Another reason could be that Microsoft has continuously improved their software and applications by providing patches and upgrades that have reduced these loopholes tremendously. The CEO of Adobe has accepted that hackers have turned their attention towards their range of products.

McAfee has also identified instances where hackers have compromised Apple’s Quicktime and Mozilla’s Firefox. Additionally social networking sites such as twitter may also be a likely target.

Using computers for long hours may cause eye problems and spinal cord problems. Some of the common health risks in using computers are Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and Repetitive Stress/Strain Injury (RSI). Pain from shoulders to fingers, numbness, numbness at the wrist, Shivering and shaking while holding objects in hands, Waking up often during nights are also problems faced by some computer users. The main symptom of CTS is the pain in the hand muscles. Pain, straightness, swelling, numbness in hands, legs, shoulders and the back are symptoms of RSI. Since these diseases occur due to work, they are called Occupational Hazards.
Here are some tips for daily computer users to prevent and protect yourself from CTS and RSI:

1. Keep your shoulders loose
2. Rotate your elbows at frequent intervals
3. Keep your wrist straight and parallel to the table while typing
4. When you look straight from your chair, you should see the top end of the monitor. If you can’t see then increase your chair’s length.
5. The distance between your eyes and the monitor should be at least 60 CM
6. Always sit straight. Never bend and look at the monitor. You should sit straight and look at the monitor straight neither bending your head down or tilting up.
7. Your back should always rest against the chair
8. Your feet should always touch the floor
9. After every one hour of working, you should take 5 minutes break. In this five minutes leave your computer chair, take a walk in your office, stretch your fingers and stretch your body.
10. Close and open your eyes often, to prevent the eyes getting dry.
11. After every half hour of working at the computer, for two minutes take your eyes Off the monitor and look at objects very far and give some exercise to your eyes.
12. Drink water often
13. Eat healthy food
14. Buy keyboard, mouse and computer chair based on Ergonomics design
15. Exercise daily

Think of these scenarios.

1. You go to a bank to withdraw money. You fill up the withdrawal form, sign it and give it to the bank clerk. Your signature is used to verify your identity
2. You are shopping using your credit cards. While paying the photograph on the credit cards and the signature on the credit cards are used to verify your identity.
3. In big companies, all employees are issued an ‘employee pass’ with their photograph. People with these ‘employee pass’es are allowed access to the company premises.

In all these above scenarios, signature and photographs are used to verify a person’s identity. In reality any person can learn to use another person’s signature. Worse still is they can replace your photograph with their own photograph on these cards. Therefore, these existing authentication methods are not secure enough.

Biometrics solves these above issues. Every person’s face is unique. Each person’s thumb impression is also unique. Everyone’s voice is different from others. The eyes are also unique for every person. Therefore it makes sense to use these unique features of each person as a means of authentication.

Therefore for using computers, passwords are no longer required. To enter one’s company , employee passes are no longer required. Your body is sufficient. Using any parts of your body the biometrics system can identify you. America, Canada and some european nations already use these security systems.

What is a Biometrics system?

There are two main modules in a biometrics system. “storing” and “comparing”. The sytems must first store your information before it can use this stored information to compare and verify. The storing process however differs between different systems.

For instance, if the biometrics system uses thumb impression as the mode of verification, then your thumb impression will be first captured in film and stored in the biometrics database system. Instead of storing as it is, the system will compress and store it.

If for instance your face is used as the mode of verification, then your face will be photographed in different angles and stored in the biometrics database systems. The same goes for voice recording and eyes mode of verification.

Once this storing process is done, the ‘comparing’ process is done daily or as and when required. For example let us assume that your company uses finger print biometrics systems. When you come to office daily, there will be a finger print reader at the entrace. You will have to put your finger on this finger print reader which will capture your finger print and send to the biometrics system. The biometrics system will then ‘compare’ this finger print to the finger print that was previously stored in the database. If both of them match then you are authenticated.

