Watch out for the latest email phishing attacks

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 21 August 2007 16:33

Opinion and Analysis

The answer is to arm yourself with the right protection. You must ensure that your operating system is set to automatically update itself on a regular basis, preferably daily. In addition, you should check for updates for all your software, including programs such as Office or your financial software.

In addition, you need the latest Internet Security software, currently the 2007 edition although the next two or three months will see 2008 versions hit the stores, which must be set to automatically update itself.

This includes security suites sold in stores or available online from companies such as Symantec (Norton) , McAfee , Trend Micro , ZoneAlarm , CA (Computer Associates) , alongside free security software alternatives such as AVG Anti-Virus , Zonealarm’s free firewall (among many others) and anti-spyware software such as Spybot Search and Destroy , Lavasoft’s Adaware and even Microsoft’s Windows Defender , amongst others.

The traditional Internet security suites offer a two-way firewall, anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spam and potentially other features such as wireless network protection and parental website control software.

Unfortunately today’s Internet security suites, while essential to have installed on your computer, aren’t the only answer when it comes to online security – or at least, not in their 2007 incarnations.

They protect very well against known threats, but don’t do so well against unknown threats – people with today’s Internet security packages can still find themselves infected by a new, unknown virus, or bypassed by a bot.

Just as online criminals have been busy finding new exploits, so have security companies been busy in researching and creating new defenses.

One example of brand new security software is the recent release of Norton AntiBot by Symantec. Specific antibot software represents a major salvo against the botnet herders who use and control the world’s botnets by giving users a way to protect against and remove bots from their computers, and stopping their computer from being part of a ‘dark network’ used to send spam and do other criminal work.

Another security program is TrustDefender Gold which neutralizes botnets, viruses, rootkits or other malware that could be operating your computer specifically when conducting any online transaction, be it your personal online banking, online shopping, or logging into your favorite website.

TrustDefender prevents your username, password, personal and financial information from being intercepted and stolen mid-session, while also protecting against phishing attack websites by identifying sites that are suspicious, whether it be through the newness of a site, invalid or forged security certificates or other security criteria.

On a different protective tack, Google has started identifying sites in its listings that it believes could be malicious and warning users, while McAfee offers the free SiteAdvisor toolbar (for IE and Firefox) or a paid SiteAdvisorPlus option.

SiteAdvisor says that it’s a helpful guide for Internet safety, adding safety ratings to sites and search results to help protect you from adware, spam, and online scams, and integrates seamlessly into your browser, while the paid SiteAdvisor Plus option says it goes beyond SiteAdvisor to also provide active, real-time, protection from “dangerous sites that can compromise your identity and your PC”.

These three additional programs aren’t the only good security programs out there, nor have all the anti-virus and similar programs been listed in this article - indeed, if you can recommend any good security programs we've missed, please share them in the comments section below. But even with all of this software loaded onto your computer, behind whatever hardware firewalls and anything else you use, the best line of defense is you.

When you see something that makes you want to click it, that should be the first warning sign, especially if it is something you’re not expecting. Pause and think before you click, and if in any doubt an email, don’t click, and if you want, just delete instead.

But don’t just rely on yourself - if you click by accident, make sure you have the right set of security software installed to ensure your protect yourself not only against online criminals, but that you’re protected against yourself, too!

In both security software, and adequate recent backups of all your important files, documents, emails, photos, music and more – but that’s another story, for another time!