Top 5 Computer Viruses of All Time

WHAT WERE THE FIVE MOST CATASTROPHIC COMPUTER VIRUSES EVER AND HOW MUCH DAMAGE DID THEY CAUSE?

  

The fact that the internet has become the backbone of modern society means it has also become a prime target for hackers and crackers around the world. Find out about the most prominent and catastrophic computer viruses the world has ever seen and discover exactly what made them so damaging over here.

MYDOOM (2004)

• A worm that spread through email as what appeared to be a bounced messages
• When the unsuspecting victim opened the email, the malicious code downloaded itself and then pilfered the new victim’s Outlook address book.
• From there, it spread to the victim’s friends, family and colleagues. It spreads faster than any worm seen prior.
• Damages: $38,000,000,000
• PCs infected: 2,000,000

SOBIG. F (2003)

• Damages: $37,100,000,000
• PCs infected: 2,000,000
• A worm that replicates itself, but also is a Trojan, as it disguises itself as something other than malware.
• The flood of messages it then sent were capable of succumbing other users’ inboxes or computer systems by the sheer volume of emails. It briefly brought down freight and computer traffic in Washington, D.C. To a halt, grounded Air Canada and slowed down computer systems at major companies.

I LOVE YOU (2000)

• Damages: $15,000,000,000
• PCs infected: 500,000
• An innocent looking email attached email labelled as ‘I love You’
• As we opened the email, it will unleashed the malicious program that can overwrote the users’ image files. It was designed to steal your Internet password.
• It spread thru the Windows address book contacts.

CODE RED

• Damages: $2,600,000,000
• PCs infected: 1,000,000
• A worm that exploited the operating system in Windows 2000 and Windows NT
• This allowed it to deface and take down some websites, most memorably the whitehouse.gov website.
• The worm spread by randomly selecting 100 IP addresses at time, scanning the computers for the Microsoft system and spreading only to those computers.

SLAMMER

• Damages: $1,200,000,000
• PCs infected: 200,00
• An Internet worm also known as Sapphire. It causes the denial of service on some Internet hosts. It is spreading throughout the Internet. It worked by releasing the deluge of network packet data, units of data transmitted. 

Written By:

Nur Alia Zaharah Ab Rahim

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)

Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

Top 5 Anti-Virus Software

Hello everyone! Today, we are going to introduce top 5 Anti-virus to all of you! Sound great right? As what have been mentioned on the previous post about the reason why we should get Anti-virus, let us discuss further and decide which one is best to be installed. Below Anti-virus are filtered and well known to all of you.

Microsoft Security Essentials

First of all, let me introduce Microsoft Security Essentials. I believe that most of you are familiar with Microsoft. Microsoft company had released Microsoft Security Essentials in order to protect their company while browsing Internet. Furthermore, Microsoft Security Essentials is able to protect you and your computer/laptop. Also, it detects and block Viruses, Trojans, Worms and Spyware.

AVG (FREE)

Secondly, let us look at AVG Free. AVG Free is one of the best free Anti-virus which can download for free and enjoy the browsing with protection. There is a number of people are using this Anti-virus. AVG provided on-access protection from viruses and other malware. It is easy to install due to the small download size. Besides, AVG will recommend you to pay for profession version of the program. If you are interested with the profession version, you may purchase it for a better security.

Avira (FREE)

Avira consider as the Top 5 Best Free Anti-virus software. Avira is an effective Anti-virus protection. It  against viruses, worm, Trojans, Hidden Rootkits, Phishing and Spyware. Avira will quickly scan your computer, if there is any malicious program it will alerts you immediately. In addition, I’m one of the users of Avira Anti-virus, it’s useful for me!

Avast! (FREE)

Avast also considers as the Top 5 Best Free Anti-virus software. Avast gained an impressively high protection rating. Pop-ups during gaming and a hardened browser can be prevented by Avast . It would not slow down your pc process when it is running to scan the virus.

Common Sense

Last but not least, Common sense media is also well known as the top 5 Anti-Virus. However it is not download for free. If you want to install this software, you need to purchase it. Furthermore, Common sense media software are chargeable and difficult to operates compare to the other anti-virus software.

What’s in your mind now? After looking at the top 5 Anti-Virus software, have you chosen any software or decided to switch your current Anti-Virus software to any of them? Some of it can be downloaded for free!  You can choose any one of them to protect data, information stored in laptop/pc. I strongly recommend you to get one of these software to protect yourself while you browsing.  Cheers!

Source: http://www.planetmy.com/blog/top-10-free-anti-virus/

Written By:

Ng Hui Teng

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

You Should Use Antivirus Even If You Browse Carefully

Some of the people will say that they do not need any antivirus software as they think their privacy or data is safe enough even without protection. Being careful while you are online and having an antivirus software are two different things. 

