How To Avoid Falling For Cyber Security Myths And Get Proper Security by:Meshaal MacLean

When it comes to information security, there are so many misconceptions prevalent

. These notions may influence your online security practices. Knowing the truth allows you to make better decisions about how to protect your computers and the data in it.

Believing these myths may not be a direct threat but they may cause you to be more lax about protecting your security and more likely to become a victim.

* Anti-virus software and firewalls are perfect for security protection: No. They can only protect your information but do not guarantee to protect you from an attack. These technologies in combination with good security habits offer the best way to reduce the risk. New threats and technologies are constantly and rapidly changing the network landscape

* Once software is installed on your computer it is secure: Patches or updated versions of software are released to address problems or fix vulnerabilities and should be installed as soon as possible and obtain updates and have the latest virus definitions for your anti-virus software

* There is nothing important on your machine and you do not need to protect it: Your attacker may not think the same. He may obtain the personal or financial data from your computer and use it for their own financial gain. In the absence of such information he may use it in attacks against other people

* Only rich people are endangered: Anybody can become a victim of identity theft. Breach of security allows attackers bigger rewards and they target databases that store information about many people. Your information could be collected and used for malicious purposes. Pay attention to your credit information and minimize any potential damage

* Slow computers are old and should be replaced: Running newer or larger software programs on older computers could slow performance. They just need to be replaced or upgraded for a particular component -memory, operating system, CD or DVD drive. Another possibility is that there are other processes or programs running in the background. It is possible that you may be experiencing a denial-of-service attack or have spyware on your machine

* Virus scanning software is ultimate virus protection: Virus scanning software can only detect and defend against viruses with known signatures. New viruses, whose signatures have likely not been determined, may not be detected and can still pose a threat to systems

* Computer connections can be anonymous:

* Your ISP is probably logging your initial point of entry onto the Internet

* e-mail service knows from which Web site you came to its site and the IP address of the machine you used

* It can find the owner of the IP address from a "who is" query

* If you signed up from home, your ISP has likely dynamically assigned you an IP address

* It records the time and day and can share this information with federal, state, and local authorities and interested corporations

* The use of cookies on the Web allows an ease to track information about what sites you visit and what software you own

* The use of Caller ID software and system callback make it even more difficult to remain anonymous

* As authentication mechanisms improve and the cost of disk space for logs drops, it will become even harder to obtain anonymity

Once you delete a file it is gone: Once you delete a file it is not removed from the disk. It has been proven by some forensic experts that a file can be retrieved even after it has been overwritten nine times with the help of an electron microscope. Some people can successfully retrieve at least portions of the data from the actual physical memory even after a program such as Wipe Disk used to overwrite a file or drive with 0s, 1s, and then 0s again.

About the author

Data Triage Technologies Provides Comprehensive Computer Forensics, Electronic Discovery, Electronic Data Discovery, Data Recovery, Data Management, Intrusion Prevention, Visit: Network Security Audit, and Expert Witness Services to the legal communities in California and throughout the United States.

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