Without taking protective measures, it may be only a matter of time before your credit card is hacked or other important information falls into the wrong hands. In order to avoid such mishaps, there are some useful tips you can apply while surfing through the internet.

Use an anti virus program

There are millions of viruses, spyware, malware and other harmful programs floating around the Internet. All the time these malicious software are attempting to sneak inside a PC to get personal information about a user or simply to damage the system. In order to protect your security, you need to have an effective anti virus program and firewall installed in your PC.

Norton offers a range of security software which protects against the entire spectrum of threats. You can always find the updates of these software on the internet and can download them to keep your security intact against both old and new kinds of cyber threats.

Checking the authenticity of the website

When we surf the Net there are many free software or applications we find in different websites and often we download them in our PC. The fact is downloading something from any website can pose a great threat to your security. There are many programs which are actually designed by the hackers to gather information about you from your database in the system. In the process they can have access to your credit cards, bank accounts or other very personal documents like mails that you receive from your friends or family members.

In order to avoid this thing happening, always check the authenticity of a website before downloading anything from it. The best way to ensure your safety is downloading files from reputed sites. There are many well known and safe websites who offers all sorts of applications that you may need to have in your collection. So no need to go for an unknown website to get these files. Also make sure that you have effective anti-spyware software installed on your PC. This prevents unauthorized access of hackers from websites in your PC when you are browsing.

Using anonymous surfing software and proxy

As you are using the Internet to visit different websites for information and downloading applications, all your data regarding your identity are being recorded in various places: server logs, ISP logs and in the website that you are browsing. These logs actually lead directly toward your address which can be tracked by following your IP. Now this is a very dangerous thing as far as your security is concerned. You just don’t want some strangers to learn all about you.

In that case what you need is anonymous surfing software and proxy. These tools keep the information regarding your identity will remain safe from the hackers and identity thieves. This also comes up with multiple numbers of proxies which hides your exact location from where you are accessing internet. This ensures full security to the users.

Setting up password on the wireless network

When you are using wireless router for networking with other computers never keep it in the ‘no password’ mode as it is a wide open invitation for online hackers who can easily access to your system through the wireless network. So always use password on your router to prevent unauthorized users to get in to your system.

Using a safer web browser

Your online safety depends a lot on the web browser that you are using to surf in the internet. Web browsers usually have some loop holes which are used by cyber criminals to get access to your system. When you are surfing there is a continuous process of data exchange occurs between your machine and the sites. Through the process a lot of unwanted harmful programs can get access in your PC.

It is found that Microsoft Internet Explorer is one of the web browsers which is very much vulnerable to spyware and malware attacks and many of these malicious programs are solely designed to utilize the loopholes in Internet Explorer to get access to your Windows operating system. So the best way to avoid this thing from happening is using some other browser. You can go for Mozilla Firefox which is designed to minimize the threat of cyber attacks.

But you must keep one thing in mind that no browser is 100% flawless. So using anti virus and anti spyware programs is a must to ensure your security while surfing online.

Spam is something you have to deal with when it comes to using internet. Spamming is basically a type of marketing activity but because of its annoying and insecure characteristics, it has been tagged as an illegal online activity. But unfortunately that doesn’t secure your inbox from getting flooded with hundreds of spam mails.

Who are spammers?

Spammers are basically a group of people who get paid by a company or some other institutions for sending mails to internet users in order to promote their products, web sites or any other offers. These spammers are equipped with variety of software to forward hundreds of thousands of unwanted, time wasting mails all over the world.

Also spam mails are potential source of viruses. So it is important for you to take necessary precautions to avoid spam. The best way to do it is by minimizing the possibility of your e-mail address getting enlisted in the spammer’s data base because if it gets in then it will be quite difficult for you to stay away from spam mails.

Techniques to avoid spam

Here are some effective techniques that you can use to avoid spam:

1. Avoid posting your e-mail address in websites. There are many websites that asks for your e-mail address to provide follow ups or for registration. This is a gold mine for the spammers to get contacts of active internet users.

Go through the site carefully before posting your e-mail address there. Normally a reputed website does ensure the users that their E-mail address will be kept confidential. This actually binds the site under the obligation not to sell your e-mail address to the spammers which some particular websites does. Make sure that the website where you are posting your e-mail address is coming up with such assurance.

2. Many spammers use their common sense and simply develop their database depending on the commonly used form of E-mail address. For example, if your name is Mike Anderson, then there is a good possibility that you will have your address like mikeanderson@(the domain name).com. This is why you will find it quite hard to get your user ID available according to your exact name as maybe it has been taken already by someone else with the same name. The spammers know this very well, so they get thousands of mailing addresses in their list only through assuming e-mail addresses.

To avoid this, you can use a particular sign or some digits in your e-mail address. Like instead of mikeanderson@(the domain name).com, use mikeanderson(some digits)@(the domain name).com. This will make it harder for the spammer to guess your e-mail address.

3. Another way of avoiding spam is using multiple e-mail accounts. You should keep a primary account only to receive important mails from people whom you know and institutions that you are associated with. When you are in need of registering in a site then it is better to use another e-mail account. This way you can avoid getting your main e-mail address being traced by spammers.

4. Spammers usually scan through internet to gather e-mail addresses by using software that looks for the symbol ‘@’ since this is the common part all internet users have in their e-mail address.

If you have your own web page or a web site then never post your e-mail address there in the actual form. Remove the sign ‘@’ with AT when you are mentioning your e-mail address. Like if your address is mikeanderson@yahoo.com then state it like mikeanderson(AT)yahoo.com. This is very much effective to hide your E-mail address from spammers.