You can be smart, perhaps you know how smart you think you are but you will still need some benefits from the antivirus software. 

However, many people do not know that they could just get their computer infected by just visiting any website. They only think that they can get malware by downloading the suspicious files, running unpatched software, visiting the shady websites or doing some other irresponsible things such as having the Java plug-in enabled in your web browser.

(http://www.csoonline.com/article/2137206/malware-cybercrime/google-chrome-issues-warnings-while-blocking-espn-com-and-major-websites.html)

In addition, the website itself could be compromised even if the website is reliable. Somehow, family and friends they could send something suspicious for you which you do not know. For instance, you friends send you a link which it looks legit and safe but you do not know whether they have been infected by malware or not. Hence, we have to be careful.

So, the best way to avoid viruses is to use common sense. Having a good browsing practice can help as well as having an ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE too. Do not think that you can ignore the antivirus software if you already have a good browsing practice. A good browsing practice can be avoid from browsing shady sites, download files from suspicious source or perhaps clicking links from people you do not know. Not to forget, having an antivirus software could help you on putting yourself at less risk for viruses. But, you might still get infected no matter how hard you try to avoid it. So, Be smart.

Being smart online is not just fully relying on your own ability to avoid virus, but antivirus software could help to make it happens. Common sense can take you pretty far, but it isn't foolproof.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/why-you-should-use-antivirus-even-if-you-browse-carefu-476330249

Written By:

Lim Yi Qing

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

4 things to do instantly when your Facebook account is hacked

Your Facebook account is hacked would not make you feel good. You have personal messages and other stuff that someone could steal or delete, causing you a lot of trouble. If you worry of your account get hack by someone, you should take recovery steps immediately. Here are a few things you must do quickly to ensure your account is safe.

Change Your Password

The first thing you should do is to change your password. Hacker most probably has accessed to your email address and password somehow, so you need to make sure you change the password immediately. If you are going to use the same password to access the other accounts such as your banking account, any financial institutions, and other email addresses, etc., then make sure you change those passwords immediately as well. If the hacker already changed your password, try to reset your password immediately. To reset your password, click on ‘Forgotten your password?’  in Facebook login page. Make sure you choose a strong password which consists of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numerals and etc. In summary, use a alpha-numeric password.

Report Compromised Account

 If your account was not simply got hacked, but is sending out ads and spam to your friends, you must report it as compromised. Go to www.facebook.com/hacked. Facebook will take you through a few steps to help you secure your account.

Notify your Friends & Family

Check your timeline to see if there is any unwanted post. If so, delete it immediately. Post a status telling your friends that your account is hacked unfortunately. Similarly check your messages to see whether any message was sent from your account recently. If so, message your friends to explain what is going on. The hacker may use your account to send them malicious links and to phish for their personal information as well. By sharing your situation with them can prevent hacking issue happen around them.

Remove Suspicious Applications

Oftentimes, it’s not an evil person that randomly hack into your account. More likely is the access to a malicious application which subsequently hijacked your account. To remove suspicious applications, go to > Home > Account Settings > Apps and go through the list. Click the > X next to any application you wish to remove or click > Edit to do setting on the app.

Source:  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-immediately-facebook-account-hacked/

Conclusion, these four points are really useful when someone hack your account. When you really get hacked by someone, immediately you should change your password and notify your friends about it. In addition, please avoid to use same password to all following account such as different social media account (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), ATM card, and others. The reason that why should not apply same password to all account is if the hacker hacked either one of your account, he/she will also can easily hacked your other account. 

Written By:

Liao Wan Ying

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)

Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

Cyber safety is NOT about Facebook only

Nowadays, much of the cyber safety education more focuses on the more mainstream social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and these platforms still very popular among the adults and teens. Although many of the bullying, embarrassing posts, stalking, privacy issues are happened on these social networks but mobile apps on smart phones and mobile devices like the iPod and tablets like iPad and Android Tablets are also catching up with these more popular network’s bad reputation for cyber safety issues and privacy.

For my view of point, I think that parents should not just only focusing on Facebook and other mainstream social media software that they can see the post that posted by their children, and ignoring many of the popular mobile apps that kids can install for free on their mobile devices, and will not be discover by their parents as mobile devices apps allow children to download whatever they want without any permission from their parents. In this case, parents will not know what mobile apps already being downloaded by their children.

