It’s that time of year again when the shops are crazy with Christmas shoppers looking for the perfect gift for friends and family, but for those of us who are too busy (or sane) to go shopping then the Internet is the best place to find the latest gadgets at the lowest prices.

Each year Brits are spending more online over the Christmas period than ever before, taking a look at last year’s figures 44% of the UK’s Internet adult population increased online spending compared to 2009 according to eConsultancy.com taking the total amount spent online to £6.8bn in December according to the Guardian.co.uk. Although part of this increase will be due to the extremely bad weather conditions experienced last December.

Guest Article by Louise Goldstein

The rise in the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has naturally encouraged computer virus criminals to look for opportunities allowing them to exploit this phenomenon.

With almost 60 per cent of the adult population in the UK now involved in social media in one way or another, the industry has become a target for viruses. Not to mention the fact that around 90 per cent of 13 to 18 years old regularly use social networking websites such as Facebook – an age group particularly vulnerable to the threats viruses present.

Although most social networking sites are now taking measures to prevent viruses infecting their features, this is often an impossible task. Many viruses are contained on sites that are simply linked to Facebook and other social media sites. These links can be reported and subsequently removed, but the immediate threat is unavoidable. Unless social networking websites remove the ability to link external sites up – which is highly unlikely – the social media user must practice vigilance when socialising and sharing material online.

Avoiding links to infected websites

It can be difficult to avoid links to infected websites, but in most cases close inspection of a link will reveal whether it is valid or not. If a link suddenly takes you to an external website, you should close the page immediately if that wasn’t what you were expecting.

Don’t click any links that seem to be dodgy – and if possible, block the user or application sharing them. The majority of virus inflicting website links do appear to the conscious user to be untrustworthy. It’s just a case of avoiding the urge to click them; most are attached to an interesting story or some aspect that aims to persuade you to click onto the website.

Of course, the best advice you could take heed of here is that of installing an anti-virus programme onto your computer system. This will take care of any threats and eliminate them if you do accidently click onto an unreliable third party website. Malware protection software can be found on the Internet and in store for a reasonable price, and most require you to renew your package each year for ongoing infection prevention.

Staying safe on social networking websites

There is a golden rule to follow when it comes to social networking, in order to avoid viruses and other threats online: only connect and share with those you know personally. These are people you have meet in real life, or have had personal contact with. Although, of course, such individuals are still prone to sharing dangerous links, your exposure to malware threats will be far more limited. Adding unknown people to your Facebook and MySpace account is not a recommendable course of action.

Social media provides a range of incredible opportunities, and has revolutionised communication in many ways. Connectivity opportunities have broadened and data sharing for informational and entertainment purposes has become more widely available. Don’t let the threat of the computer virus spoil your fun online.

Guest Article by Connor Sephton

Research shows Brits spend a massive 143 million hours of leisure time online each day, that’s 173 minutes per person. We use the internet for shopping, communication, socialising, banking and business. However a study by G Data Software shows computer users are still pretty clueless when it comes to internet security. With Internet banking services as some of the most used sites on the web online security should be practised by all.

The research questioned over 15 thousand internet users, between the ages of 18 and 65, from 11 countries. The conclusion of the study revealed Internet users had mythical ideas about cyber security which left them vulnerable to threats.

When it comes to software internet security, one company is warning that social networking sites which include YouTube, MySpace and Facebook could present a real hazard to businesses which are rightly fearful of being penetrated by cybercriminals.

Software internet security is a nightmare for businesses and with the rise of social networking at work (via such business sites as Xing, Plaxo and LinkedIn), especially amongst the younger generation, things are getting worse, not better.

There is also a blurring of the message in this area, because although companies are paranoid about problems of being hacked, they still support their workers in promoting their companies on the very same sites which they take issue with.

But businesses are being warned that they have to weigh up the benefits of increased online sales via social media networking, as against the chance of having their systems compromised by hackers, or indeed, putting the company into an invidious position.

There are a number of things for companies to look out for, including using social media for employment vetting purposes, but then falling into the trap of asking ‘illegal’ questions, such as those directed about age, race, or religion.

You should also be aware of giving away too much information about the company and its working practices, which could be used in similar ways that personal ID fraud is exploited.

Be careful also not to damage the company’s reputation, or standing via an inappropriate message on a social media website, or message thread.

A spokesman for the company which gave the warning, Commissum, said:
“The risks of using social media encompass all aspects of the business; legal, employment, technical, operational and reputation. The decision to use social media should therefore be taken after careful consideration of the business reasons and benefits, an assessment of all risks and the implementation of comprehensive controls to mitigate the risks which must include policies and appropriate user training and awareness measures.”

In short, sometimes, software internet security issues should become before fancy social media strategies.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

One of the reasons why good antivirus firewall software is needed is because of spam attacks.

And even though spam levels have been reduced slightly due to concerted effort from the ‘good’ guys, sound antivirus firewall software is still essential because the advances made on the spammers will soon be reversed and the number of spam emails will soon return to normal.

Computer security companies recently provided some idea as to how the spammers took great care when sending out their rubbish emails and revealed how the people behind the Cutwail botnet (which is also known as Pushdo) sent out over 1.7 trillion individual messages.

Remember a botnet is a network of zombie (virus infested and comprised) computers that send out emails without the user’s knowledge.

The companies gained access to the Cutwail servers and discovered that between June in 2009 and August in 2010, they had sent more than 1.7 trillion spam emails, which works out at around three billion a day.

The access also revealed that just over 30% of the sent messages were accepted during the SMTP transaction, which roughly translates to 500 billion messages hitting the mark. The rest were shot down because they might have been invalid addresses, been the subject of SMTP errors, or be on blacklists.

Yet the profits from the 500 billion emails alone (of which only a very small amount made it through the spam filters) are reckoned to have been between nearly $2 million and just over $4 million.

The Cutwail botnet was almost brought down and the amount of spam emails dramatically reduced, but the security companies believe that the botnet will soon reach previous levels of traffic.

Another botnet’s activities, Rustock, was also dramatically curtailed by what’s thought to be have been the activities of a group of anti-spam activists. Rustock was responsible, in 2010 alone, for sending out just over 40 billion spam emails a day. Just recently, that figure had doubled and was peaking at around 250,000 individual messages a second.

Then it all went quiet as the botnet effectively stopped sending emails. The network of zombie computers which made up the botnet numbered 815,000 and these were controlled by over 20 individual servers. So efficient had the botnet become, that it alone accounted for around 50% of all spam on the internet.

Experts reckon that Rustock, like Cutwail, will soon be back up to speed and sending out billions of spam emails again soon; so computer users are being warned to ensure that their antivirus firewall software is up to date.

Guest Article by Neil Camp