Learn about Spam, Phishing and Trojans. Post a Video Response and win prizes!

Permanent Security Protection

BitDefender Internet Security 2009 keeps your Internet-connected family safe, without slowing down their PCs. It locks out viruses, hackers & spam, while providing parental control and firewall protection.

What is Spam?

Spam email is an unsolicited message, usually (but not always) of a commercial nature, indiscriminately sent to you and to a large number of other recipients. The sender can be one individual (the case years ago) or a large network of interconnected computers, the so-called BotNets, controlled by one or more bot-herders (the case today). The emails vary slightly in content but their purpose is mostly the same: make the reader follow a link or execute malware.

How to protect yourself

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a criminal attempt to trick users into providing information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, duplicating the looks of a trustworthy website or electronic entity. PayPal, eBay and online banks are common targets. Victims are lured to these take websites by e-mail, instant messaging and phone. Phishing is an example of social engineering.

How to protect yourself

What is Trojan?

Trojans are probably the most widely spread malware these days. As the name suggests they are something different then what they appear to be, in a malicious sense. The target of these threats is financial information, using computer resources and/or dDoS by flooding made possible by having thousands of infected computers send small bits of information to another machine. Trojans are of the following types: Clicker, Downloader, Dropper, Flooder/Nuker/Spammer, Keylogger, Startpage, Dialer.

How to protect yourself

How to protect myself?

Be careful where you submit your email address. Don't use your personal email address when registering on websites, joining chat rooms or using newsgroups. Either create a new address (most ISPs give you more than one address) for these purposes or create a separate one (e.g. junkfilter@myaddress.isp.uk)
Don't publish your email address on a web page where it is publicly displayed.
Don't use the unsubscribe option in response to unrequested mail.
Use a professional security software that will help you filter your emails.
Educate the other users of your computer to practice the same safe habbits.

OR: BitDefender Internet Security 2009 keeps your Internet-connected family safe, without slowing down their PCs. It locks out viruses, hackers & spam, while providing parental control and firewall protection.
Try BitDefender Internet Security 2009 for 30 days free,

How to protect myself?

Download the latest version of your browser to ensure that it is also fully updated and utilizes the latest technologies to identify and filter out phishing sites.
Always check the address of the website you are visiting and make sure it's the original one. Don't be tricked by URLs like payment-ebay.com or paypal.secure.com. They are fake domains or subdomains. Modern browsers like Internet Explorer 8 or Google Chrome have a useful feature called Domain Highlighting which can be used to successfully identify the current domain you are browsing.
Don't follow links in email messages that seems to come from a trustworthy source but has a scaring message like: “Suspicious activity has been detected in you PayPal account. [...]”.

How to protect myself?

Enable automatic Windows® updates or download Microsoft® updates regularly to keep your operating system patched against known vulnerabilities. Install patches from other software manufacturers as soon as they are distributed. A fully patched computer behind a firewall is the best defense against Trojans and Spyware.
Use extreme caution when opening attachments and downloaded content.
Be careful when engaging in peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing. There are Trojans that use these applications as a means to spread. Avoid downloading files with the extensions .exe, .scr, .lnk, .bat, .vbs, .dll, .bin, and .cmd .
Download the latest version of your browser to ensure that it is also fully updated and utilizes the latest technologies to identify and filter out malicious websites that can install Trojans.
Configure your instant messaging application correctly. Make sure it does not log in automatically when you fire up your computer. Turn off your computer and disconnect the DSL or modem line when you’re not using it.
Back up your files regularly and store the backups somewhere besides your PC. If you fall victim to a Trojan attack, you can recover your photos, music, movies, and personal information easily by using a backup.
Don't follow links in unsolicited email no matter how tempting the content may be.

How to win?

Post a video response untill the 15th August to one of the three categories and you can win a Toshiba Camileo S10 Camcorder, WD My Passport 200GB external Hard Drive or one of the 20 BitDefender Antivirus 2009 licenses.

To win the Toshiba Camileo S10 Camcorder you have to have the biggest number of views on your video.
The best Response Video will be chosen by us and will win a WD My Passport 200GB external Hard Drive.
The first 20 video responses will be awarded with BitDefender Antivirus 2009 licenses.
The Video has to be created by you and posted as a video response on YouTube.
The contest will end on the 15th August at 14 GTM +2.