Computer security: a matter of concern and tips to avoid trouble

With so much of today's business being transacted online, computer security is a major issue affecting businesses and consumers. For online businesses, there can be problems in the form of stolen credit card information, mailing or personal information. If you are selling information, your content may be hacked into and copied. This affects the business and customer adversely, since the customer is likely to blame the online business. This erodes the image of your business and discourages other customers from trusting you with their information. No one likes their email inbox to be bombarded with viruses and spam. If they feel that your site has something to do with it, your business and reputation will suffer long term damage. To avoid problems with your business's computer security, follow the guidelines listed below.

Never allow external storage devices - Do not permit anyone to take data out of your system in any form of external storage device, such as floppy disks, CDs etc. for any reason. Obviously, this compromises your safety and that of your customers.
Limit employee access - Restrict employee access to files, folders and areas within the system that they require in their day to day work. Do not allow anyone to gain access to any information that they do not require. Make sure that you install systems that lock out employees who do not have authorization.
Third party outsourcing - Outsource your payment system to a third party such as PayPal, so that your liability is reduced in case of any computer security problems. This third party will have the necessary technological support to ensure that the customer and your business are safe. But to be sure of this, you will need to do a thorough check on your selected provider or choose a reputable one.
Check on your technology vendor - It is important to ensure that your technology vendor has taken steps to protect the server and the software in your system appropriately with firewalls etc. If it is possible and affordable, look into getting a third party security audit of the system from both ends - the server provider & the software at your end since leaks may be from either end. Pages that contain sensitive data should be appropriately protected with software security locks.
Newsletter email lists - If you have a newsletter, make sure that your online business keeps its mailing list secure and that no recipient can tamper with it or gain access to the list. This is essential in protecting the privacy of your customer information.
Affiliations with reputable associations - Form affiliations with trusted business and computer security organizations, such as BBBOnline, to ensure that customers feel safe coming to your site. The additional benefit of this is the identification of any flaws in the security through a check up.
Educate customers - It is imperative to educate your customers about computer safety. Ensure that they know your online business will not send them emails soliciting information and that if they receive any such mail, they should report it to you at once.
Content - Protect your content by ensuring that it is safe behind firewalls and other applications that prohibit unauthorized entry. As for public content, simply provide your visitors with updated and informative content regularly since good quality cannot be copied.

From: http://www.articleclick.com

Get Used Computers And Customize Them

This draft about used computers seeks to give you a solid knowledge base about computers and electronics, no matter what your previous knowledge on the theme are. Computers are complicated things. There are times when what you want to have is going to cost you more money than you are willing to spend. Other times, you may find one loaded with everything you don't need, but the essential seem to be missing. This makes shopping for the right computer a lot of hard work at times. When you don't need a lot of the extras, and you want to save some money, you should think about buying used computers instead of investing in something new. Used computers can be great when you need something for your kids. They don't need a lot when they are going to use it for school work, and perhaps to play a few games. They won't care that it is not new; they just want it to work. You may have to search around for something that has what you need, but there are many great places to get used computers both online and within your own community if that is what you want. You can even have someone at a store look out and call you when they get something that fits your needs.

We have had a lot of fun during the first portion of this draft and hopefully you feel as though you have a firm grasp on the topic. When you want some of the latest things, but you don't want to pay a lot for a computer that has everything, you can get used computers and have them customized. You can save some money this way while still getting what you want. It is sometimes cheaper to get used computers and have new components added - like more memory or a new motherboard - than to buy something right off the rack. There are some companies that will customize a new computer for you, but they can be steep in price once you start adding things. If you are getting something new, don't forget about the market for used computers, and consider selling your old one if you have no more use for it. When you do this, you do have to be careful about your personal information. Before selling any used computers, take them into a computer store to be sure the information on the machine has been wiped clean. You can deleted everything on your own, but what you don't know is that some of that stuff will still be on your old machine. To be safe and to protect yourself, have a professional ensure that your old computers are empty before you put them up for sale. If you thoroughly analyze each part that we have discussed about used computers, you will see a familiar thread of which to explore.

