updated 2016.07.05
often times when one receives an email, one does not always know if this email is whether unsolicited email or an actual email. If its a unsolicited email then by clicking it may cause some headaches, since this email may have some info advertised in it to inform readers on an approach to unsubscribe from their list. this is not always true, one must be careful with those special emails where it can be harmful to your PC by opening up its content or even reading it. In order to prevent one from getting on a spam email list, one must avoid clicking on random emails from others. Your Email Clients such as outlook and Thunderbird will flag them as spams. Simply delete those flagged emails by any Email clients. one can also check whether the sender of this email is legit. one can check the legit-ness of the sender by going to here Email Address verifier.
If you have come across some suspecious email where you are unsure. Check with the above link first then use your judgement on how to go about in handling suspecious emails. Many Email Clients will do a good job in filtering spams for you. Almost 99.9999% email in your spam box are spam, so simply delete or clear the content of your spam box daily to declutter the junk. Also, google spam filter does an excellent job in filtering spams from random spam servers from the interwebs. there are always a few emails, which will enter into your inbox by chance. one can also setup additional email rules to prevent suspecious emails from entering in your inbox. If an email is suspecious, Absolutely, DO NOT reply back nor UNSUBSCRIBE from their list. This will further enhance the problem and making it worst. if you have unknowningly done this, many spammers will know that your address is legit and to datamine additional information by sending emails to your friends, coworkers, family members. Relatively asking for various items by the mean of social engineering. Avoid getting on spammers' list by simply deleting suspecious emails. If you have an gmail account, their email service is Absolutely stunning. there is also a paid service by google gmail, which provides even more features. other Mail providers will have the same capabilities. With a little extra funds, one can obtain a service to own some secure email addresses. To block unwanted ads, use a plugin call ublock origin which is available for both Mozilla Firefox and google Chrome.updated 2015.10.10
For Mac security and system management there are a few tools available for users to enjoy the same experience as many windows users.
For one, there is a CCleaner for mac CCleaner MAC and also a Anti-virus scanner utility called Bitdefender where it is available from inside the app store bitdefender MAC . Be sure to upgrade your MAC OS to the latest OS version and patch your MAC software through MAC updates, the current OS release is called El CapitanMAC OS. Not really sure what this malware scanning software can do but it may be worth installing it Malwarebytes MAC.
updated 2015.09.04
Recently, We were pondering at the notion of whether a linux machine could possibily be affected by a virus. As we are all well aware, window as an OS which is vulnerable to viruses and more. The 'more' part can also be true for linux machines, for example, if a webbrowser is affected by malware and this malware runs inside a browser as a javascript or some kind of scripts. When this script has the permissions to write to certain locations to manipulate files, then this could be dangerous depending on the natur of this script. On the notion of viruses, we too are not certain about this. By default, anything compiled using a MS c-compiler shouldn't be able to run in a linux environment. For one, the MS C/C++ compiler is different; second, library used on MS side is slightly to massively different than that of GNU C/C++ libraries. After pondering on this subject matter for the past few months, we came to a conclusion, that a virus could possibily penetrate the defenses of a linux box but it will take some skills for someone manually install a virus on a linux machine. This notion of a virus residing on a linux could be run inside a window like environment such as inside an application such as WINE. Assuming that some random virus was installed mistakenly and is runninig inside this WINE environment, it would affect only the environment in which this WINE software has been installed. The interesting part is that WINE is installed inside an users home directory as such: /home/flo/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/ using any linux software uninstall 'sudo yum autoremove wine' should completely wipe out any malware, virus, etc..etc.. out of existance from your linux box without reinstalling linux again. Furthermore, if anyone who is somewhat paranoid about this then running this command on your home directory should eradicate the hidden wine directory out of existance until one decides to reinstall wine.
This, we have yet to prove whether its true or false or not even possible, it may worth for someone to try this and let us know.
This anti-virus software is pretty good: CLAM AV
updated: 2015.10.19
If you have reached this webpage, this means that you are in dire need of help in fixing your windose machine due to an overwhelming amount of spyware infestation. Due to an abundance of requests coming from friends and through personal experiences, I have compiled a list of software which may guide you in your quest to conquer one of the troubling pest living in your personal machine, in this case Spyware and Malware.
Spyware and malware pests are highly annoying. Overtime, they will damage your PC by destroying your hard drive, heat up an un-insolated laptop/desktop and delete files without your concent. Most critical of all, stealing information without your approval, where things are going bonkers in the background . Once spyware and malware send its critical information to its' mothership then it is Game Over.