There are a lot of mobile devices apps that is free of charge, which are like Kik, Tumblr, Instagram, Keek, Snapchat, Wechat and Vine are being used by the children nowadays; which these kind of apps allow them to upload photo, share moments and even can exchange photo to each other. Other than these apps, there are also have a lot of dating or flirting apps are now used by the kids, like Scout, Meow Chat and Zoosk that are basically “meet a perfect stranger” style apps being developed every day. In this case, this could make the children explore in the cyber danger already and they will didn’t notice about it.

In order to let the children has the aware of the cyber safety, I think that parents should control their children from downloading any mobile free apps that their kids should not download and use it in their age because children may have already been approached by a stranger through these apps and may have been exchanging photo already, if you didn’t control it. Other than that, parents should always give some advice when their children are addicting in those mobile apps by giving some reality example to teach them how to prevent this issue happen on themselves. 

I think that, parents should be the light to guide their children out of the darkness.

Don’t ignore mobile app, there are a lot of unseen harms hidden inside it.

Written By:

Lee Zi Ling

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

Term of service

Are you aware of the Term of service when you sign up to a social network site?

When we register as a user in social network sites, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, they will require all of your information that is up-to-date and accurate.

The first thing that these social networking sites required would be the age of the users. If the users are below 13 years old, it means that you are not under covered by the Terms of Service and you wouldn’t get the protections or rights specified in the Terms of Service.

Accurate information from the users is the most important thing in Term of Service, as it is used to protect you from others misusing your cyber identity or to avoid ones’ to have multiple accounts. However, the moment when we share our information, this information may be visible to anyone. Therefore, we have to make sure the privacy settings for our account has changed to all content or comments that we post is to “Friends”, not “Public”.

Your information remains online for a long time. So, we should think twice before we post anything. Facebook allows users to delete their account or content, however, the Terms of service don’t guarantee that all your contents disappear. The content that you posted may be backup by other parties.

Copyright law is not only applicable in the real life, also in the cyber world. We cannot submit any content that we don’t own the rights. Meanwhile, the contents that we posted on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter still own by ourselves. However, by agreeing to their Term of Service, we have granted them license to do whatever they want with your content.

Last but not least, the Terms of Service do not allow us to post any cyber bullying, pornography and illegal activities. All these contents will be ban by the social networking sites.

By knowing all these Terms of Service, we should practice a good behavior while using social network sites. 

Written By:

Liao Shao Jun

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

The hidden dangers of ‘Check-in’ on Facebook

Do you even realize that a simple click on your smart phone could unknowingly put you in danger? A ‘check-in’ button on Facebook allows us to check-in wherever we are, or we go, with just a simple click. With this, it provides an opportunity for stalkers to stalk you easily; or you are actually inviting the stalkers to stalk you.

Some people, they not only check-in to places they visit, but they also check-in when they are at home. Although Facebook check-in doesn’t provide the exact spot on the map, if someone who really wants to find out, it doesn’t take that much effort.

An undeniable fact, Facebook Timeline is just like a scrapbook for stalkers. Timeline provides an easy interface where your friends can access to all the things you have posted online, same goes to stalker, it provides easy-to-stalk platform for them.

A person quoted “if you post online that this is where I am. I want everybody to come see me. Again, you are saying this is also where I am not. It is the same as giving key to your house to a burglar.” This also means that when you check-in to some places, the person/ stalker will know that you’re not at home, which it gives him/her a chance to break into your house. Also, never ever check-in with the caption you are home alone! You will never know what will happen next (Mercedes 2011).

Therefore, how much is too much information when it comes to check-in or sharing information on Facebook? Back to the most basic knowledge, we all know what are the things that we should never post online, don’t you? Use your best judgement and take responsibility for what you post about yourself and others. 

Source of Picture: Future of the Book (2015) 

Written By:

Koh Chiah Yee

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

Think Twice Before You Share It

Have you ever think about everything you post on social media will cause you in trouble?

Definitely yes! You will get in trouble and you are the one have to bear with the consequences when tragedy happened. Hence think twice before you post or share things on social media from today onward.

The convenience of social media sites absolutely cannot be denied. Its functions vary from health care, education and information exchanges yet it is all about communication and entertainment as well. Also, social media is an irreplaceable component at work.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing your thoughts on social media because it is a platform for us to express freely.  However if things you share is goes against your personal life, professional goals and more may get you in trouble. According to USA Today, a young lady got sacked by the owner of a pizza place named “Jet’s Pizza” because of an ugly post on her Twitter happened last month. She tweeted “Ew I start this (expletive) job tomorrow. "The owner of the pizza place, Robert Waple, saw the post and replied saying, “And … no you don't start that job today! I just fired you! Good luck with your no money, no job life!"