Advantages of a biometrics system

The fact that you will have to personally be present in order to authenticate yourself is the advantage of this system. Finger print or retina of the eyes of one person do not match with anyone else’s data in the database. Therefore there is abosolutely no chance of other people using your identity.

Disadvantages of a biometric system.

• The finger print of those people working in Chemical industries are often affected. Therefore these companies should not use the finger print mode of authentication.
• It is found that with age, the voice of a person differs. Also when the person has flu or throat infection the voice changes or if there there are too much noise in the environment this method maynot authenticate correctly. Therefore this method of verification is not workable all the time
• For people affected with diabetes, the eyes get affected resulting in differences.
• Biometrics is an expensive security solution.

If you could keep all your password in a database and then encrypt this database and protect it with a password then all your passwords will be safe. Then you just need to remember this one password, so even if you forget other passwords you can still use this password to open the database and check the password.

You can use a free password management software such as ‘Password Safe‘. You can download password safe from http://sourceforge.net and install it in your computer. Then you will never have to remember many passwords.

To create a master password

When you open Password safe for the first time it will ask you for the ‘Safe combination’ which is nothing but the master password for your password database. The safe combination password should be long and contain both numbers and alphabets so that it is difficult to guess. If you give a simple and easy to guess password then password safe will warn you. Now key in the same password again in the ‘Verify’ box and click on ‘OK’.

To add passwords to Password Safe

Click on the ‘Add Entry’ button in Password Safe. In the new dialog box give ‘group name’ (optional) and the title name and then key in your username and password. In the ‘Notes’ section write anything you want to write about the account. Now click on ‘OK’ to add this information to password safe.

As mentioned in the above paragraph add all your passwords one by one. When you close password safe program it will ask you where you want to save this password database in your hard disk. This is only for the first time.

To retrieve the password

If you forgot the password for any file or program and you want to retrive the password from password safe then password safe will first ask you for the ‘master password’. After you give the master password the database will open.

Then click on the ‘title’ for which you want to know the password. Now click on the ‘Copy password to clipboard’ button. Now the password will be copied to the clip board. You can use Ctrl + V to paste it anywhere you want.

When you exit the password safe program, it will automatically clear the password from the clipboard for security reasons.

You can also edit the password if you want.

When your computer gives problems and you want to identify where is the problem, then you can use the safe mode for this. In safe mode, only limited number of driver programs are enabled. Therefore you cannot use CD drive. You cannot use the printer. And many other unnecessary drivers are not enabled.

While in Safe Mode, you can use the ScanDisk, defrag and other utility programs to repair your computer. You may wonder how to bring the computer to safe mode. When Windows boots up, you have to press the F8 key. You should press the F8 key before the windows screen appears. Then you can choose the safe mode option to boot.

Some Anti virus software will tell you that some viruses can only be removed in safe mode, therefore the antivirus software will automatically start in safe mode or you may have to goto safe mode and then run the virus removal utility to remove the virus.

Why does this happen, you may wonder? This means a hijack virus has entered your computer without your knowledge and is working at its will. You can remove hijack virus and prevent it from happening using some software.

Process Guard is one such software. Just search for this software atwww.download.com and install it in your computer. This program will guard your computer against these hijack viruses.

1. On the exterior the program which hides the ‘Trojan Horse’ may look very normal. But the enemy is hiding inside. Whichever task this enemy is assigned, it will carry out at the right time very efficiently.
2. Spyware will monitor your and report your activities to its owner. Which websites you frequently visit, on which websites you spend long time, which keywords you use to search are some of your secrets that the Spyware will gather and send to its owner.
3. If you use Webmail to read you email, some Spywares can read and send the whole content of the email to its owner.
4. Keyloggers are those programs that can capture the key board strokes that you type such as your login name, password, credit card details etc and then send it to its owner. Generally, computers in Cyber Cafe are infected with these key loggers. So avoid using confidential data while you are in foreign countries and using the browsing center.
5. Scumware are programs that change the text in the websites or change the web pages actions. If you own your own website then you may need to be aware of this. If not just ignore Scumware.
6. Browser helper Objects, are applications that are designed to help the browser. But these applications may also cause problems. Details such as the websites you visit, the software you download will be sent to the owners.

