What Are The 5 Biggest Risks To Your Internet Security?

The Internet is an amazing thing isn't it?

With it you can host, share and view information about almost anything you can think of, plus a whole range of topics you would never even consider!

You can also communicate with friends, relatives and business contacts effortlessly and in real time.

This is all possible because of how open and accessible the internet is.

And therein lies the problem.

Having such an open internet means it is also simple for the bad guys to annoy, harrass and steal from you.

Here are the top 5 such threats you need to be wary of -

1. Spam

Spam really annoys me.

To some, spam may seem like one of the least dangerous threats on the internet but it is annoying as hell all the same.

If you run a website or two, like I do, then the amount of unsolicited email you will receive can be quite overwhelming at times.

I don't need pills or potions, extensions or any kind of self-help.

Really I don't.

I also don't want links to naughty websites or web pages full of malware.

Thankyou.

2. Viruses

Viruses come in all shapes and sizes and the means of delivery are many - CD, DVD, USB stick, emails, local networks and web pages.

Gone are the days of viruses simply making your computer act strangely.

Nowadays they are designed to make serious money for the authors.

Block these critters with a good antivirus program and stop downloading those films (they make you go blind anyway, my mum told me).

3. Other Malware

Some reports suggest that there are as many as 50,000 new samples of malware detected each and every day!

Thats an astounding number isn't it?

Malware, meaning malicious software, is code that ends up on your computer, often without you ever knowing about it.

Malware covers viruses, Trojans, spyware and adware, all of which are bad news.

The consequences of having malware on your computer can be varied, ranging from performance issues to seeing annoyting popups everywhere you go, to free entry to a botnet and worse.

4. DOS Attacks

DOS stands for Denial-of-service and is a threat that needs to be taken seriously.

Computers enslaved in a botnet are instructed to attack the same target - a particular website - until all of it's server resources and used up.

At this point the site will fall over, making it inaccessible to genuine visitors.

DOS attacks are often used for the purpose of blackmailing the sites owners into paying to stop the attack, or to take down political web pages.

5. Identity Theft

Identity theft is, perhaps, one of the most worrying threats to the individual these days due to the high cost involved and the difficulty of revovery if you do become a victim.

I would imagine that many people now know about identity theft and know not to reply to those dodgy emails from their 'bank' but there is more to it than that,

Identity thieves team up with hackers and break into large websites, simply stealing large customer databases and there isn't a huge amount of defence against that.

Thieves can also take your bank usernames and passwords from unencrypted web transmissions too so this really is a problem you should have some worry about.

To defend yourself against these internet security risks you need to have at least a basic understanding of what is going on and how to counter them.

I would also suggest equipping your computer with some defensive capability such as a good internet security suite.

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