POWER ISSUES

Living on the Peninsula people should be aware of the problems we face with power.  Each year power outages and/or brown power (where the lights dim) wipe out a lot of computers, including here on the peninsula. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times I have been called in to attempt to recover someones data from a damaged hard  drive.

Something you might want to consider is to use a battery backup or uninterruptable power supply (UPS) on your computer.     This is one added layer of protection from losing your valuable data, photo's etc.  UPS devices can be purchased for under $100.

Malware, Spyware and Viruses

Malware - Is a short for Malicious Software and refers to any program that is designed to create issues on a computer, server or network, such as viruses, trojans, spyware etc.

Viruses - a computer virus is a program that is designed to spread from computer to computer and to disrupt proper operation of each device it gets installed on.  In some cases a virus can corrupt system files, delete information or even delete all of your information from your computer.

One of the most common methods that viruses spread are through Email Attachments.  Let's say that person "A" unknowingly opens an infected email attachment.  The virus then goes to your email program, opens your address book then sends itself out (ON YOUR BEHALF) to everyone in your address book.  Person "B" receives an email with an attachment from person "A", decides the attachment is from a trusted source and the whole process repeats itself.  Other ways viruses spread are through downloads from the internet.

Spyware - Spyware is a small program that runs in the background of your computer.  In most cases it will run undected delivering personal information about you back to its creator.  The information information collected can be what websites you frequent most, who you email and even what keys you have pressed key stroke for key stroke. So next time you see a privacy statement on the internet asking you to click OK if you agree to its terms, you might just want to read it!

Prevention - The best way to protect yourself from Spyware and Viruses is to install a good Anti-Virus program and keep it up to date.  There are many good free Anti-Virus programs on the internet, as well as commercial applications such as Norton,  McAfee or Kaspersky.