Back in the day, computer viruses could only infect diskettes by changing their label. That was back in the 1980s, when Brain, the first computer virus, was invented. The authors developed the virus with the intent of protecting their heart-monitoring software against piracy. Fast forward to the present day, you can no longer expect viruses to be as harmless as the Brain virus. Virus authors these days make money off their illegal activities. In fact, they make a billion dollar business by creating malware and viruses. This is why Internet security is very crucial these days. You need an Internet security suite if you want maximum protection for your computer. Take note that antivirus and Internet security software are two different things. Both are designed to safeguard your computer against harmful programs but an Internet security software has more innovative features than an antivirus tool. Here are some ways an Internet security software can improve your security in 2017:

Should you get an Internet security suite if you already have a good antivirus software? Yes. You will need its advanced features for maximum security. The top internet security available for PC today offers the complete protection for your computer and mobile devices. It has an excellent malware defense, parental control, two-way firewall, antispam, and webcam protection among others.

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3 Ways Software Programs Can Help With Internet Security in 2017 - Geek Snack

Being safe online is important every day. There may be days devoted to Internet-security awareness, but you need to be careful every time you go online.

Do you know what it takes to be safe online? You probably connect daily to get information, shop, socialize, or work. Every time you go online, you need to avoid the risk of theft or fraud. Here are some tips to use while visiting the Social Security website and the other websites you use.

Use Strong PasswordsStrong passwords have at least eight characters and include capital letters, numbers, and non-letter characters. These passwords make it harder for someone to hack your account.

Dont Recycle PasswordsAlthough it requires effort to think of new passwords constantly, it provides safety when you do. What if you use the same password for every site and you lose your password? If someone finds it, they could get access to all your accounts. Many people choose to re-usedont be one of them.

Take Advantage of Multifactor AuthenticationMany websites offer the option to use a second factoror methodin addition to just a username and password to ensure that only you access your information. Using more than one factor to establish identity makes it harder for someone to get into your account and steal your personal information. Beginning June 10, 2017, Social Security requires multifactor authentication to access a my Social Security account. Customers choose whether to receive a one-time security code to either their phone or email in order create a new account or sign into their account. Visit this link to find out more about how to secure your personal my Social Security account: https://goo.gl/m37WKC. Consider using multifactor authentication whenever its offered to protect your information.

Read Scam AlertsFor information about fraudulent activities related to Social Security, you can find information at our blog Social Security Matters under the Newsroom section at blog.socialsecurity.gov. One way to avoid identity theft is to create your own my Social Security account, if you havent already. When you have an account, no one else can set up one using your information. Social Securitys Office of the Inspector General investigates fraud involving Social Security and publishes Fraud Advisories at https://goo.gl/MocUfm. The Federal Trade Commission website publishes information about scams that appear in the news at https://goo.gl/Y1QcMD. Youll want to be aware of current scams to avoid being tricked.

Review Your Online Accounts and Credit ReportsJust as you review your earnings record with Social Security for accuracy at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount, you should review your bank and credit-card accounts for accuracy. Get a free copy of your credit report, available annually from the three credit-reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) at https://goo.gl/bwXN2P, and check it for incorrect entries.

Protecting your identity can be daunting. Guarding your personal information requires investing some time, but is worth it. Discourage theft and fraud by adopting these security practices when you use the internet.

Mr. Flow is District Manager of the Social Security Administrations Downtown New York Office.

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Every Day Is Internet Security Day - The Chief-Leader

How secure is a Chromebook vs. a PC and a MacBook? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Stan Hanks, CTO of Columbia Ventures Corp, on Quora:

How secure is a Chromebook vs. a PC and a MacBook?

ChromeOS is super-limited, designed primarily to just let you run Chrome.

Its not general purpose. Theres no support for running other applications (apart from widgets that let you diddle OS parameters like joining WiFi networks etc). Theres no local file storage. Theres no way to hand off to other executions because theres nothing else to execute.

Windows is not that. Its designed to allow any user to run any application that they want any time they want it, whether its good for them or not. You can write it yourself, you can download it from the Internet, you can buy it shrinkwrapped in a store, the OS doesnt care. If its got the right bytecode, itll run.

And handoffs between applications is trivial. So I can have bad actor code in Javascript on a web page make a call to download then run bad actor code, with elevated privilege, so all bets on secure are off.

