You MUST have anti-virus software on your computer and, just as important, you MUST update it on a regular basis. The best thing to do is to set your anti-virus software to automatically update itself every day or, if you are using a dialup internet connection, to update itself whenever you log onto the Internet. You should make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date before you collect your emails and/or download any files.

If you bought a computer within the past 2 years or so, it probably came with anti-virus software pre-loaded. Most likely, it came with a copy of Norton, McAfee or Panda brand of anti-virus software with a one-year subscription to their respective update service. Hopefully, you updated your anti-virus software throughout the years’ subscription. But, when that year was up, did you renew that subscription to be able to keep the Anti-Virus software up to date? Hopefully, you did - and you’ve continued to do so – so that you’ve kept your computer safe from viruses. If you didn’t then your computer is probably full of viruses. If you go to your Anti-Virus software publishers’ website you can renew your subscription and download the latest updates and check your computer for viruses and remove them.

If you don’t have any Anti-Virus software on your computer or want to change from the one that you already have, there are plenty of choices out there.

You can buy and download Anti-Virus software from any one of the companies listed in the software section. AVG, however, offer a free edition of their Anti-Virus software for home users. I have found this to be a very good solution.

One thing to remember, is that it is not a good idea to have more than one Anti-Virus software package on your computer. So, if you are changing Anti-Virus software packages, make sure that you uninstall the old package before you install the new one. Plus, as soon as you have installed the new package, and ensured that it is uptodate, use it to check your computer for any viruses

But, whichever Anti-Virus package you choose to use, it is essential that you update it on a regular basis. Ideally, you should check for updates every day or, at the very least, each time you log onto the Internet. You should definitely NOT collect and read your emails until you have updated your Anti-Virus software

I’ve just received an email from Microsoft telling me that there is a new security update and that I should click on the “Go to download page” button to get this update. What should I do? Ignore it and delete it. You have received a hoax email. It did not come from Microsoft

These hoax emails are not innocent pranks. They have a malicious intent. The link and button use cloaking to disguise the true destination that you are being taken to. So, while you might see http://www.microsoft.com in the address bar of your browser, you are actually being taken to a completely different website. Again, most often these websites can be traced to Russia and/or other Eastern European countries where they are being used by criminal gangs.

If you were to follow the link to the fake Microsoft website, a "trojan" will be installed automatically on your computer. A “trojan” is a file or program that masquerades as a “good” file or programmer but is, in fact, secretly doing bad things to your computer. These are sometimes called “malware”.

One of the bad things that a “trojan” can do is to capture your keystrokes when you log onto your online banking and periodically send this information back to the criminal via email. Access to your Internet Banking service is gained and funds are transferred to the bank accounts controlled by the criminal.

Some “trojans” are designed to give other people remote access to your computer. By having remote access to your computer these people can do all kinds of things, ranging from the annoying to the illegal. For example, the “trojan” can hijack your browser and force you to go to porn websites or flood you with popup ads whenever you go online. But, perhaps the most pernicious thing that these people can do is to use your computer – without you knowing it – to distribute pornography.

The best thing to do with any unsolicited email - particularly from people or companies you don’t know – that finds its way into your inbox is to ignore it and delete it.

One of the problems with “trojans” and “malware” files and program is that they are not always detected by Anti-Virus software. However, there are ways to protect your computer. For products that are designed to detect “trojans” and “malware” on your computer and remove them. (See the Software Section).

Unlike anti-virus software, you can run more than one copy of this type of software on your computer. I personally check my computer using NoAdware and Spybot and to try and stop “trojans” and “malware” from getting onto my computer in the first place, I use Spyware Blaster and Spyware Guard.

As with your Anti-Virus software, it is important that you keep this software uptodate. You should check for any updates every time that you log onto the Internet

What are cookies and spyware? How are they different from each other? How are they different from “trojans” and “malware”.

When you go to a website for the first time you might get a pop-up message asking whether you will accept a “cookie” from that website. Cookies are just a bit of text on your computer are widely used and are legitimate tools used by many websites to track visitors. Cookies contains a small amount of information that identify you to particular websites. These cookies are used, for example, to personalize information or to help with purchasing stuff in an online store.

Cookies cannot be used to "steal" information about you or your computer system. Plus, the only websites that can retrieve the information stored in a cookie are the websites that wrote the information in that particular cookie. This ensures your privacy by stopping anyone other than the site you are visiting from being able to read any cookies left by that site.

However, if you are concerned about cookies you can delete any that are on your computer and/or you can set your browser to screen incoming cookies and reject any that you don’t want. How you do this will depend on which browser you are using. The two most popular browsers are: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape

In Netscape, go to the Edit/Preferences/Privacy and Security menu. Here you can change how cookies are to be dealt with

Microsoft has changed its approach to cookies over the last 3 versions of their browser:
In IE 6.0, go to the Tools/Internet Options/Privacy menu. This menu allows you to select how much discrimination the browser will have when accepting cookies, based on two factors -- (1) the source of the cookie, and (2) whether the source has a "privacy policy." There are also features for the advanced user, if you'd like to have a greater control over cookies. For more information on this you can go here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q283185
In IE 5.0, go to the Tools/Internet Options/Security menu. Here, you can choose the security level for 4 different browsing conditions: Internet Sites, Local Sites, "Trusted" Sites, and Restricted Sites. If you select "Internet," and click on Custom Level, you'll get a dialog box where you can accept all, warn before accepting, or reject all cookies.
In IE 4.0, go to the View/Internet Options/Advanced menu. There you can accept all, warn before accepting, or reject all.

There are different types of spyware, your basic "harmless" spyware, placed on your computer in the form of cookies, unfortunately, some sites use “spyware” or “tracking software” to track your internet browsing habits and then use this data to customise the advertisements you see on websites, etc. Sometimes these advertisements will simply “popup” as you browse the internet regardless of which website you are on. This type of software is considered as an invasion of privacy.