Does your computer have the flu?

    A computer can in fact get "sick" but not in the sense that most people would think of.  A computer being "sick" is referred to as a computer virus.  A virus is a program that attempts to forcefully insert itself into your computer, this is typically done by going to certain websites that will have a popup saying your computer has been infected.  If you download anything form that site, it will most likely be a virus and you have become prey to it.  There are many ways to protect yourself from virus's, first, the most important thing to do is use common sense when visiting websites.  Sadly people go to painfully obvious sites that are obviously populated by virus's, by using common sense you can decide not to go to these sites from emails, or pop-ups.  Secondly, install an anti-virus.  An anti-virus can be thought of as your computer's immune system, it helps to protect it from harmful programs. An anti-virus isn't guaranteed to stop everything but it helps immensely.



As seen in this video it helps to reinforce the points I previously stated,  by having the anti-virus it helped protect his computer from a potential virus because he went to a suspicious site and it attempted to infect his computer.
In the video he used an anti-virus named Norton, unlike him I use an anti-virus named Windows Security Essentials.  This anti-virus is made by the people who made Windows, so who better to program an anti-virus to protect your operating system,  than the people who made the operating system?  If it doesn't sound good already,  the best feature is that it is free to anyone that has a legitimate version of Windows.  I'm not saying that Norton, AVG and several other anti-virus's are bad, they still get the job done.  However I have had Norton and AVG and I see a drastic decrease in the  time spent when it scans your computer for threats, additionally it takes up less system memory when running idle int he background.


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Luckily your anti-virus isn't the end all be all for your computer. If you create a system restore point on your computer it will take a snapshot of what your computer is and then save that into a file. This file can be loaded and will revert your computer back to the time when the snapshot was taken. Instructions on how to setup a system restore can be seen in my following video. However if the virus does prove to much for you to handle you can take your computer to a professional or you can attach your hard-drive to a secondary computer and save your personal files and then reformat the computer. Also you could use a Live CD, which will allow you to run a operating system from a CD, which will allow you to safely transfer files.

Want to go Phishing?

                Ever see those nice emails that say you have won the lottery, or have won a fabulous prize?  After giving the site your personal information it will probably tell you your money is on your way.  Isn't that great news!?  Sadly it isn't your lucky day, you have just become a victim of a phishing scam.  A phishing scam is where someone impersonates someone you may or may not know and attempted to retrieve your personal information through clever means.

              This is typically done through pop-ups or emails because they are the most abundant and easy to trick people with.  Phishing emails commonly won't have your actual name, it will refer to you as "Valued Customer" or "Hello Friend", by doing this the email can be sent to anyone,  also the email will attempt to trick you into going to a link which may look like a real site link.  By changing the programming code you are able to make the link appear as  "www.wallmart.com", but the link you are actually going to is "www.walllmart.com".  (See real email picture for further information, picture needs link due to size limitation on this site) Upon going to the fake site it will ask you for your personal information and the scam will be complete.  

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          You can prevent these scams by using mostly common sense. Just ask yourself if you are feeling suspicious about an email,  "did you really just win 1 million dollars?", "win a car",  "do you know this person?".  Also make sure to see if they use your correct name in the email.  If you are still suspicious go to google and search the person sending you the email and send them a support message regarding the email.

          As you could see from the fake email, I get these all the time and my brother lost his World of Warcraft account due to it.  He thought it was a real email and clicked on the link, the site that it linked looked legit.  However every time he entered his account info it said it was incorrect.  Due to this later when he tried to login on the game his password and email was changed.   We had to go through 3 days worth of customer support to have the account reissued in his name.  Luckily no credit cards weren't issued with the account, or we could have had bigger issues.