Some free programs that you download may contain ‘Adware’. These are advertising programs and you will be tired of seeing these advertisements pop ups every now and then.

Now how to get rid of these enemies. There are many programs to remove Spyware. Some are free and some you have to buy. Some Spywares actually disguise themselves as sypware removers, so beware in choosing the right spyware remover.

Here are some tips to choose Spyware Remover, detect Adware, keyloggers, Trojon horses, Scumware etc and remove them.

1. Lavasoft’s AdAware is the most popular in Adware removal programs. This free Adware remover (AdAware) is available at www.lavasoft.com . Once you download and install AdAware, it will scan you hard drive, floppy drive and even registries and detect Spyware programs and help to remove them.
2. The free ‘Spybot Search & Destroy‘ software is used to detect Spyware, keylogger, Browser helper objects in your computer. Spybot search & destroy can be downloaded at http://security.kolla.de . The additional feature in this software is the ‘File Shredder’. If you want a particular file to be destroyed totally and should not be recovered at all means then you can use this ‘File Shredder’ feature.
3. Another free Spyware remover is, ‘Spyware Blaster‘. You can download Spyware Blaster from www.wildersecurity.com/spywareblaster.html . The Spyware Blaster is capable of identifying Spyware hidden in Actice X controls and remove them. The Spyware Blaster also makes changes in the windows registry so that the removed spywares cannot be re installed in your computer.
4. BHO Demon is a free software that can detect and remove Browser Helper Objects. You can downlad BHO demon software from http://www.definitivesolutions.com

To create Screen Save with Password

Right click on the blank space of your desktop and select ‘Properties’. In the new dialog box, click on the ‘Screen Saver’ tab. Select any screen saver of your choice. For example let us assume you chose ’3D Flying Objects’.

Now click on the ‘Password Protected’ check box and select it. Then click on the ‘Change’ button. In the new dialog box that opens key in your password.The effectiveness of the protection depends on your password, therefore select a password that is not easy to guess but is easy for you to remember. It is better to keep a password lengthy. Confirm your password by typing again and click on the ‘OK’ button.

You will see the ‘The password has been successfully changed’ information. Click ‘OK’ and close that box. Then finally click on the ‘OK’ button and close the ‘Properties’ dialog box.

To bring the Screen save shortcut to the desktop

The screen saver will only take effect only when your computer is idle for a specified time without any activity. What if you leave your computer and before the screen saver takes effect somebody else stars using your computer. To prevent this from happening you can create a shortcut to your screen saver and activate it whenever you leave your computer.

To create shortcut to the screen saver in the desktopn right click on the blank space of your computer and click ‘New Shortcut’. You will now see the ‘Create Shortcut’ dialog box, click on ‘Browse’ button and select teh screen saver execution file which can be found at c:/windows/system folder. In the ‘File of type’ drop down list choose ‘All Files’. Now in the list of files, scroll and look for the screen saver file (for eg. 3d flying objects) and double click on it. Then click on the ‘Next’ button then give a suitable name for your shortcut and then click on ‘Finish’ button.

Now the shorcut is visible on the shortcut. Whenever you leave your computer just double click this screen saver shortcut and activate your screen saver. Now if anyone wants to use it, when they move the mouse or click any button on the keyboard, the screen saver will prompt for the password. Since he will not know your password he cannot enter your computer.

To add screen saver shortcut to the windows ‘startup folder’

You may know that the programs inside the starup folder will automatically start when you boot your computer. Now you should bring the desktop screen saver shortcut to this startup folder. The reason is, after you shut down your computer if someone tries to start your computer without your knowledge then the screen saver will automatically prompt for the password.

Start your Windows Explorer. Choose the C:/windows folder and look for the ‘Desktop’ folder. Inside this desktop folder look for the short cut that you created. If the files are not visible then click on the ‘View-Folder Options’ menu, select the ‘View’ tab and select ‘Show all files’ option and click ‘OK’ button. In the file list selct the ’3dfo’ shortcut and copy it (Ctrl + C).

