Spying viruses run rampant on the Web-arm yourself with anti-virus software
Though you may think that, in never opening shady email attachments, you will not fall prey to a computer virus, you may be enjoying a false sense of security. For those who do not know, or need a reminder, Trojan horse viruses are aplenty in the Internet, and can infect your PC through various seemingly benign surfing. Trojan horses — prevalent versions include “back door orifices” and “punt” bugs — are often password thieves and can be unwittingly downloaded to your hard drive through intentionally virus-laced links to, what appear to be, harmless Web sites. Once your computer is infected, the hacker is alerted every time you go online, at which time he can watch your every keystroke — this means all email, bank transactions and even the sites you frequent are under the cyber criminal’s surveillance. Should the hacker choose to control your computer, for instance, play the CD player or delete files, he has the ability to do so, though, some password thieves prefer to sit back and watch the show unnoticed. A careful Web combing reveals a number of “cleansing” sites, where victims can download virus patches, but beware: many less reputable sites’ shareware is implanted with a Trojan horse! In addition to the world’s largest anti-virus software developers — Mcafee at