and you dont even know its happening until Mr. Big Shot college kid comes along and tells you that your PC is slow.
OK, thats bad enough. But then, there is the second kind of Spyware. They are used by real spies, or at least the kind that want to steal your credit card and personal information so they can clean out your bank accounts and assume your identity. You know, the scary stuff that youre starting to hear about more and more.
So, what should I do Did I need to reformat my hard drive I hoped not because THAT was no walk in the park. Fortunately my college geek was up on the subject and took me to a website that specialized in safely removing Spyware. We downloaded and installed the software in just a few minutes and then fired it up. Holey Schmolie, I was infested. After about 15 minutes of chunking and plunking, the software pronounced me fit and clean. Well, at least my PC was. We rebooted and Boom! All of the speed and performance that had gradually been lost slammed right back into life. Even my Son was impressed.
Folks, this Spyware is serious stuff. You cant afford to be wiped out by some cyber terrorist half way across the world. Protect your PC and your identity. You probably already are infested. Theres only one way to know for sure, you need to check it out for yourself.

About The Author

Steve Robichaud and Andrew Wroblewski have been involved in online sales and marketing since 1996. For more information on finding and removing spyware from your PC, visit: http://spyware.pcwash.com/main/
email: admin@pcwash.com

New computer viruses threaten the unwary user everyday. Hackers jeopardize your online security with invasive computer techniques to steal your passwords, personal information, even identity.
Unscrupulous marketers bait you with free software that unleashes spyware, trojans, or worms, on your system.
While other marketers bombard you with popups at every turn. And others send unsolicited spy emails asking you to click links to unsafe websites that install threating software on your computer, or try to download your private information.
These are only a few of the security issues involved while online.
Read through the following list to arm your computer and protect yourself against these vicious and often malicious online attacks.
1. Install a good anti-virus software.
Heres a good free anti-virus software... Fr** AVG Anti-Virus...... New - AVG Fr** Edition is now available for all single home users worldwide! More detailed information can be found in the AVG Free Edition License Agreement. Click Here To Download: http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
2. Install a personal firewall.
This personal firewall is one of the best online.... http://www.zonealarm.com
3. Install a good pop up blocker.
Google has a free pop up blocker so does Yahoo. The only drawback is you will have to download and install their toolbar.
4. Know Privacy Policy.
Read the websites privacy policy before releasing personal information. Note do they share or sell your information with third parties. If they do you might reconsider releasing your personal information.
5. Passwords.
Never use easy to guess passwords like your favorite color, your social security number, your birthdate, words less than six characters. Mix up passwords with combinations of numbers and symbols.
6. Virus Warnings.
Dont forward virus warnings you receive in emails. Its not your job to warn others. And you might be circulating a fake warning designed to scare receivers into downloading trojans or removing important files on their computer.
7. Keep It Secret.
Dont give your password to anyone. Be wary of emails asking you to give out your personal passwords for accounts online. Or emails asking you to click a link and enter your password on the site. This site might be a fake sent by hackers "phishing" for victims.
8. Primary Email Address.
Dont divulge your primary email address on unfamiliar sites. You might be bombarded with unsolicited emails by marketers who sell your address to third parties online.
9. Free Accounts.
Set up several free email accounts with a psuedo name to handle spam, when you register with unfamiliar sites, or to use on chat and message boards.
10. Chat Line And Message Board Warnings.
Dont release personal information on chat lines or message boards. This is one way many identity thefts occur.
by BB Lee C2004
BB Lee is Editor of SmallBizBits News.
Visit: http://www.smallbizbitsnews.com
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mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com

About The Author

BB Lee is Editor of SmallBizBits News.
Visit: http://www.smallbizbitsnews.com
Subscribe Now! Receive A Free Ad in newsletter!
mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com
smallbizbits@yahoo.com

