What Is?

Note: Email is the most common method of receiving a virus, spyware or other threat.  Typically introduced to your computer via a SPAM email, hence you should never open an email from an unknown source...even if it looks very inviting (especially).  ReassureMe offers its customers a suite of products that protects a computer from threats such as virus, Trojans, key stroke loggers etc.

SPAM is unsolicited e-mail on the Internet. (E-mail that is wanted is sometimes referred to as ham.) From the sender's point-of-view, spam is a form of bulk mail, often sent to a list obtained from a spambot or to a list obtained by companies that specialise in creating e-mail distribution lists. To the receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail.

Spam is roughly equivalent to unsolicited telephone marketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet. Spammers typically send a piece of e-mail to a distribution list in the millions, expecting that only a tiny number of readers will respond to their offer. It has become a major problem for all Internet users.

The term spam is said to derive from a famous Monty Python sketch ("Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam...") that was current when spam first began arriving on the Internet. SPAM is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

VIRUS is a program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on a diskette or CD. The immediate source of the e-mail note, downloaded file, or diskette you've received is usually unaware that it contains a virus. Some viruses wreak their effect as soon as their code is executed; other viruses lie dormant until circumstances cause their code to be executed by the computer. Some viruses are benign or playful in intent and effect ("Happy Birthday, Ludwig!") and some can be quite harmful, erasing data or causing your hard disk to require reformatting. A virus that replicates itself by resending itself as an e-mail attachment or as part of a network message is known as a worm.

Generally, there are three main classes of viruses:

File infectors. Some file infector viruses attach themselves to program files, usually selected .COM or .EXE files. Some can infect any program for which execution is requested, including .SYS, .OVL, .PRG, and .MNU files. When the program is loaded, the virus is loaded as well. Other file infector viruses arrive as wholly-contained programs or scripts sent as an attachment to an e-mail note.

System or boot-record infectors. These viruses infect executable code found in certain system areas on a disk. They attach to the DOS boot sector on diskettes or the Master Boot Record on hard disks. A typical scenario (familiar to the author) is to receive a diskette from an innocent source that contains a boot disk virus. When your operating system is running, files on the diskette can be read without triggering the boot disk virus. However, if you leave the diskette in the drive, and then turn the computer off or reload the operating system, the computer will look first in your A drive, find the diskette with its boot disk virus, load it, and make it temporarily impossible to use your hard disk. (Allow several days for recovery.) This is why you should make sure you have a bootable floppy.

Macro viruses. These are among the most common viruses, and they tend to do the least damage. Macro viruses infect your Microsoft Word application and typically insert unwanted words or phrases.

The best protection against a virus is to know the origin of each program or file you load into your computer or open from your e-mail program. Since this is difficult, you can buy anti-virus software that can screen e-mail attachments and also check all of your files periodically and remove any viruses that are found. From time to time, you may get an e-mail message warning of a new virus. Unless the warning is from a source you recognize, chances are good that the warning is a virus hoax.

The computer virus, of course, gets its name from the biological virus. The word itself comes from a Latin word meaning slimy liquid or poison.

A computer WORM is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other computers anywhere in the world  and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the computer/network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or devour files on a targeted computer.

A TROJAN HORSE (sometimes shortened to trojan), is non-self-replicating malware that appears to perform a desirable function for the user but instead facilitates unauthorized access to the user's computer system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.

MALWARE, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program codeInstant messaging

BOTNETis a jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, that run autonomously and automatically. The term is often associated with malicious software, but it can also refer to the network of computers using distributed computing software. While botnets are often named after their malicious software name, there are typically multiple botnets in operation using the same malicious software families, but operated by different criminal entities.

INSTANT MESSAGING, often shortened to simply "IM" or "IMing," is the exchange of text messages through a software application in real-time. Generally included in the IM software is the ability to easily see whether a chosen friend, co-worker or "buddy" is online and connected through the selected service.

Instant messaging differs from ordinary e-mail in the immediacy of the message exchange and also makes a continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth. Most exchanges are text-only, though popular services, such as AOL, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Apple's iChat now allow voice messaging, file sharing and even video chat when both users have cameras.