Thankfully, there are ways to tighten down the controls on that to prevent users from screwing themselves over too much, and in enterprise environments, there are ways to lock things down to you can only run stuff that we say you can run, but thats not the default. The default is heres a gun, heres some ammo, theres your foot, good luck.

macOS is wound a bit more tightly than that. Having roots in UNIX, the default security model is much less permissive and the OS defaults which have grown around that base over the years are pretty conservative. Yes, you can build or download and run code. But for it to do any of a wide variety of things that would compromise the security of the system, you have to give authorization - and in a very obvious no, seriously, do you want this to happen, for reals? kind of way.

(Thats actually how the OSX/Dok malware worked; it solicited your administrator password and exfiltrated it, showing that you can exploit that sort of thing, but differently than many had thought.)

So, if you want to browse the web and not worry about your system being infected by random malware, the safest thing to do is get a Chromebook. There's nearly zero chance of it getting infected because the attack surface is really, really small. There's a very low chance of targeted malware evolving because the OS design means theres no native local data to exploit.

Your second choice: a macOS. It's much more secure from the start. The theory was that Mac users were safer because of sheer numbers: hundreds of millions of Windows systems make a more attractive target than a much smaller number of Mac users. However, since Apple owns the global market for laptops over $1000, those users are much, much more interesting from an exploit perspective, so we who use Macs have a giant, shiny target painted on us; expect exploits to arrive, in greater numbers, in the coming years.

Last choice: Windows. Way too easy to run code that you dont really want to run, way too difficult to use if you crank it down all the way.

Final note: no matter how secure the platform is, nothing can protect you from falling for phishing attacks, choosing to enter your credentials on a bad actor operated web site, or infrastructure attacks like man-in-the-middle. You can minimize the collateral damage, but its still dangerous out there, people. Be careful.

This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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What's the Safest Laptop For Internet Security? - HuffPost

Corporate Wednesday, May 31, 2017 21:08

By MUTHOKI MUMO

Every time you type an address into your browser you are essentially asking a question to the Internet. The answer is the website that loads seconds later.

Internet users want to trust that the answers they get, the sites that load on their screens, are correct. This may not always be the case, because Internet infrastructure was not designed with security as a primary concern, it is possible for a hacker to intercept your question and give you an answer that may look correct but is essentially wrong.

So, for instance, an Internet user looking for her banks online portal might be redirected to a malicious site where her password or even credit card details might be stolen. The Internet has evolved over time. It used to be a much safer neighbourhood. Now more and more bad guys are coming up with interesting ways to take advantage, said Mr David Conrad, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Come October 11 and ICANN will carry out a major overhaul of this system. For the first time since the inception of the Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC), a new cryptographic key pair will be put in place to help ensure the integrity of Internet traffic.

ICANN says that this is simply part of good security practice in the same manner an email user changes their passwords to guard against hackers.

The general best practice for managing passwords is that you dont want to not change your password for a while because the longer you leave your password, the more likely it is that someone can guess it, Mr Conrad told Digital Business.

The stakes are high. About 750 million Internet users could be affected. However, Mr Conrad says if everything goes smoothly then Internet end-users should notice no difference.

On the other hand, if Internet service providers (ISPs) and network operators who have enabled DNSSEC are running old software, their clients may be left in an Internet blackout. ICANN is now on a campaign, urging ISPs and network operators to update their systems and trial their ability to run on the new system using a test bed on the corporations website.

Although ICANN says there have been no breaches, it is adamant that the October exercise is essential for continued security of the Internet.

Mr Conrad is concerned not about your average hacker, but bigger actors, up to nation-states, getting their hands on the key pair. Therefore, the corporation sees this exercise almost like a drill for a worst-case scenario.

There has been no hint of compromise, no hint that there is any risk but we want to ensure that the infrastructure allows us to change the key should we ever need to in sort of panic mode, says Mr Conrad.

How much of the Internet ecosystem will be left out in the cold come October remains to be seen.

To be truly secure, we need everyone to be on board with DNSSEC. But there are people out there for whom this is not a priority. Raising awareness of the roll over and mobilising everyone is also an expensive undertaking, said Mr William Makatiani, chief executive of cyber security firm, Serianu.

Of particular concern are smaller enterprises that often rely on outside consultants to set up their IT infrastructure. These businesses may be caught unawares come October. ICANN is a non-profit organisation tasked with coordination and maintenance of various forms of Internet infrastructure.

In 2010, ICANN came up with a solution to resolve this problem by setting up a system to provide a chain of trust for Internet users. At the very top of this chain is a cryptographic key pair which essentially makes sure that Internet users get the correct answers to their questions.

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Internet security upgrade on course - Business Daily (press release) (blog)