Now goto the Windows/startmenu/programs/startup folder. Now paste it here (Ctrl + V). Now close the windows explorer.

From now on when you boot your computer the screen saver will be activated and prompt for the password. Only if you key in the right password you can enter your computer.

If your friend is a bit clever then he may start your computer in ‘Safe Mode’ and enter your computer. Because in ‘Safe Mode’ it will not prompt for password. Then he can goto the start programs startup folder and delete the screen saver shortcut from that folder.

Now your screen saver will not be active anymore. So bringing the screen saver to start up folder is not a fool proof method. But not many people will go to that extent of starting in safe mode and then deleting the screen saver shotcurt. So you can still use this method.

Here are some tips for daily computer users to prevent and protect yourself from CTS and RSI:

1. Keep your shoulders loose
2. Rotate your elbows at frequent intervals
3. Keep your wrist straight and parallel to the table while typing
4. When you look straight from your chair, you should see the top end of the monitor. If you can’t see then increase your chair’s length.
5. The distance between your eyes and the monitor should be at least 60 CM
6. Always sit straight. Never bend and look at the monitor. You should sit straight and look at the monitor straight neither bending your head down or tilting up.
7. Your back should always rest against the chair
8. Your feet should always touch the floor
9. After every one hour of working, you should take 5 minutes break. In this five minutes leave your computer chair, take a walk in your office, stretch your fingers and stretch your body.
10. Close and open your eyes often, to prevent the eyes getting dry.
11. After every half hour of working at the computer, for two minutes take your eyes Off the monitor and look at objects very far and give some exercise to your eyes.
12. Drink water often
13. Eat healthy food
14. Buy keyboard, mouse and computer chair based on Ergonomics design
15. Exercise daily

In an office environment, this type of computer sabotage is possible. There are many software and applications related to ‘Desktop Security’. If you install a ‘Desktop security’ application in your computer, then you can prevent others from using your computer. If you require you can give permissions for a few.

Here are some of the desktop security software that you can use:

1. Access Denied

   Users of Windows 95/98/ME can use this application. You can install it and be sure that your computer is safe from strangers. When you boot your computer, it will prompt for the username and password. So only you can login to the computer.

   With ‘Access Denied’ you can give a unique username, passwords to your friends to access your computer. Later you can see the log file and see the time logged in and logged out by these users. So you will know exactly who used your computer.

   Another feature in Access Denied software is to block the F4 and F8 keys while the computer is booting. You can do this by choosing ‘Security->No Book Keys’ option.

   Another feature in Access Denied is the ‘Screen Guard’. This ‘Screen Guard’ feature is very handy. You can configure ‘mouse click’ or ‘hot key’ to hide the desktop whenever you want. If anybody tries to access, it will prompt for the username and password.

   Access Denied will also deny booting from floppy or CD.

   You can download ‘Access Denied’ fromhttp://www.johnru.com/accessdenied

2. Lock Out Desktop Security

   Lockout Desktop Security can be used to create policies and permissions for groups and users. You can block access to certain applications. You can block access to CD Drive. You can specify time period when people can access and when they cannot.

   You can download Lockout Desktop security software fromhttp://www.soft32.com

3. Desktop Lock

   You can download Desktop lock fromhttp://www.toplang.com/desktoplock.htm
   Like other Desktop security applications desktop lock allows you to prevent access to specific applications, documents etc.

4. Mouse Trap

   To lock the desktop and to allow access only by logging in using username/password you can use the ‘Mouse Trap’ application. Mouse Trap also prevents the use of ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’ and ‘Alt+Tab’ and any other system keys. You can download Mouse Trap from http://www.hotwww.com

5. Boot Locker

   You can download Boot Locker from http://www.bootlocker.com/bl . You can use boot locker to create many users and groups. You can use this to disable and change password compulsary at frequent intervals.

   To find the latest available free desktop security software search google with the following search term http://www.google.com/search?q=%22desktop+security%22+download