If you ask most people what frustrates them most about the Internet, many of them will tell you "Its the little things!"
It seems like all the great tricks and tips that make people exclaim "STOP! How did you do that" never make it into any manual at least where I can find them.
My father and co-author of "Turn Words Into Traffic" calls it the "reverse oral tradition" of computing, where children teach parents the survival skills of PC life.
Well, if you want to look good to your kids or buddies around the water cooler, check out the following cool web tricks.
~^~ Cool Google Tricks ~^~
Virtually everyone knows that Google.com ranks at the top of most peoples search engine lists, but it does a lot more than just tell you where to find vitamins or information on George Washingtons wooden teeth!
Need a map to a specific location
Type in the address, city and state of virtually any location in the US, hit the search button, and Google serves up several different map providers across the Web.
Want to know what software application a certain file goes with on your computer
Input the file name into Googles search box and a number of reference sites will help you know exactly what purpose a file serves.
I actually used this to feature to identify a piece of "spyware" lurking on my computer.
Want to know whos calling you on the phone in the US
You can just input the phone number on your caller ID or cell phone display into the Google search box and get information on listed numbers before your answering machine can even pick up!
Log on to http://www.google.com/help/features.html for more cool search features that harness the search power of Google.
~^~ Text Zoom ~^~
Next time you cant see small text clearly on a website, try holding down the "CTRL" key and then moving the scroll wheel on your mouse up and down.
The text in your web browser and some programs will increase and decrease in size as you roll the wheel back and forth.
This little trick provides an excellent means of quickly getting what you need from websites with tiny text.
~^~ Slow Surfing ~^~
If your Internet Explorer web browser starts giving you problems, you might want to clean up your "Temporary Internet Files."
Most people dont realize it, but when you leave a web page, it doesnt leave you!
Most of the time you keep a copy of websites you visit on your hard drive and, over time, they build up.
This collection of old web pages can eventually cause your surfing to slow to a crawl and even cause errors!
Heres one way to clear out those old files. Click your "Start" button, then "All Programs," "Accessories," "System Tools" and "Disk Cleanup."
After an initial check of your hard drive which can take some time if its the first time youve ever launched the utility, you can check the boxes of the files you wish to delete.
To speed up your surfing, at a minimum, make sure you delete the "Temporary Internet Files."
~^~ Surfing Shortcuts ~^~
To quickly cycle back and forth through a series of web pages youve visited, hold down the "ALT" key and tap your left and right arrow keys.
Left arrow takes you back while the Right arrow takes you forward.
The Page Up and Page Down buttons allow you to quickly move up and down any web page without struggling to find the scroll bar slider on the right side of the page.

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist http://www.TheNetReporter.com and is the author of several best-selling ebooks, information products and software programs.
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links "Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here> http://www.TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com