Before continuing on, Please read the following two articles from Wikipedia.com
-Spyware Article
-Malware Article
Once you have unknowingly acquired Malware and Spyware, its minions will automatically attach itself to your machine by opening unneccessary networking connections to a far off place.
In order to check whether your machine has opened such computer ports, please check with this online application with your web browser. If you don't see the following website, then go to google.com and enter in the two words, "shields up" at the search box.
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
If you have extreme need to fix your PC which has an infestation of malware and spyware, Here are some options. Here are cases where none of the software I mentioned below would work for you.
Case 1:
Consider paying someone or a firm which is highly skilled who can troubleshoot your OS and repair it back to a state before the impending doom.
Case2:
At this point, You must consider that your OS is not rescue-able and wanted some data from the Harddrive. Fear not, there are ways but again you must consider paying someone who is highly skill to conduct this task. If you know someone who works with the linux OS on a daily basis, he/she will be able to assist you with this task. This specialized trained professional would then be able to rescue your data from the harddrive and copy those data onto a USB key within a few hours. They will need to acquire your desktop harddrive and insert it into their linux environment as a secondary storage. Once mounted, they can copy the data to an USB once you have provided them with a USB stick. Afterwards, reinstall a fresh copy of windose back to it along its drivers, Office Suite and other tools, if necessary.
Case 3:
For all its worth in this harddrive that truly matter to you and you would need to have this drive free of virus and spyware, then this linux admin might be also be able to assist you with this matter. This time, it will cost you a pretty penny, since it will be a time consuming, pain staking process for a linux professional to conduct work on your harddrive. They would need to obtain your harddrive, obtain install configure clamAV and run it a few times to clear the spyware/malware. Once it is about free of malware, they would need to boot it up and run it to see if the OS is functional or operational.
Case 4:
If you are as bright as i think you are then you can run live linux as a CD/DVD/USB, mount the internal Harddrive yourself and troubleshoot and fix all of the issues you are face with.
Case 5:
All else fail, press the explode button then take your Harddrive outside and give it some love. POW POW POW...
I have installed many of the following software on one if not many of my windose machines. The software I recommended are by no means serve all of your needs in your quest to remove all of the Spyware/Malware, therefore I have make some recommendations to utilize a few of them.
This software by far is the best in removing unwanted malware/spyware: Safe networking
Then download and run this software: Microsoft Malware Removal tool
MS scanning spyware tool: MS scanning tool
MS scanning and removal tool: MS scanning and removal
Microsoft does provide its own security essential software to prevent Virus, Malware, Spyware : Microsoft security Essential
MS Security Portal: Security Portal
You may need to consider using this software Spyware Blaster, after running spybot a few times.
Run this application after you have scanned your machine with the above applications: Free Fixer
This is a good application which will locate all of the garbage, cookies, etc.. and remove them. CCleaner
With MalwareBytes and AdAdware, one can use them but you may need to consider discarding them after using them a few times.
Here is an online virus file checker: Virus Total file checker
Finally, Check with many of the antivirus websites to see if they have removal tools readily available for you to remove a particular types of virus, malware or spyware. Below are many of the trusted organizations who will provide a way for users to remove a particular strand of Viral infestation.
-AVG removal Tools
There are ways to minimize a chance to acquire a malware/spyware infestation.
1. strictly use one machine with an antiviral checking software to check your financial information such as banking.
2. if you wish to have Groupons and other sorts of stuff installed, use one machine for this purpose.
In the perfect world, one would use a linux machine to check financial information and install other browser
toolbar software onto a windose machine to print off other sorts of stuff. This will truly minimize the amount
of information probing from malware/spyware application which can be easily installed onto a windose machine.
-Child and Adult online Safety Guide
-StaySafeOnline.org
-JHU.edu Cyber Security
~aschenbach
If you have reached this website by accident, I don't know what to say my fellow webizens, maybe enjoy the links I have posted above which will be a handful to read and download. Otherwise, Yahoo .
DISCLAIMER:
I by no mean an expert in the field of Information Technology with regards to Cyber Security nor Information Assurance. My wish would be to shine some light in destroying malware/spyware and educating users on the amount of garbage software purposely made available on the internet. By educating users who surf the internet, my hope is to minimize the amount of spyware/malware installed on a windose machine.