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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week Wednesday, October 14,2004 |
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The
protection you need on the internet today - Part 2 - or Don’t surf in
shark infested waters ... Last week
I discussed how the vendors of some anti-virus programs have admitted that
the traditional approach to fighting viruses doesn’t work anymore: A direct
quote from the Pandasoftware.com website addressing this situation states “Until now,
antivirus protection responded quickly enough to head off new viruses before
they could spread widely. For example, Panda's antivirus solutions are
updated automatically via the Internet, at least once a day”. However, new viruses and intruders have recently emerged
with the capacity to infect thousands of computers in a few hours,
before antivirus protection can be updated to combat them. Sasser, Netsky, Mydoom or Sobig are good examples of these new generation viruses,
which use new means of propagation and exploit vulnerabilities in operating
systems and the most widely used software. Even if you have
antivirus protection installed, your computer could be temporarily vulnerable
to these new
threats, as they spread almost instantly, faster than the time it takes to
develop the vaccines to eliminate them and update the antivirus protection. Panda then goes on to
state that they have developed a preemptive solution to this newly revealed
vulnerability in all anti-virus programs: “To ensure that you
are not left vulnerable for even a second, you need to increase the
protection of your computer, pre-empting the actions of unknown viruses. The
new Panda TruPrevent Technologies effectively
detect and block unknown viruses and intruders, even before your antivirus
has been updated to combat them.” I would
hope that whatever anti-virus program you use for your business or personal
computers has a similar new technology to prevent you from getting clobbered
with a rampant internet virus, and I know several of the other major vendors
have now updated their traditional anti-virus programs to becoming more of total internet security programs. You see, you need
much more than an anti-virus program to safely use the interent
today. In addition to the computer virus threat – of which there are
thousands of varieties with dozens of new ones emerging each day – you
face several other threats. Spyware is software that installs itself on your computer without
your knowing anything about it, and then can record anything - from your
internet surfing and buying habits, to recording and stealing your passwords
- or banking information. I was
reading in the morning paper about how a congressional panel has just passed an anti-spyware bill, but the problem with this is that many of
the websites that install spyware on your computer
are not US sites, and our laws don’t reach them. Related
to this legislation, it was found that more than 60 varieties of spyware were found to be installed on the panel’s
own computers, which shows how pervasive the current problem is. And
similar to spyware, adware
is programs that bombard you with popup ads, and even hijack your browser. I’ll
explain what this means next week, For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2004 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html (509)624-7230 |
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