Five Ways to Keep Online Criminals at Bay

[Stuart G]

Five Ways to Keep Online Criminals at Bay
By RIVA RICHMOND
Published: May 19, 2010


THE Web is a fount of information, a busy marketplace, a thriving social scene — and a den of criminal activity.


Criminals have found abundant opportunities to undertake stealthy attacks on ordinary Web users that can be hard to stop, experts say. Hackers are lacing Web sites — often legitimate ones — with so-called malware, which can silently infiltrate visiting PCs to steal sensitive personal information and then turn the computers into “zombies” that can be used to spew spam and more malware onto the Internet.

At one time, virus attacks were obvious to users, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a training organization for computer security professionals. He explained that now, the attacks were more silent. “Now it’s much, much easier infecting trusted Web sites,” he said, “and getting your zombies that way.”

And there are myriad lures aimed at conning people into installing nefarious programs, buying fake antivirus software or turning over personal information that can be used in identity fraud.
Google says its automated scans of the Internet recently turned up malware on roughly 300,000 Web sites, double the number it recorded two years ago. Each site can contain many infected pages. Meanwhile, Malware doubled last year, to 240 million unique attacks, according to Symantec, a maker of security software. And that does not count the scourge of fake antivirus software and other scams.

So it is more important than ever to protect yourself. Here are some basic tips for thwarting them.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/technology/personaltech/20basics.html?8dpc