By Cyberspace HQ

Protecting Your PC for the Holidays

Safeguarding your data is always of critical importance, but could be even more important the approaching holidays. With more people staying at home during their vacations, bored hackers may decide to target and corrupt your important data, try to take control of your PC, or other wicked and nefarious deeds. Combine bored hackers with the glut of Always-on, high-speed connections and you are looking at a potentially devastating kid in a candy store.

I've never had any hacker problems before." You say, "Why should I think it's a real problem for me today? I mean, they only hit the big sites, right?

The truth is: If you have never had security software before, or even just for the last few days, someone could have a back door into your PC right now! We are not trying to promote fear, but you should be aware of and protected from any unauthorized access to your computer.

So, what kinds of things can a malicious attacker do over the internet to your PC?

Destroy - Delete data off your computer
Vandalize - Change data on your computer to something else (note occurrences where publication sites have had phony articles put on their site)
Spy - Install a backdoor to watch your every keystroke, what programs you use, when you use it, and even what sites you visit
Control - Take control of your PC to perform illegal activities, such as hosting child pornography, or participating in broad based internet attacks including DoS (Denial Of Service) attacks or sending Spam mail through your computer.
Deny - Some attacks use up all your internet bandwidth, or crash your computer, denying your ability to use the internet, or even your own PC.

Why would someone do this?

Power, boredom, money, or any number of other reasons. The truth of the matter is that most malicious attacks are not made by internet experts. They are made by young kids or inexperienced adults, who know something about the internet, but have found programs to allow them to perform these attacks. They risk exposure to viruses, backdoors, and more to have this power, yet they do it anyway, because they don't have the investment you have in using the PC for productive gains. It becomes a game for many of these people.

How can I protect myself from these people?

Your best method of defense would be to disconnect your computer from the internet and never install anything from an unknown source on it. Well, that just isn't going to work for the vast majority of people. That brings us to the need for something that will prevent these people from accessing your computer and, if access is gained, prevent them from getting back out. That something is called a firewall.

What exactly is a firewall, and how do I use it?

Well, a firewall is a layer between you and danger. In internet terms, this is either hardware (physical components installed into your computer), or software (programs) that works as a gatekeeper for all of your internet traffic. Your firewall passes the traffic it sees as "safe" into or out of your PC. A good firewall can block not only incoming, but outgoing requests, but not all will.

I can see the reasons for blocking the hackers from getting in, but why would I want to block outgoing requests?

Let's say for example, you get an email asking you to download some application, that is supposed to just show some fireworks, or is a solitaire card game. You wouldn't expect this program to connect to the internet would you? Yet, if this program contains malicious spyware, or a backdoor, it may report your PC's presence to the author, and announce that it is now running on your PC. If you could block outgoing connections, you have an opportunity to stop this announcement, as well as know what this program tried to do. These guys can get tricky.

Ok, I need protection. What's better, a hardware, or software firewall?

For best protection, you should have both. In a car, people commonly buy a security device (such as a steering wheel or pedal bar-lock), even though they have a lock on their door. They do this because if one layer of security is breeched, another one is there to stop them. Even if you have a hardware firewall, you should get a software firewall.

Let's take a look at some of the common benefits of a hardware firewall:

• Can often protect multiple computers easily.
• Can often provide internet access for multiple computers through a single connection (this is called a proxy server).
• Typically can function on any Operating System. i.e. Linux, Windows, OS2...

And then some of the common benefits of a software firewall:

• It will be running whenever the computer is on, even if the computer is portable, and moved (like a laptop between home and the office).
• Can provide protection against programs connecting out from your computer.
• Can be configured to allow selected programs to access the internet while blocking others.

So, it should be clear that you need protection. However you plan to get it, do it now. We have reviewed a number of software firewalls and found Privatefirewall 3 to be the best. That is why it is now available through our website.

Read more details about Privatefirewall.

Have a happy and safe holiday season!