By: Gnubas

How To Become Your Own PC Repairer

If you are like me, you have probably owned quite a few personal computers. You are sure to have had the occasional problem, and rushed the machine off to the repair shop. At the time, the cost of repairs may have seemed a bit high in proportion to the original cost of the machine, and you might not have been quite sure what was actually done.
You can learn to do your own diagnosis and repair work. It is worth while knowing what is going on inside the box, even if you do not do the work yourself. With a good understanding of the likely causes of the hardware problems, you can be a lot more confident that the repairs carried out were reasonable and necessary.
To begin with, a good source of technical information is necessary. You can always ask at your local electronics shop, but if you really don’t know what you are talking about, the embarrassment can be a big turn off. There is an excellent book available called ‘Upgrading and Repairing PCs’ written by Scott Mueller. This is the most complete and most readable ‘how-to’ book I have found, and if you only buy one book on the subject, Scott’s is the one to get you hands on.

The next step is to choose a few projects to get familiar with the hardware. The best way to begin building up your skills is to pull a computer completely apart, and then put it back together. If it still works after that, then you have made a pretty good start. At this stage, you may be thinking ‘hang on a minute, I paid a lot of money for my system - No way am I going to risk messing with that baby’.
No, as a beginner, you definitely should not. You can get hold of some old computers to tear apart and rebuild. Old computers are seen as worthless, and you will find Pentium 1 and 2 machines being discarded as rubbish, even though they are still in good working order. Even a Pentium 3 can be bought very cheaply, and most of these are pretty good performers. A word of warning – be careful how widely you spread the news of you new interest in old computers. You will be surprised how many 486s and older are sitting in cartons in garages and basements; your friends and family will really be delighted to give you an amazing collection of electronic junk.
Get familiar with the various parts, and how they fit together. Learn to identify the different styles of processor chip, RAM, disk drives and other components.
As always, safety is paramount. The computer components themselves operate at low voltages, but you still have the mains strength voltage coming into the back of the computer. Always power off and unplug when you are working on the computer, and be suspicious of any signs of overheating or of burning smells. Enjoy your tinkering.

By:Suegold

Registry Easy - Stop Your Home Computer Crashing And Locking

In a nutshell, Registry Easy is a program that will speed up your computer, fix and prevent computer error, and free up more space. It does this mainly by cleaning and repairing your computer's registry. What is the registry, you may ask? This article will explain that, and explain why Registry Easy is so effective.

Your computer's registry is essentially a database where all the different settings on your computer are kept-configurations for each user, each program, and each piece of hardware. The trouble is that over time, the registry tends to become messy and corrupted just through everyday use.

First, the registry tends to grow over time. Every time new software is installed, a new user is added, or a new piece of hardware is installed, more registry entries, or keys, are added, creating a huge registry database. The problem with this is that every time your computer tries to find something, it has to sift through the entire database to find the entry it's looking for, creating longer search times and, ultimately, slower computer performance.

Second, whenever a piece of software or hardware is uninstalled, there may be lots of registry keys left behind, doing nothing but taking up space. As you move files around on your computer, registry keys linked to specific file locations may become broken, or orphaned. Finally, the longer you use your computer, the greater chance that some registry entries may become corrupted. These types of registry problems lead to computer errors, freezes, and crashes.

Cleaning and repairing your registry manually would require a PHD in computer science and several weeks or months of spare time. What Registry Easy does is automate this process down to a few minutes. It does a deep, thorough scan of your computer's registry, looking for errors-corrupted keys, missing links, blank entries, obsolete keys, etc. It then gives you the option to clean and repair the registry with a few clicks of your mouse. Cleaning unused and obsolete entries reduces the size of the registry, make your computer seek times faster, and speeds up performance. Repairing corrupted registry entries fixes common computer errors, such as freeze ups, system crashes, startup and shutdown errors, and many more. Even better, regularly scanning your registry with Registry Easy can prevent such errors from happening again.

