2. On the same Customize and Control button a little further down is an option that is labeled “History.” Hitting this option brings up all your latest web browsing along with a button that reads, “Clear Browsing Data.” By hitting this button, you will also clear your download history, delete cookies along with other plug-in data and empty the cache. You should do this on at least a weekly if not daily basis if you want to erase your online footprints and flush out any cookie-based adware. Cookies by and of themselves are not malicious by nature. They are merely text files that can be used to store and share information.
If you have ever returned to a site and have seen your name mysteriously appear on the screen, it is because on a previous visit you gave your name to the site and it was stored in a cookie so that when you returned you would be greeted with a personal message. A good example of this is the way some online shopping sites will make recommendations to you based on previous purchases. The server keeps track of what you purchase and what items you search for and stores that information in cookies. Web sites will often use cookies to keep track of what ads it lets you see and how often you see ads.
Cookies do not act maliciously on computer systems. They are merely text files that can be deleted at any time - they are not plug ins nor are they programs. Cookies cannot be used to spread viruses and they cannot access your hard drive. This does not mean that cookies are not relevant to a user's privacy and anonymity on the Internet. Cookies cannot read your hard drive to find out information about you; however, any personal information that you give to a Web site, including credit card information, will most likely be stored in a cookie unless you have turned off the cookie feature in your browser. In only this way are cookies a threat to privacy. The cookie will only contain information that you freely provide to a Web site.
3. Antimalware Programs – No matter the platform or operating system all computers, including Smartphones are vulnerable to viruses and malware. While malware is designed for a number of purposes,
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including identity theft, corporate espionage, spamming, creating unwanted popup ads or other malicious designs, the best way to stop cyber thieves from robbing you blind is to stop them before they walk through the door. This is what antimalware programs are all about. While there are a number of highly touted antimalware creators out there, all of them share one vital trait: They are all designed to block malicious software from entering your system in the first place. They also need to be updatable since malware continually evolves. If your antimalware package has expired and you have neither renewed nor updated it in more than a month, then you are leaving the door wide open to malware. Worst of all is the fact that there a number of ways that your system can be breached, including the following:
How Malware Gets On Your Computer
Malware, spyware, and other junk software makes it onto your computer for a number of reasons:
· You installed something you really shouldn’t have, from an untrustworthy source. Often these include screensavers, toolbars, or torrents that you didn’t scan for viruses.
· You didn’t pay attention when installing a “reputable” application that bundles “optional” crapware.
· You’ve already managed to get yourself infected, and the malware installs even more malware.
· You aren’t using a quality Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware application.
· You’ve using Apps on your Smartphone or Tablet that’s are not protected with antivirus/malware software and you’re computer is being back door hacked through shared files.
· You’re letting your kids run amuck on your computer system by not teaching them proper computer safe usage and what to avoid?
4. Encryption – While encryption software that is able to withstand NSA snooping is readily available, hardly anyone uses it. Moreover, it’s nothing new. Even as far back as 1995, the government knew that it was possible for the average citizen to add encryption software to any computer system.
“The ability of just about everybody to encrypt their messages is rapidly outrunning our ability to decode them,” a U.S. intelligence official told U.S. News & World Report in 1995. By the end of the Clinton administration, the government conceded that the Internet had made it impossible to control the spread of strong cryptographic software. But more than a decade later, the cypherpunks seem to have lost the war.
Better still, the same encryption algorithms that can keep prying government agencies at bay would certainly prove deterrent enough to thwart cyberthieves. While they might be able to hack into your system, if they didn’t possess the decryption key al they would come away with was a bunch of nonsense. With everyone clamoring for privacy, why hasn’t encryption come bundled into every computer, tablet and Smartphone on the planet?
One of the reasons that encryption systems have not received widespread use is due to the fact that anyone you wished to email or text would also need the decryption key in order to read your message. Other wildly popular email and messaging systems would also be affected.
Take Gmail, for example. “If you wanted to prevent government snooping, you’d have to prevent Google’s servers from having a copy of the text of your messages,” Halderman says. “But that would make it much harder for Google to provide features like search over your messages.” Filtering spam also becomes difficult. And end-to-end encryption would also make it difficult for Google to make money on the service, since it couldn’t use the content of messages to target ads.
5. Use better usernames and passwords. This might seem like a small item but many usernames and passwords are easy to guess. Especially if you have hacking software to help you crack the code. Make your user name longer and unique. Also make sure your passwords are at least 10 characters long and include upper and lower case letters, at least one number and at least one special character. This type of password is many times more difficult to crack than the 8 digit all letter ones that most people use.
The bottom line when it comes to security, the American public needs to decide which is more important, privacy or convenience. Because in this wired world of ours, you can’t have it both ways.