In order to avoid any further embarrassment, take a look at this and question yourself properly before posting your stuff on social media . Think twice before posting or sharing your thoughts, your view or your daily activity. To have a strong and likable online presence, you can share any information that positively displays both your personal and professional interests. Beware of what you post at all time before you share it out.

Written By:

Khoo Huey Min

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

10 Reasons why someone is stalking you online

Do you ever notice that there might have some people will stalk you while you online? Did you ever curious on the reason of these people stalking you? Here are some clues of the reason why people stalk you online:

1. Your stalker envies you
2. Your stalker is obsessed and needs to fulfill his/her wishes or cravings
3. Your stalker may think that he or she is invincible because no one can “see” what they are doing
4. Your stalker is unemployed or not happy with his/her current job/career and needs a distraction
5. Your stalker wants to intimidate you and make you feel inferior
6. Your stalker is delusional
7. Your stalker wants to instill fear in you to justify his/her status
8. Your stalker wants to embarrass you
9. Your stalker has his/her own problems that can’t be dealt with by him/herself
10. Your stalker is curious about you

Beware of your online presence! You wouldn’t know who is stalking you in cyberspace and the reason of why they would stalk you! It might because of curiosity, but it also might because of he or she wants to do something bad on you.   

Written By:

Foo Mei Ling

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

The cyber stalking fact – Top 15

Cyber stalking is one of several cyber crime that have been enabled by the Internet. It overlaps with cyber bullying and cyber luring in that many of the same techniques are used. Social media, blogs, photo sharing sites and many other commonly used online sharing activities provide cyber stalkers with a wealth of information that helps them plan their harassment. By collecting personal data (profile pages) and making notes of frequented locations (photos tags, blog posts), the cyber stalker can begin to keep tabs on an individual’s daily life.

Cyber Stalking Facts: Who’s a Victim of Cyber Stalking?

Anyone can become a victim or cyber stalking. When the words “bullying” or “cyber bullying” are used, however, it generally refers to the victims being children- more specifically students of private or public schools.

Cyber stalking, however, can be anyone, including adults. Children, however, are popular victims. Other people who might be victims of cyber stalking include:

• Disabled persons
• The elderly
• People who spend a lot of time on the Internet
• People who’ve attempted to break up with someone or divorce them
• Employees (by fired ex-employers)
• People who know or have been introduced to or who have worked with mentally challenged individuals (who often form unhealthy or abnormal obsessions or liking for someone else).

The following 15 facts should be kept in mind when developing safety programs, establishing prevention strategies or simply conducting research of cyber stalking, those are top cyber stalking facts everyone of you need to consider:

1. There are generally three types of cyber stalking                                                                         Cyber Stalking (generally involving fear or threats)
   Cyber Harassment (being more of a nuisance)
   Cyber Bullying (generally involving children or students)
2. Cyber stalking can involve humiliation and embarrassment, in addition to harassment
3. Cyber stalker have been known to hurt people financially, such as by tampering with their accounts or trying to ruin their credit
4. Social media is a potential place to pick up or run into a cyber stalker.
5. It is best not to show or display feat to stalkers since this is what they hoping for.
6. Cyber stalkers can be dangerous- they can turn out to be serial killers, child molesters, or psychotic individuals- another reason to take cyber stalking seriously.
7. Although the term cyber stalking is fairly new, the concept of “stalking” has been around for a long time.
8. Most countries are scrambling to deal with the headaches of cyber stalking.
9. Be careful of what computers you use-especially if they are public computers. You may unwittingly give cyber stalkers the information they need to start a harassment campaign against you.
10. Cyber stalking is a form of social terrorism-accordingly, it’s expected that laws dealing with this crime.
11. Clean out your computers and mobile electronic devices before donating, selling or getting rid of them; the information you leave in them can become crucially important in protecting your privacy, identity and peace of mind.
12. In spite of the facts that cyber stalking is a “virtual” crime, there is nothing virtual about it- it’s real and it’s as dangerous as any other type of on the streets crime.
13. Not all cyber stalkers are mentally challenged or psychotic- some of them just want to get even with someone or they may want to get something out of the victim. These latter stalkers are, accordingly, committing several different types of crimes in addition to blatant harassment.
14. Although it’s difficult to prosecute cyber stalking, authorities do take the crime seriously. In fact, communities are adding departments only to deal with cyber crime.
15. When you know or experience directly cyber stalking, you must report it. Only by reporting I can you put a dent in this horrible source of crime.

Written By:

Chuo Yee Chien

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

Ten tips for college students to prevent cyberbullying

In today’s world, technology and social media play an important role in college students’ lives, every one of us is depending on internet to connect with one another as well as managing each task in our daily life.