For a long time now Microsofts Internet Explorer has ruled as King of Internet browsers. Like most of Microsofts products an initially brutal marketing campaign pushed Internet Explorer into the mainstreams consciousness and from then on it was the logical, default choice. Its free with the operating system, works well, loads any page and is easy to use. Other web browsers soon faded into obscurity and sometimes even died in the shadow of the new king of the pack. Netscape Navigator, the former King of the browsers, has now ceased commercial operations and has been taken over by the fan base. Opera is fading into obscurity and Mozilla was facing a similar fate, until recently.
Mozilla Firefox formerly known as Firebird is probably the largest threat that IE has faced in recent times. Currently, according to http://www.w3schools.com, IE is the browser used by 69.9% of Internet users and Firefox is used by 19.1%. This might not seem like much, but according to http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/ an educated guess at the number of people that use the Internet is somewhere around 605,600,000 users or was in 2002, the number will have increased substantially by now. That means that after some erroneous math a rough stab at guessing the number of people using Firefox is probably over 115,064,000, which isnt a bad user base at all.
When a friend of mine from university first tried to convince me to switch to Firefox I wasnt particularly interested. Basically, IE has done everything that Ive wanted in a web browser. He went on at great lengths about the security aspects, the in-built popup blockers, download managers and so on, but Id spent a fairly large amount of time and money on anti-virus programs, firewalls, spyware removers, and my browser was secure enough. I also have a download manager that Im very happy with and refuse to change from. After much cajoling I finally agreed to try this newfangled software. Im glad I did too, because now I have no desire to go back.
Firefox is very easy to install and use. Theres nothing complicated, you simply download for free and run the install file and then when you run the browser for the first time you get presented with the option of importing your IE favourites a nice feature, with the click of a button everything is moved across to ease your transition and also the option of making Firefox your default browser. My initial reaction was fairly apathetic; Firefox seemed pretty much the same as IE and in essence, it is. It has all the basic features of IE, but then I discovered it adds so much more.
The first feature to really grab me is the tabbed browsing. Many alternative browsers and even IE plugins support tabbed browsing where the new pages can be opened in a tab in the one window, instead of filling the task bar with buttons but Firefox seems to make it so easy and useful. All you do is click a link with the middle button on your mouse most newer mice have three buttons, the third often being placed under the scroll wheel and a new tab opens up containing the page requested. Middle clicking on any tab in the window will close it, without having to actually go to the tab and click close. Ctrl-T will open a new blank tab, and Ctrl-Tab will cycle through them similar in fashion to Alt-Tab cycling through the open programs. What this all leads to is a much neater Internet experience, with you being able to group certain pages into browser windows, leaving the start bar much cleaner and easier to navigate.
The next feature that caught my attention was the search bar built into the browser. Its small, sleek and simple, built into the right-hand side of the main toolbar beside the address box. You can add many different sites to the search bar and then select the site you wish to search from a drop-down menu. Then its simply a matter of typing your query in and hitting enter to be taken directly to that page and your search results. This makes searching Ebay, Google, Internet Movie DataBase, Amazon etc. very quick and easy as you can simply type in the desired search criteria as you think of it and get the results back fast. You can get search bar plugins for IE but they tend to take up lots of room, contain ads, and you can usually only have one site per search bar.
There are more features than I could write about here but I will tell you that Firefox has impressed me greatly. Browser hijacking: the act of a malicious website script changing your homepage or search page particularly common on IE, sites will change your default search page so that every time you type an address into your address bar their site gets a hit is now a thing of the past at least until someone gets vicious enough to work out backdoors in Firefox, an unlikely event for at least a little while given the massive market share still held by IE. Since changing over I have received substantially fewer attack notices from my Firewall. Sites load quickly, and if you get an address wrong you dont have to wait for a page to load, you just quickly get a message informing you that the site doesnt exist. Then there are the extensions that can be downloaded to add all sorts of new features to the browser.
The only downside that I have found is the fact that because IE is the dominant web browser, some websites are coded in such a way that they dont work properly on other browsers. These sites are few and far between, but occasionally you will still need to fire up IE to view a page. The infrequency of this occurring is enough that it doesnt annoy me too much, but it will be nice when everything works 100%.
At the end of the day, its probably not a vital switch. Both programs suffice in allowing you to plug in and explore the vast world of the Internet with ease and accuracy. However, its worth a look though because what starts off initially as "I have no real reason to change back" quickly becomes "I am never going back". So, as the official Firefox website encourages, "Rediscover the web".

About The Author

Daniel Punch
M6.Net

http://www.m6.net

Daniel Punch is a university student always looking to overthrow the man and support the underdog, provided it doesnt actually cost him anything.
danielp@m6.net

Have been an Internet user for more than 9 years, I have 100s of logins and passwords to keep. Im paranoid. Im now even more paranoid after I joined YMMSS because I use online payment systems on weekly basis if not daily.
I used to use Microsoft Excel to manage my usernames, passwords, and other registration information, both online and offline. Excel is not safe because there are programs to crack password protected Excel workbooks and I even cracked the spreadsheet and VBA source code password for one of my old Excel financial models I developed. Today I still use Excel to store some personal information but I only save the Excel file on my another PC that is not connected to Internet.
In my article "6 Essential Steps to Protect Your Computer On the Internet", I highly recommended the award winning RoboForm. Free version of RoboForm http://www.roboform.com does come with limitations such as 10 Passcards only. If you dont want to buy the Pro version costs $29.99 as of my writing, there is an easy-to-use freeware see below you can download right now and manage unlimited usernames and passwords.
Download freeware Password Safe from SourceForge.net - the Open Source community.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/passwordsafe/