For IMing to work, both users must be online at the same time and the intended recipient must be willing to accept instant messages, as it is possible to configure the IM client to reject chat sessions. An attempt to send an IM to someone who is not online, or who is not willing to accept IMs, will result in notification that the transmission cannot be completed. If the online software is set to accept IMs, it alerts the recipient with a distinctive sound, a window that indicates that an IM has arrived and allowing the recipient to accept or reject it, or a window containing the incoming message.

In the past, both users had to be using the same software. Many current clients, however, allow interoperability between networks, including Microsoft's recently developed Live Messenger.

Under most conditions, IMing is truly "instant." Evenduring peak Internet usage periods, the delay is rarely more than a second or two. It is possible for two or more people to have a real-time online conversation by IMing each other back and forth.

Once in a while, a person might receive an IM from someone while already engaged in a chat with someone else, and decide to carry on IM chats with both people independently and concurrently. This requires mental alertness to avoid the embarrassment of sending one IM companion a message intended for the other, though younger "netizens" often pull off this level of multi-tasking as a matter of daily practice.

IM is fantastice but you must know who you are chatting with....especially young children, hence the need for control or management of IM with message recording for a child’s safety.....

CONTENT FILTERING (also known as information filtering) is the use of a program to screen and exclude from access or availability Web pages or e-mail that is deemed objectionable. Content filtering is used by corporations as part of Internet firewall computers and also by home computer owners, especially by parents to screen the content their children have access to from a computer.

 Content filtering usually works by specifying character strings that, if matched, indicate undesirable content that is to be screened out. Content is typically screened for pornographic content and sometimes also for violence- or hate-oriented content. Critics of content filtering programs point out that it is not difficult to unintentionally exclude desirable content.

Content filtering and the products that offer this service can be divided into Web filtering, the screening of Web sites or pages, and e-mail filtering, the screening of e-mail for spam or other objectionable content.

SPYWARE is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organisation without their knowledge. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program. 

Data collecting programs that are installed with the user's knowledge are not, properly speaking, spyware, if the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared. However, spyware is often installed without the user's consent, as a drive-by download, or as the result of clicking some option in a deceptive pop-up window. Software designed to serve advertising, known as adware, can usually be thought of as spyware as well because it almost invariably includes components for tracking and reporting user information.

The cookie is a well-known mechanism for storing information about an Internet user on their own computer. If a Web site stores information about you in a cookie that you don't know about, the cookie can be considered a form of spyware. Spyware is part of an overall public concern about privacy on the Internet.

Many Internet users were introduced to spyware in 1999, when a popular freeware game called "Elf Bowling" came bundled with tracking software.

In general, spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organisation without their knowledge. Internet advertising (adware) has been criticised for sometimes including code that tracks a user's personal information and passes it on to third parties without the user's authorisation or knowledge. This practice has been dubbed spyware and has prompted an outcry from computer security and privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.
Noted privacy software expert Steve Gibson of Gibson Research explains: "Spyware is any software that employs a user's Internet connection in the background (the so-called 'backchannel') without their knowledge or explicit permission. Silent background use of an Internet 'backchannel' connection must be preceded by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed backchannel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed consent for such use. Any software communicating across the Internet absent of these elements is guilty of information theft and is properly and rightfully termed: Spyware."

Spyware doesn't actually attempt to "take over" your computer, but it does try to do certain things you probably won't like. Here are some common signs that you have been infected:

• Your PC is running unusually slow.
• Ads are popping up even when your browser isn't running.
• Your home page has been hijacked.
• Antispyware and/or antivirus applications aren't working correctly. Some spyware programs will sabotage the programs designed to detect and eliminate them.
• There's been a dramatic increase in your network's traffic, eating up bandwidth and crippling performance.

