Taking responsibility (page 2 of 2)

Users need to educate themselves about the dangers, and keep that education up to date. We teach our children endlessly about "stranger danger" and how to cross the road safely. Why then, as "children" of the internet, aren't we teaching ourselves anything?

Some nasties

Here are just a few of the nasties that might be on your machine:

Dialler/Dialer - this software takes control of your modem and dials expensive, premium rate phone numbers. You end up with the bill.

Key logger - this hidden program logs all your key strokes, so everything you type in is recorded. This includes things like usernames and passwords on banking sites - anything you type gets transmitted back to the criminal that made it.

Spammer virus - these sit on your computer, using your processing power and bandwidth to send out millions of spams to other users. Many of these spams carry viruses as well as general spam advertising.

Adware - less malicious, but still frustrating, these programs hide on your system endlessly calling up banner adverts and pop-ups.

Stealware - this redirects advertising traffic to sites that haven't paid for the adverts, effectively stealing from website owners.

If you are unsure whether your machine is clean and safe, then you should be seeking immediate professional advice. Get your computer patched, get a personal firewall and up-to-date anti-virus software, sign up for a computer literacy course, and run regular system checks to keep an eye on things.