3.08.2012

Protect Your PC While You Access The Web

By Alicia Szot


Each and every day of every week, we live our lives. As time goes by, we find that those lives are governed by technology. When a fresh day begins, an alarm clock is telling us it's time to get out of bed. After we're up and about, we go to our kitchens to get a cup of recently brewed coffee from the pot that we programmed the night before. As we're drinking our coffee, we get hold of our car keys and start the car before we even get out of the house. After all, that delightful button on the fancy key fob lets us warm up (or cool off) the auto so we can be warm in winter and cool in summer without being uncomfortable while the temperature regulates. We haven't even gotten out of our houses and already we've made use of an incredible amount of technology.

The vehicle is all set and so are you, but before you go to your office, maybe it would be nice to stop at a brand new bake shop and pick up a treat for everyone in the workplace. It just opened, so you really don't know exactly where it's located, so you store the location into your Global Positioning System (or, if you're well-acquainted with it, GPS). You are now being shown the way to your destination by a satellite way over the Earth and given turn by turn commands by the virtual voice inside the practical gadget.

With your business partner in the car, you head to the company but make a decision that additional coffee is required, so you make a quick stop at your preferred coffee house. You relay your order, which is electronically dispatched to another post where someone else begins to put the whole thing together. While this is occurring, you are giving the cashier a trivial bit of plastic that has numerals and a magnetic strip on it. This is run though a machine and, astonishingly, your coffee is paid for and you never had to touch real currency.

You've finished eating your meal, so now it's time to drive to your organization to carry on with whatever jobs you started there. For the last few hours of the business day, you will be sitting down at your computer that is linked into your company's system. Even the most boring facets of commerce are centered on this computer network. This network communication is such a significant part of any business that we often question how anybody ever did work without it.

You're typing up a significant progress report to share and your PC fails. No need to press the panic button, since assistance will be on the way with one touch of the intercom button labeled "Tech Support". Quickly, you're up and running again with no lasting impairment done. This was most likely the only time today that you even gave the technology you are utilizing a second thought. Since we depend on technology so frequently, we don't think about it unless there is a breakdown in the system.

Now that you appreciate how vital technology is to you, you ought to understand how much destruction can be done if it is left unshielded. If the owner of a competitor company came to you with a scheme about how to make more revenue, would you have faith in him? The "more money" part appears ideal, but in order for this to occur, you're told that you must give this competitor total entry to your company's computer network. All you must do is provide him your password, and he will help you to make a lot of money.

What this person wants you to do is to reveal your company's secrets and techniques. Would you ever imagine doing this? Not on your life! Why would you reveal business tips that could give a rival company an edge? You may as well supply your keys, hand him your password and let him have limitless access over your company's network. What if this character offered to pay you for this information? Think about it. If you were to present a competitor boundless access, you would also be allowing that person admission to your bank accounts, so any payment he would provide you could be returned to him by a few keystrokes. You would end up with nothing but a bankrupt company.

Even though you would in no way dream of giving your company's crucial records over to a rival company, there are internet users who can capture this data without ever having communication with you or anyone else on your staff. It's a frightening idea, but a knowledgeable cyber-criminal could clean you out. This new brand of villain can break into what you assumed was a protected system and steal all the details that you have saved on this network. With this, they could rob every dime you have and you would be none the wiser until your accounting department prints out the end of the month reports. In this sense, the invaluable technology that helps you through the day turns into your worst nightmare.

When it comes to corporate sabotage, it's typically a greedy worker or business associate who is the cause of it, and that person is normally stopped before too much destruction is completed. It's not the same when it's your personal, household computer that someone hacks into. This person is more often than not a stranger who is making his living by taking on your identity. You see, cyber-criminals aren't only searching to steal from businesses. They are out to rob the identities of as many individuals as they can. If a cyber-criminal sets his mind on you, it doesn't matter if you are part of a business or just a single person; you will be a victim and your life will be in ruins. Just bear in mind that a cyber-crook will find an individual who doesn't attempt to defend his resources. You need to certainly consider before you enter private information into your computer and you must understand all you can about on-line protection and use all the tools accessible for your protection. With a little added care, hackers will have a much more difficult time approaching you and will shoot for an easier target.




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