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While all of the information on the Protect you computer section of the LTS web site is important, these are some of the most effective bits of advice distilled down for your convenience. If you follow these tips, your chances of being the victim of an electronic attack will be greatly reduced.
If you're still using Internet Explorer, stop. LTS no longer supports Internet Explorer for general web browsing because of a long history of serious security problems in that software.
Use Firefox instead. Firefox is a web browser that looks and works almost the exactly the same as Internet Explorer. It's free, and it makes it more difficult for bad guys to get into your computer through malicious web sites.
The bad guys want to trick you. It's much easier for them to fool people into letting them in than to try to break in directly.
If something seems strange, stop. Think about it. Are you being asked to run a program from a source you don't trust? Are you sure the person or web site you're talking to is who you think it is? Pay attention to unusual warning messages. If something feels wrong, it usually is.
If you're not sure, call the Help Desk or Tech Desk for a second opinion. A five-minute phone call can save you a lot of frustration later.
A very common trick is to make links that look like they're going one place but actually go somewhere else. For instance, this link looks like it's going to Apple's web site, but where does it really go?
This trick works on the web, in email and in instant messages. Sometimes you may be able to see where the real link goes by putting the mouse cursor over it, but not always. Here's another example taken from a real IM virus.
The best way to protect yourself is to copy and paste the link instead of clicking it. Or sometimes it's easier to type the site into your web browser and navigate from there. For example, if you use Bank of America and get an email from them, try typing "www.bankofamerica.com" into your web browser instead of clicking the link in the message.
Another popular trick with the bad guys is to get you to run their evil programs by including them with something free that you want.
Here are some examples of things to watch out for. Some of the pictures below look very professional, but they're all evil.
Not all files are created equal. Some, like text or images, are usually harmless. Others that can contain programs can be very dangerous. You can frequently tell one from the other by looking at the file's extension, or the letters after the dot at the end of the name.
If you see any of these extensions, you should be very suspicious.
Here is what some dangerous files look like.
Note that this is not a complete list, and a file is not necessarily safe if it doesn't have one of these extensions.
