How to protect
your computer against scammers By Amy
Fleitas • Bankrate.com
If you bank on the Web, beware.
Sophisticated hackers have been able to watch your keyboard from
afar. Various Internet security Web sites reported in late June
that a complicated spyware program, currently unnamed, was attacking
computers by downloading itself through pop-up ads via a hole in
Internet Explorer and via infected e-mails.
Once on the infected computer, the program was designed
to watch for entry onto certain banking Web sites. Then the program
captured the user's keystrokes used to enter passwords and user
names for the bank account and reported the keystrokes back to a
scammer's Web site.
The Internet Storm Center, an early warning system
set up by the SANS institute, first received a report on June 24th
from a man who said the program had been downloaded to one of his
company's computers.
SANS said it appears that the initial infection took
place as a result of a pop-up advertisement. That particular infection
was programmed to look for many banking Web sites, including Citibank.com,
Deutsche-bank.de and Barclays.co.uk.
The bug targets Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers.
Microsoft reports the offending site has been shut down.
That's great. But consumers must be vigilant to protect
their PCs from scammer hijackings such as this one.
What can you do?
Microsoft says you can protect your computer by setting your
browser security to "high," opening e-mail in plain-text
only, adding Web sites you consider safe to "Trusted Sites"
and downloading a pop-up blocker.
Other net experts suggest switching to a different
browser such as Opera
or Mozilla.
But these browsers can also fall prey to attacks, so users should
be vigilant about upgrading security patches.
At the very least, Internet Explorer users should
do the following to protect their systems:
To set your security setting
to high:
- Click on your Explorer Tools menu and choose "Internet
Options."
- Click on the "Security" tab. Click on
the "Internet" icon.
- Pull the Security bar to "high" and click
"OK."
To add a Web site to "Trusted
Sites":
- Click on your Explorer Tools menu and choose "Internet
Options."
- Click on the "Security" tab.
- Click on the "Trusted Sites" icon.
- Click on "Sites."
- Enter the Web address and click "Add."
To read your e-mail in plain
text in Outlook:
In the newest versions of Outlook, the option for plain-text can
be found on the Preferences tab under Options. If you are unable
to find "E-mail Options" on your Preferences tab, click
on the Help tab on your menu and search for the words "plain
text." It should guide you to instructions.
To download a pop-up blocker:
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