
Browse the online security topics and learn more about safeguarding your online experience.
Parental controls and other tools help keep your child safe but educating them about digital safety issues is of paramount importance. Visit the Interactive Case Studies section of Internet Smarts at www.powertolearn.com to learn more about important topics like keeping personal information private, social networking, cyberbullying and more.
These dreaded programs manifest themselves in many forms and have the ability to spread, via executable code, from one computer to another, debilitating productivity and compromising your data.
Coded to trick users, Trojans invade computers in the guise of legitimate applications. Once inside, Trojans unleash a range of annoying and malicious behaviors, deleting confidential files, changing network settings etc.,
Designed to self-replicate, Worms can cause significant slowdowns in networks by consuming bandwidth. The result: a slower, less efficient business.
Programmed to perform simple and structurally repetitive tasks online, Bots scour websites, posting messages on open forums and increasing the load on computers.
Hackers use specific programs to look for networks and computers that aren't secured, so they can exploit a valid computer session - also called a session key - to gain unauthorized access to information or services in a computer system.
Supported by advertising, these productivity killers display and download unsolicited advertising content on affected computers.
As the name suggests, these privacy-invasive programs monitor users' online activities and collect various types of confidential information, such as Internet surfing habits and sites that have been visited.
The smallest dose of malicious code can have disastrous consequences. Attackers use code injections to exploit computer bugs and change the course of a program's execution. These injections are a must-keep-out for businesses.
One of the top online threats, phishing, relies on a 1-2 combination of online trickery to get users to submit sensitive information such as, usernames and passwords. Phishing attacks utilize email or instant messaging to direct users to fake sites, which are designed to mimic reputable sites.
These programs or set of coordinated programs let hackers gain complete control of a system and launch a full-on assault of malicious activity - without being detected.