A FIREWALL is a set of related programmes, located at a network gateway server (perimeter), that protects the resources of a private network from users from other networks. (The term also implies the security policy that is used with the programs.) An enterprise with an intranet that allows its workers access to the wider Internet installs a firewall to prevent outsiders from accessing its own private data resources and for controlling what outside resources its own users have access to.

Basically, a firewall, working closely with a router program (broadband box from your internet service provider), examines each network packet to determine whether to forward it toward its destination. A firewall also includes or works with a proxy server that makes network requests on behalf of workstation users. A firewall is often installed in a specially designated computer separate from the rest of the network so that no incoming request can get directly at private network resources.

There are a number of firewall screening methods. A simple one is to screen requests to make sure they come from acceptable (previously identified) domain name and Internet Protocol addresses. For mobile users, firewalls allow remote access in to the private network by the use of secure logon procedures and authentication certificates.

A number of companies make firewall products. Features include logging and reporting, automatic alarms at given thresholds of attack, and a graphical user interface for controlling the firewall.

Computer security borrows this term from fire fighting, where it originated. In fire fighting, a firewall is a barrier established to prevent the spread of fire.

A computer COOKIE is a small text file which contains a unique ID tag, placed on your computer by a website. The website saves a complimentary file with a matching ID tag. In this file various information can be stored, from pages visited on the site, to information voluntarily given to the site. When you revisit the site days or weeks later, the site can recognize you by matching the cookie on your computer with the counterpart in its database.

There are two types of computer cookies: temporary and permanent. Temporary cookies, also called session cookies, are stored temporarily in your browser's memory and are deleted as soon as you end the session by closing the browser. Permanent cookies, also called persistent cookies, are stored permanently on your computer's hard drive and, if deleted, will be recreated the next time you visit the sites that placed them there.

Cookie technology addressed the need to keep track of information entered at a site so that if you submitted a registration form for example, the site could associate that information with you as you travelled through the site's pages. Otherwise, every time you clicked on a different page in the site, establishing a new connection, the site would lose the information in reference to you, forcing you to re-enter it.

A temporary cookie solved this problem in the short term by setting aside a little bit of browser memory to save information. However, once the browser was closed, all temporary cookies were lost. Return surfers were not recognized and registration information had to be re-supplied at every visit.
Persistent cookies solved this problem. They allowed a site to recognize a surfer permanently by transferring a text file with a unique ID tag to the visitor's hard disk, matching a complimentary file on the server. On subsequent visits, the browser automatically handed this cookie over, allowing the site to pull up their matching cookie. Now cookies could persist for years.

Both temporary and permanent computer cookies can be used for many helpful purposes. Automatic registration logon, preserving website preferences, and saving items to a shopping cart are all examples of cookies put to good use. But permanent cookies also resulted in unanticipated uses, such as Web profiling.

PEER-to-PEER is a communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session.
Other models with which it might be contrasted include the client/server model and the master/slave model. In some cases, peer-to-peer communications is implemented by giving each communication computer both server and client capabilities. In recent usage, peer-to-peer has come to describe applications in which users can use the Internet to exchange files with each other directly or through a mediating server.
 On the Internet, peer-to-peer (referred to as P2P) is a type of transient Internet network that allows a group of computer users with the same networking program to connect with each other and directly access files from one another's hard drives. Napster and Gnutella are examples of this kind of peer-to-peer software. Major producers of content, including record companies, have shown their concern about what they consider illegal sharing of copyrighted content by suing some P2P users.
Meanwhile, corporations are looking at the advantages of using P2P as a way for employees to share files without the expense involved in maintaining a centralized server and as a way for businesses to exchange information with each other directly.
How Does Internet P2P Work?
The user must first download and execute a peer-to-peer networking program. (Gnutellanet is currently one of the most popular of these decentralized P2P programs because it allows users to exchange all types of files.) After launching the program, the user enters the IP address of another computer belonging to the network. (Typically, the Web page where the user got the download will list several IP addresses as places to begin). Once the computer finds another network member on-line, it will connect to that user's connection (who has gotten their IP address from another user's connection and so on).
Users can choose how many member connections to seek at one time and determine which files they wish to share or password protect.