Here are some great features of Password Safe:

No installation is required. Simply download and double click the pwsafe.exe file.
Easy portable. Just copy and paste the EXE file and .dat database file to any disks. Be aware that when you open Password Safe in the other disk, you need to specify the database file location the .dat file.
One master password unlocks an entire password database that can contain all your other passwords.
Grouping. Usernames and passwords can be grouped into different categories you define, eg. Email Address, Payment, etc. You are in total control.
Strong, random password generation.
Copy username and password to clipboard so that you dont have to type them. Always keep in mind that you should never type any username and password.
Browse to URL. With one click, the URL related to your username and password can be opened in your default web browser. Another save on typing.
You can create more than one password database but you have to memorize more than one master password. Not recommended.

Here are some tips of using Password Safe version 2.04 and managing password in general.
Tip #1 - Always create a strong master password Safe Combination as used in the software.
Strong password should meet the following criteria:

At least 8 characters long to prevent cracking. The longer the better.
The password should contain lowercase, uppercase, numeric, and any other characters that are available on keyboard.
Ideally you should not use any meaningful words or numbers in the password. Totally random password is the best.

Tip #2 - Let PasswordSafe generate random password for you.
To generate random password:

Click the menu item Edit.
Select Add Entry or use corresponding icon button.
When the dialogue window opens, on the right hand side, you can see a Random Password Generate button. Click it, a random password will be automatically inserted in the Password field.

The generated random password is constructed according to the password policy defined in Password Safe. You can modify the default policy.

Click the menu item Manage.
In the dropdown menu, click Options.
Click the Password Policy tab.
Change the policy based on the strong password criteria stated above.

Some sites only allow alphanumeric passwords so make sure you select the appropriate check boxes when this is the case.
Tip #3 - Very Important: Never type your master password when open PasswordSafe.
Keylogger spyware can record keystrokes.
How can you enter master password without typing I do this.
Step 1: Open a Notepad file .txt.
Step 2: Copy and paste an article from any Internet website to this .txt file.
Step 3: Select characters from this article and copy, paste to form your master password.
Tip #4 - Very Important: Never lose your master password.
I memorize my master password. In addition, I also physically write it down to a hand written study material that has my previous uni works. Among the 1,000s of words, I placed my 22 characters master password in two different pages in encrypted format that can let me derive my master password.
Tip #5 - Categorize username and password.
When you add a new entry, you need to specify Group, Title, Username, Password, and Notes. The entries that share the same Group name will be gathered together automatically.
One Group can contain another Group as its sub Group. For example, I have Email Address group which contains three sub-groups as Friend, Work, Family.
Tip #6 - For security reasons, always use Copy Username to Clipboard and Copy Password to Clipboard.
Remember, never type username and password on a web form. This is how to do it.

Highlight an entry.
Right click mouse.
In the pop-up menu, select Copy Username to Clipboard or Copy Password to Clipboard
Go to your login form, paste the username or password.

You can use mouse to do copy and paste. If you prefer short-cut keys, this is how.
Copy: Ctrl+C Paste: Ctrl+V
Tip #7 - Use "Browse to URL" rather than typing URL in browser address bar.
When you enter a new entry or edit an existing one, you can enter a URL must start with http:// in the Notes field. You can save website login pages URL in this field. When you need to open a login page in browser, right click the entry and click Browse to URL in the pop-up menu. Then the login page will be opened in your default web browser automatically.
Tip #8 - Dont forget to backup your password database file.
Use the Make Backup menu item to save a second copy of your password file.
Tip #9 - Store your backups in a different offline computer or location.
This is a widely used backup strategy.
If you dont have two computers, you need to use other storage media to save a second copy of your backup file and version them by date easy to track back. Other storage media can be zip drive, thumb drive, floppy disk, CD, etc.
Off site backups are also important. Dont overlook this. You lose all your data if you lose both your computer and your other storage media all together for any reason.
Many companies provide online storage services for a fee. You can store any digital files you should password protect these files first on their secure servers. Search Google and you will find a lot.
I have two computers. One is used to surf net and it does not have any sensitive info stored on it. Another one is for my development work not connected to Internet and it has my backup files. I also store my backups in a thumb drive and CDs sometimes.

