Top Internet Threats
The problem: It's not OK to eat fried worms, and it's even worse to get computer worms on your PC. A computer worm is basically a self-replicating program that uses a network to send copies of itself to other computers (and corrupt their files). The Storm Worm, for example, is a virus that began infecting thousands of computers in Europe and the United States on Friday, January 19, 2007. Using an e-mail message with the panic-suggesting subject line, "230 dead as storm batters Europe." Three days after the initial attack, the Storm Worm accounted for 8% of all computer infections globally. Some of the effects of worms include the deleting of computer files, program corruption, and reformatting your entire hard drive. Others just display messages or videos -- these are harmless but still use up some of your computer's memory, which slows it down.
How to protect yourself: Update your anti-virus and anti-spam software -- and if you don't use any, start now! (Or, um, just get a Mac, which is a bit less virus-prone.) Be wary of opening unexpected e-mail, and never run attached files or programs from a sender you don't know -- or visit Web sites that are linked to these e-mails. Worms are often spread through e-mail programs such as Outlook, so make sure you download the latest security patches on any e-mail/contact management software you may be using.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Robert @ Feb 22nd 2008 10:36AM
Just because we didn't make Ron Paul a primary leader, doesn't mean we should feel free to make him look bad. Why associate his picture with this? His family and supporters should not rest until he receives an apology. We seem to be moving away from the wisdom of our elders in favor of the rhetoric and good looks of our youths. Let's agree to disagree, but not at the expense of allowing ignorance to tarnish progress in solving discrimination of any form.
Russ Horton @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:27AM
Ex fish stick salesman and lead bad guy in X-man Ron Paul is a clueless twit that sounds organized to similarly endowed twits...
Matt @ Feb 22nd 2008 1:24PM
I have one word of advice for your computer's security, COMODO. Download and install the best free firewall on the planet. Comodo.com
Jim @ Feb 24th 2008 6:55AM
Here is a Great tip on how to protect your address book against sending out worms ..Put this in your address book exactly like this ....
( First Name: !000 )( Screan Name: WormAlert )and what it does it wont let worms be attached to any E Mails Names in your address book ...
Pete @ Apr 16th 2008 12:49PM
They have the ability to make all computer's untouchable by any threaths. Our world has known a very long time how on many, many things to make things work much better. But our lifes are built around problems and such. We are not geared to find final sloutations for things that break down. We build stuff so it will break down. The have lowered the price on many High Tech things, along with just plan old simple things. But we geared our life for things to break down, because we have to have them break so that our systems wheels spin, buy new, break down, take it to be fixed. The after so many breaks we buy new again and the greased wheel can keep on turning. You do know the Space Shuttle was developed in the 60's and just upgraded somewhat like we do to our PC's?