Common Sense for your Personal Home Computer

Attached is an article from Reuters. It illustrates the true vulnerability of our information if left unprotected, and demonstrates how one attack can cause a variety of different issues.
Please recognize possible exposures you face on your personal home computer. Ensure that you are taking precautions. The following are some common sense rules you can follow:
? Use an anti-virus program such as Symantec's Norton Anti Virus (NAV) or McAfee's VirusScan and update virus data files regularly.
? Use Windows Update regularly. Microsoft offers updates to its software that fix security issues on your computer's operating system.
? Consider a firewall program such as Netice's Black Ice or Zone Lab's Zone Alarm. These offer protection from people doing online probing of your equipment while you're on the internet.
Remember, "An ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure". Nothing can guarantee one hundred percent protection but this will get you headed in the right direction. Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions or concerns.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Internet worm that leaves infected computers vulnerable to future hacking by tracking what is typed on the keyboard, including passwords and credit card details, was spreading rapidly on Monday, computer security companies warned.
The worm, called ``Badtrans,'' spreads through Microsoft Corp. Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail programs and automatically sends itself to unanswered e-mails in inboxes, according to several antivirus companies.
The attachment, which contains the malicious program, can be executed simply by reading or previewing it and doesn't need to be double clicked or opened separately, experts said.
The worm contains a keystroke logger, which can be used to record what people type to obtain passwords and credit card numbers, they said.
``It does no damage to files but does drop a backdoor trojan on the machine which would allow a hacker to come back and access personal information,'' said April Goostree, virus research manager at McAfee.
While corporate e-mail gateways are blocking the worm, many home and small office computer users who aren't up-to-date on their antivirus software are getting infected, she said.
The subject line varies, often assuming the text of the unanswered e-mail whose e-mail address it co-opts. The name of the attachment varies as well, with suffixes including .doc,. pics, and. news.
The worm, a variant of one discovered in April, has hit at least 50 countries, with most infections in Germany, followed by the UK and United States, said UK-based MessageLabs, which reported receiving 400 copies an hour this weekend.

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