Registry Easy is competing in a crowded market. There are literally hundreds of registry cleaning software programs available on the internet, some free and some for a price. What makes Registry Easy stand out is that it incorporates several extra tools to help speed up your computer. For example, it includes a Startup Inspector.

Whenever you turn on your PC, some programs are automatically launched, which slows it down. Over time, however, a lot of software sets itself to start when your PC does, whether you want it to or not. These extra startup programs make your computer take longer to boot up, and then run constantly in the background, using system resources and slowing down your computer, even when not being used. Registry Easy's Startup Inspector allows you to identifying all your startup programs and disable (or even delete) things you don't really need. You might want to keep your antivirus startup program, for example, but do you really need Adobe Reader or Quicktime to start every time?

Registry Easy also includes several tools to help free up more space on your computer. A Junk File Cleaner scans your PC for unnecessary files taking up space on your PC and deletes them. A Duplicate File Cleaner does the same thing for Duplicate Files. Finally, an Add/Remove Programs Manager lets you identify and uninstall software you no longer need.

Registy Easy does have a few drawbacks. It is only available for Windows, so Mac and Linux users are out of luck. It also does not have a registry defragmentation tool, which compacts your registry once all the junk entries have been deleted, making even faster. Overall, though, Registry Easy is a robust, efficient program that would be a good investment for anyone whose computer is slow or

suffering from chronic system errors.

By: Isbitt Amanda

Why Do You Need Computer Security

Computers are an inseparable part of our lives today, life that has increasingly become technology driven. Besides work, we use computers for communicating, banking, entertainment, research – just to name a few. Besides hardware, security of the new-age machines is threatened by malicious software, viruses, Trojans etc. all designed to cripple a system. Loss of computer security leads to corruption or loss of data, misuse or theft of information, identity theft and unauthorized use of client information, transmission of computer viruses that can affect third parties and can lead to potential liability, services interruptions, security breaches at vital government installations that can threaten national safety. For corporate houses, loss of computer security can make vital difference in acquiring new work and sustaining current projects.
These are strong reasons to support the need for installing computer security systems. The first important requirement is licensed Anti-virus software. There are over 50,000 known viruses and 200 new viruses are discovered every month. The easiest method for spreading viruses is by e-mail attachments or instant messaging messages. Viruses can be disguised as greeting cards, funny images, or video and audio file attachments. The computer needs to get updated with latest threats and that is possible only with original computer security software as it gets automatically updated every time the machine goes online.
The next important requirement is Firewall Software. This enhances computer security by controlling communications from it, prevents unwanted accesses and is capable of blocking outgoing and incoming IP addresses.
Often computer security is compromised due to spyware that enters a machine by deceiving the user or through some software loopholes. Sometimes the user is tricked into unknowingly installing it or it piggybacks on desirable software. Hence, spyware removing software is a must in the computer security system.
A pop-up blocker is another important element in securing computers. Malicious attackers are likely to use pop-up windows that are concealed as special offers to set up a malicious code on a computer.
Besides all these installations it is important to ensure correct practises to ensure computer security when accessing the Internet. Never download email attachments from unknown persons, do not share your banking details and passwords with unknown people, do not click on links inside emails, for financial transactions - type in the URL each time on your browser and take care when sharing flash drives. These are just some additional measure to ensure computer security. Always buy licensed, original Operating System Software and Anti Virus Software. While there are cyber laws to help track and punish breaches in computer security, its better to be safe rather than sorry!

By: Marrie

The Articles About Computer

There are many the articles about computer.
You can read some this articles and who the writers the articles.

• Why Do You Need Computer Security (By: Marrie)

• Registry Easy - Stop Your Home Computer Crashing And Locking (By: Isbitt Amanda)

• How To Become Your Own PC Repairer (By:Suegold )

• Get Used Computers And Customize Them (By: Gnubas)