About The Author

The author, Jerry Yu, is an experienced internet marketer and web developer. Visit his site http://www.WebActionGuide.com for FREE "how-to" step-by-step action guide, tips, knowledge base articles, and more.

When working properly, computers enable small businesses to make big business profits; however, get booted off your computer and you

In the real world a "fire wall" is a fireproof wall that is built to stop the spread of fire from one part of a building to others. In the Internet world a firewall has a similar purpose in that it stops the spread of harmful viruses and attacks from entering your home or office network.
Because of the ever-increasing threats that are appearing on the Internet you no longer have to be in business to need the protection of a fire wall. In fact, every computer that is connected to the internet should have one installed. Youll be a lot happier once you know that you have protected your personal files, information, and financial data, such as credit cards and bank account numbers, from being shared with every crook on the internet.
Here are some questions that you should consider before you choose a fire wall for your PC:

What features do I need
Do I want to be protected from viruses, Trojan horses and worms
Am I at risk because I use programs that access the Internet automatically
How much am I willing to spend on a firewall solution

Here are the common features that are available in almost any software-based fire wall program:
Inbound filtering - protects unknown users or programs from accessing your PC
Outbound filtering - Protects your PC from sending information to the Internet without your permission
Application integrity verification - Verifies that any program you are running arent sneaking around behind your back and doing things that they shouldnt be doing.
Data encryption - Automatically scrambles any sensitive data that you do allow to be transmitted.
Stealth mode - Hides that fact that your PC is even connected to the Internet so that hackers cant see you.
Pop-up ad blocking - Stops those annoying ads.
Cookie blocking - prevents web sites from sending you cookies without your permission Spyware protection - Blocks dangerous spyware from operating on your PC
There are many software-based firewall programs that can be downloaded from the internet. Most of them come with free trials so you can test each one and choose whats best for you. Although you wont have to be King Geek to install and set up your firewall, there are some adjustments and settings that will have to be tweaked. All of the better firewall programs come with decent instructions and many of the products have help available at their web site.
If you notice that some program that used to work stops working after you install a fire wall then youll have to make a change in the fire walls configuration that will enable the program to operate freely. If you find that there is no way to let your previously operating program pass through the firewall then that might be a good indication that you need to try a different fire wall. Be sure to check with the makers of both the software program and the firewall before you give up and change.

About The Author

Copyright © 2004 Cavyl Stewart. Discover 52 Ways To Do More With Software by signing up for my exclusive Free ecourse. Get tutorials, tips, reviews and recommendations you can use right now to help you achieve more, easier, and cheaper! 100% Original content. Visit: http://www.find-small-business-software.com/52ways.html.

You probably heard of the new Firefox browser version 1.0 recently released by Mozilla. If you are currently using Internet Explorer or Netscape, you are probably wondering if Firefox is better and why is it better. In order to answer these questions it is necessary to take a look at all the benefits that Firefox offers you as a user.
First of all, Firefox is free, which is definitely a plus. It is an open-source web browser based on the Mozilla code foundation and will work for Windows, Linux and MacOS X operating systems. These are the technical specification, but what is more interesting to you as a user is that Firefox is very fast, secure, and is easy to use and navigate. The user interface is straightforward and uncomplicated.
There are numerous benefits that Firefox has. One of them is the popup blocking capability. You no longer have to see all those frustrating popup windows since the browser will take cake of them. You also don

Spyware and Adware infest over 90 percent of computers in use today. Internet linked computers has made it easy for spybots, adware, and trojans to infiltrate and compromise online privacy. Installed toolbars can also contribute to browser hijacking and spyware related problems.
Spyware, malware, scumware, and trojans gather information about people and online activities. It is important to deny these