Don't be so Naive (Tech)

All I have to say is "Don't be so naive" world, everyone treats computers and technology as though it is a ceramic dish wrapped in a thin layer of delicate glass! This world is full of viruses, hackers, trojans and the like - companies like Microsoft and Norton claim to be able to clean your computer of everything of the like. Sometimes the truth can be hidden behind a nice, big, professional logo!

Figure 1: Cartoon of a Computer, welcome to reality

Wikipedia describes a trojan as "In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, also known as a trojan, is malware that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse."

Now, pay close attention to that description - it says that it appears to perform a desirable function but performs malicious functions. This short description is what most people skip over - most people only see "worm or virus". Here is the important point of this paragraph - if you install a program (for example: Adobe Photoshop (no claims are made against Adobe or any of it's parters)), even if it's storebought, and you install the program, the program might be able to send information about you without you knowing it! Don't be so naive, usually in the big, long, agreement there will be a section saying that the program sends information about it's user!

People just blindly click this!

I will not go into detail about the difference between a virus and a computer worm but i will say this:

Viruses and computer worms need to be willingly installed by the user of the computer.

This point is important to creators of viruses/worms because if (somewhere in software agreement) you agree to having malicious software on your PC then there is nothing that you can do. This is, however, why anti-spyware and anti-virus software was intended for! Personally, I do not trust the following anti-virus software producers: Microsoft, Norton, McAfee. The ones that I would suggest getting would be Avast!, AVG, and Search & Destroy. A lot of antivirus/antispyware programs are free! So why not get them - in most cases they won't hurt your computer (Avast! and AVG are freeware and are legitimate), Spybot: Search & Destroy is not free but there are free lite versions of it.

(I do not certify that any software listed above (or at all for that matter) will not harm your computer, download them at your own risk!)