Absolute PC Security and Privacy.pdf

Part I: Computer Viruses Learn about the many different types of computer viruses—boot
record, file infector, script, macro, Trojan horses, worms, and so on—and how to protect your
system against their destructive payloads.
Part II: Internet Attacks Discover the many ways that malicious individuals can target your
computer for data theft and attack, and how to guard against such online assaults.
Part III: Privacy Theft Find out how your privacy can be compromised on the Internet, and
how to defend yourself against identity theft, online predators, and other threats to your
privacy.
Part IV: E-mail Spam Discover where all those unwanted e-mail messages in your in-box
come from, and how to keep them out.
Part V: Web-Based Intrusions Find out how to avoid the many major and minor
annoyances you find at too many Web sites, including pop-up advertising and inappropriate
content.
In addition, any technical terms you may not be familiar with are likely to be listed in the
book’s glossary, following the final chapter.
Which brings up an important point: You don’t have to be a computer wizard to use this book.
In fact, I assume that you’re a casual (Windows) PC user and aren’t interested in those overly
technical solutions best suited to full-time geeks. That’s why I provide practical solutions—
things you can easily do, without an undue expenditure of time or effort (or money!). And,
surprisingly, you can protect yourself fairly well by doing a few simple things, which you’ll
learn as you read the book.
When the book presents a solution to a problem, I try to do so in as general a fashion as
possible, so that it doesn’t matter whether you’re using Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
2000, or Windows XP; whether you’re connecting to the Internet via a dial-up or broadband
connection; or whether you’re a home, small business, or corporate computer user. Where
specific instructions are necessary, I typically focus on the most recent versions of the
applicable software. And I describe the process of selecting a series of menu options by
saying “select option one > option two > option three”—which means pull down the first
menu, select the next menu item, then select the following menu item. (It’s a nice shorthand
that saves you a little reading and the publisher a little space on the page.)
Throughout the book you’ll find what I like to call “asides” to the main text. These include
notes, time-saving tips, and warnings about pitfalls to avoid, as well as the slightly longer
discussions that my publisher calls sidebars. These little asides offer interesting information
that isn’t always essential to the discussion at hand; we put them outside the main text for you
to read them as you like.
You’ll also find a lot of Web sites mentioned in the book. That’s because many of the
solutions to these security intrusions are available on the Internet. When I mention a Webbased
solution, I include the Web site address (URL) in a special typeface, like this:
www.sybex.com. I’ve made every attempt to make sure the URLs are all up-to-date; but the
Web being the Web, expect some of this information (and some of these addresses) to change
over time.