Why It Makes Sense To Have More Than One Spyware Detection Software On Your Computer
November 21st, 2008

If you think about how you have to keep a house clean, you will realize that you cannot do so with only one type of cleaner. You have cleaners for your kitchen and separate cleaners for your bathroom. You may clean your windows with one type of cleanser and your dishes with another. The same is true with your computer. There are many components that require maintenance and it is not sufficient to think that if you download only one type of protection that you will have covered every area necessary to keep out unwanted traffic.

You may use our computers for everything from communicating to banking, shopping and investing. If you think about it, the information you store on your computers literally hold your entire identity and that is a very good reason to have as many forms of protection as possible readily available. You may be wondering who in the world would want to hack into your computer. That is a very good question and it is not so much that you are a target personally, but that hackers target what they can get into and if you leave yourself vulnerable, that is the same as inviting them in. Consider the fact that you lock the doors to your house and car. You do this to protect what you consider valuable. This same principal holds true for your computer--your identity is very valuable.

Some forms of protection you can use:

Firewalls â€" can be thought of as a group of systems that enforce a policy on your computer that denies access to certain types of programs. You can allow or deny programs as they come. Firewalls do not stop spyware for entering your computer but they will stop they spyware from leaving your computer but if there is an empty port, the spyware with your information will leave and you will not know that it did. Firewalls also allow the user to define the parameters of the protection desired. Now, if you are not familiar with computer jargon it may be best to leave all the settings on default.

Antivirus software â€" the purpose of this type of software is, of course, to eliminate viruses from entering your computer in the first place, as well as detecting them and getting them off your machine. There are many products available to do this and they all provide different amounts of protection. Some of them allow you to download them free but be careful because you may get a portion of their product that will identify the problem and not remove it or fix it until you have purchased the entire software package. Also, remember the effectiveness of the software depends largely upon whether-or-not you keep it updated.

There are three security risks that you should be concerned with confidentiality, integrity, availability. This is important to anyone who uses or has access to a computer. You know that you would not let anyone come in and look through your personal papers; neither would you let someone come in and look through your personal information on the computer. This is one of the reasons why protection in as many forms as possible is important. Now we will look at some other computer risks.

Trojan horse programs are a very common way for those who which to attack you. They will install programs that come through the backdoor of your computer. When this happens the programs will allow intruders very easy access to your computer without your knowledge and take the information they want

Back Door and Remote Administration Programs â€" If you are a user of Windows there are three tools that hackers utilize to gain access to your computer. They are; BackOrifice, Netbus, and Subseven. When these programs are installed on your computer, they allow the hackers access to your computer and they can then control it.

Denial of Service - This attack can crash your computer. Hackers will send so much information to your computer that it cannot process it all and will crash. Not only can hackers use the Denial of Service on your computer they can also use your computer to attack someone else's computer

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