However, things come with pro and cons. Internet is the fastest way to connect with our peers but at the same time it leads to cyber bullying. There are many cyber bullying case happen around such as humiliating comments and posts in a social platform can seriously damage a student's confidence and in some cases could lead to self-harm or even suicide. Although this could be far from us but it is still a problem that we should concern about and do not ever let these comments to pull us down in our live.

Educate yourself: The first thing you must understand exactly what cyber bullying is. How would it affect your live and where it occurs, and gets to know about what are the things that your friends experienced in cyberspace.

Protect your password: Safeguard your password and all private information from inquisitive peers. You don't want to give them an opportunity to post false/private/embarrassing information or pictures on your social media pages.

Keep photos PG (Parental Guidance): Before you sending a photo to your friends / posting it online, consider if this is something you would want others to see, especially your family. Bullies can use this picture as ammunition to make your life miserable. Think wisely before you act.

Pause before you post: Don't post anything that can compromise your reputation. People will judge you based on how you appear to them online, and like point #3, bullies can use it wrongly. 

Raise awareness: Bring awareness to cyber bullying whether through a movement, a club, an event or campaign. Knowledge is power. 

Set up privacy controls: Restrict who can see your online profiles to trusted friends or close friends only. Customize your private setting is very important.

 "Google" yourself: Every once in a while search our name on all major search engines and see if any personal information or photos come up. If you find something that can be used by cyberbullies to target you, take action and have it removed.

Never open messages from people you don't know: Delete all messages without reading them from people you don't know, as they could contain viruses and infect your computer. The same goes for messages from known bullies. It is best to not engage and ignore them. 

Don't be a cyberbully: Remember the phrase your parents instilled in you as a kid "treat other as you want to be treated". If you are mean to others online, it reinforces the idea that that kind of behavior is acceptable. 

 Log out of your accounts on public computers: Similar to not sharing your passwords, don't give anyone the slightest chance to misuse your account or to share false information by using your account. Also, stay logged in, you run the risk of the bully changing your password and locking you out for a period of time. 

THE BEST WAY TO SOLVE PROBLEM IS TO PREVENT THEM…

Written By:

Chuang Vi Yen

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College

5 Different Types of Cyberbullying

      Given that the previous post had mentioned what actually is cyber bullying, this post is going to discuss further in depth on the different types of cyber bullying.

Just like how traditional bullying exists in many different types such as verbal abuse and physical violence, cyber bullying is a form of bullying that takes place using electronic technology as a medium. The following would be discussing on a few common types of cyber bullying.

Harassment

      It involves the bully sending offensive and malicious messages at a specific individual focusing for example on race, religion, nationality, and sexual orientation. This often occurs in chat rooms, newsgroups, or by sending hate e-mails to interested parties. Any comment that may be found derogatory or offensive is considered harassment and is often repeated multiple times. Cyber stalking is one form of harassment that involves continual threatening and rude messages, which can potentially lead to physical harassment in the real, offline world.

Flaming 

         Flaming is similar to harassment, it is a form of hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. It refers to an online fight which often involves the use of profanity. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of an Internet forum, via emails, instant messaging, chat rooms, and on video-sharing websites such as YouTube. These incidents frequently occurs as a result of discussion on real-world issues such as politics, religion, and philosophy, or of issues that polarize sub-populations. It is a type of public bullying that often directs harsh languages or images to a specific person.

 Exclusion

 Exclusion is the type of bullying that occurs whenever someone is singled out and subsequently excluded from an online group. Most social networking sites such as Facebook work as gated communities, only allowing contact between members.  It is possible for a group of students to set up a closed group, which can protect them from unwanted contact.  It also means that they could exclude someone – by refusing to return acknowledged messages or deleting them from their friendship lists. Furthermore, this group in turn may then do whatever they can online to taunt the excluded person through rude text messages and emails.

Outing

 Outing occurs when individuals shares unique yet private information, pictures, or videos about someone publicly through mobile phone or online communication methods. This can be include public display or forwarding of personal communications such as text messages, emails or instant messaging. Many bullies print out instant messaging conversations, often containing personal or sexual information and show them around to other people. This person will then be “outed” once his private information has been shared publicly through the Internet.

Masquerading

          Masquerading is also a very common type of cyber bullying. Masquerading is a situation where a

bully creates a fake identity to harass someone anonymously. In addition to create a fake identity, the bully can even impersonate someone else to send malicious messages to the victim. This would make it appear as if the threats have been sent by someone else while keeping the bully’s identity hidden.



Source: http://www.endcyberbullying.org/5-different-types-of-cyberbullying/

Written By:

Choo Ei Von

Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours)
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College