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Broadband users advised on web threats
Wednesday 26th August 2009, by Daniel King
Safety and security are two of the main concerns that broadband customers will have as they make use of their internet connection.
As such, one industry expert has offered a number of hints and tips about how to stay safe online in an environment that is constantly changing.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for software developer and vendor Sophos, explained that the recession has had an effect on almost every aspect of consumers' lives and that web-based threats have not escaped this.
He explained that Trojan horses are being used by hackers on an increasingly frequent basis because they are "financially motivated" and have the potential to generate money for malicious internet users.
Mr Cluely noted that Trojan horses are not simply copied as traditional viruses are.
Rather, they can be delivered in spam emails and once a computer has been infected by a piece of this software it can compromise sensitive information stored on it, such as bank details and credit card information.
He suggested that an increasing number of malicious internet users have found that they could make "an easy buck" out of using malware and do so with a relatively small amount of risk to themselves.
"Every day we see the extraordinary number of new pieces of malware coming out sometimes 40,000 and more and more of these attacks are also happening via social networking sites," he stated.
As such, Mr Cluely recommended investing in an up-to-date antivirus program, a firewall and the latest security fixes to existing software in order to stay safe and keep the hackers at bay.
He made his comments after PandaLabs issued data suggesting that the number of PCs infected by Trojans designed to obtain confidential information rose by 600 per cent compared to last year.
Categories: Broadband, Internet Security
