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Security People have been talking a lot recently about computer viruses and "cookies". No doubt, if you watched the news about it without really understanding it, you'd be scared to go online because of all those "evil people". Yes, it is a problem, but I'm here to say don't give it any more attention than needed. A computer virus is not a germ (believe me, I knew a person who used to clean his PC with disinfectant). It is only because a computer virus acts like the biological type that it is called a virus. As we discussed before, a computer does only what it is told. Well, a computer virus is simply a program written by some person, that goes in and tells your computer to either erase a bunch of files, send data somewhere, or any myriad of possible things. They are small self-contained programs that are designed to attach themselves to e-mails or other software and get into your computer without your knowledge. Some are relatively harmless, but you still don't want them. Some could sit there on your computer until a specified time where it will all of a sudden unleash its intended havoc. A virus such as this, is called a Trojan Horse, after the old mythology stories. The best way to avoid viruses is not to stick your head in a hole and hope for the best. No, the best thing to do is exercise relative caution. If you get e-mails with attachments from people you do not know, always scan the attachments for viruses or delete it. There are special programs out there called virus scanners that will scan your hard drive and look for viruses. The more popular ones are made by McAfee and Norton / Symantec. These programs can scan your PC and, if it finds a virus, it will allow you to remove it. Since there are always people out there creating new viruses, you need to keep your virus scanner up-to-date and periodically scan the drive. All good scanners have options to specify when to download new virus updates and when to scan the PC. For extra protection from the latest virus strains, please consider using our virus scanning system - this is automatically updated, and reduces the chance of your PC being infected to virtually nothing. The other
thing talked about online that is said to pose a privacy or security threat is
"cookies". Cookies are little bits of code that certain web sites will
place on your computer in order to track your path across their site or to save
your information for when you later visit. Even wonder why you can return to
some sites like AMAZON.COM and it will welcome you by name? Well, that's because
you told them your name and then they put a cookie on your computer so that they
could recognize you when you come back. Many sites use cookies for marketing
purposes. Bottom line: cookies are not dangerous. Some have argued that you can
design malicious cookies, but I've never seen one and I work online. Privacy
fanatics also get worked up about cookies as invasions of privacy. That is their
right. People like that can download free utilities online that will block
cookies or notify you when a site tries to give you one. I find these programs
annoying, though. I recommend not worrying about it. Cookies enable the sites to
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