5. Be cautious about downloading free software or trial versions of any programs from the Internet as this free software can expose your contact address to the spammers. In fact many spammers uses this technique to get e-mail addresses by offering free downloads and trial versions of software.

So never download any free software from sites without checking its authenticity. The renowned websites are very much cautious to protect the information of the users. So you should download free software only from sites that are popular in the arena.

6. There is some effective software available in the market that are capable of preventing spam mails filling up your inbox. This anti spam software filters the incoming mails and transfers the spam mails into a separate location.

Norton 360 includes a top rated anti spam program that can free your inbox from spam. This software are regularly updated to always remain one step ahead of the spammers.

Conclusion

So follow the above techniques and use a good anti spam software. Say goodbye to spam and save your valuable time.

What is a virus?

A computer virus is basically a software that gets access to your computer by attaching itself with a harmless file or program. At the first place you won’t have any idea about how harmful this program can be. Without giving a slightest hint, the virus will spread all over your system and will literally “kill” it.

Worms, Trojan horses, mail viruses and malware are some of the most common types of viruses that can infect your system.

What are the consequences?

When a virus infects your computer you will face various kinds of problems. One of the initial things these viruses do is to slow down your computer. It will take you forever to run a program or open a folder in your pc. In some cases you won’t even be able to access your important files or can lose them permanently.  This can be devastating.

Some viruses like Trojan horse or malware are used by criminal hackers who try to access your computer to gain access to your credit card information, financial statements, bank account number and other personal information. So viruses don’t cause trouble by damaging your system only but can affect your career or personal security as well.

At its extreme level, a virus can completely destroy your system and shut it down.

Tips to avoid viruses

Good news is there are some real effective yet simple ways that can help you to avoid these deadly viruses. Here we will discuss about the most useful techniques to increase the protection for your computer.

1. Anti virus program or virus guard software is widely used to increase security for the computer. It helps to prevent your system from any virus attack by scanning all the incoming data and files to ensure that they are not infected.

Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee are some of the most popular and useful virus guards that can help you to increase the security of your computer.

2. If you want to ensure better protection for your system then have the hard drive and the registry checked regularly. Often it happens that a virus gets planted inside your system and you won’t know that until it strikes. And when it happens, in most cases there is little you can do about it.

So regularly virus scan your PC. Usually an effective anti virus program manages to detect these viruses before they can harm your system. Then it will notify you about the malicious program so that you can remove it from your machine.

3. Your Virus guard will have no use if it is not regularly updated. Everyday there are new types of viruses and new versions of the old ones are coming in. If your virus guard is not updated then it won’t be able to detect these new viruses.

So never ignore the notifications made by your virus guard regarding updates. You can easily find the updates for your anti virus program online that you can download to strengthen your security system.

4. E-mail is a common source of viruses. Everyday we receive loads of junk mail from different commercial sites or from strangers. Some of these mails come up with attachments. The rule is pretty much simple – never open an attachment that comes with an e-mail from strangers. This greatly reduces the chance of a virus gaining access to your PC.

Setting up ActiveX is a good way to prevent virus attacks. When the ActiveX appears in an E-mail, it actually warns you that this mail maybe carrying virus.

5. Usually malware gets access to your system through various websites and tries to gain access to your personal information. So you should avoid activating a program or downloading files from sites which are reputable, or unknown.

Always use a firewall to increase your online safety. A firewall usually helps the user to prevent virus and hackers that attempts to have access in the PC from different web sites.  Google also includes a warning on search results for sites that may be dubious.

6. USB drives or floppy discs can spread virus as well. Never insert these in your PC without having them scanned to ensure they are free of viruses.

Always remember one thing regarding virus. It is easier to avoid viruses than cleaning them from your infected system (and fixing damage). So give priority to the preventive measures. It will definitely pay off.

Overview

Norton Internet Security 2009 is the fastest, lightest Internet security suite available and is the winner of multiple awards. Easy to use and powerful, it keeps your PC secure from threats like virus attacks, spyware, phishing sites and other malware on the web.  Also check out Norton 360 2.0 for a comprehensive protection and backup solution.

When you buy Norton Internet Security, you enjoy full technical support from Norton and unlike some other vendor products, Internet Security does not consume all your system resources.  Pulse updates deliver up to date protection (delivered every 5 to 15 minutes to keep your system up to date).

If you want to surf the web with confidence without worrying about viruses and spyware, this is the product for you.

Features

• Fastest, lightest security suite available
• Norton Insight technology intelligently protects your system by only scanning files at risk
• Detects and eliminates spyware
• Removes internet worms and viruses by automatically detecting them
• Protects emails and instant messengers against virus threats
• Gives protection against hackers with a smart two way firewall
• Real-time SONAR (Symantec™ Online Network for Advanced Response) helps prevent bots from taking control of your PC.
• Blocks phishing websites
• Norton Identity Safe offers enhanced protection against identity theft
• Expert support accessible when you need it
• Monitors wireless network and enhances network security
• Does not allow spreading of virus infected emails
• Continues working quietly in the background
• Rootkit detection searches underneath the OS using patented technology
• Gives an option to automatically renew subscription to keep your software current

System Requirements

Windows Vista® Home Basic/ Home Premium/Business/Ultimate that meets minimum Windows Vista operating requirement

• Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 Home/XP Pro/XP Media Center Edition:
  • 300MHz or higher processor
  • 256MB of RAM
  • 200MB of available hard disk space
  • Email scanning supported for POP3 and SMTP compatible email clients.

Supported instant messenger clients:

• AOL®
• Yahoo!® 
• Microsoft® 
• Trillian™ 

Internet browsers (phishing protection)

• Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0 (32-bit only) or higher
• Mozilla® Firefox® 2.0 or higher

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