5 Surefire Tips to Protect Your Computers from Hackers - By: Mandira Kumar

Hacking attacks are constant worry and perennial headache for any network administrator. More interestingly and ironically, the best defense against them comes from hackers themselves. But these hackers are of a different kind and breed – they are ‘ethical hackers’.

While companies and government organizations all across the world are spending huge sums on hiring professional network security experts or ethical computer hackers, you can make your computer secure by being a little more careful and by keeping your system equipped with next generation anti-hacking solutions. Let’s see how…

1. Always use the latest version of anti-virus software applications. With good anti-virus software, whenever a hacker tries to access your machine you would be warned about it so that you can take necessary steps before any damage is done.

2. Always keep the firewalls in active mode as it will prevent unauthorized entry by the hackers.

3. Keep checking the programs running on your system on a regular basis. In case, you come across some program that you might not have installed or which does not form part of standard operating system, then be alert and cross check it as it might be some sort of spam.

4. To minimize risk against virus attacks and hackers, keep your operating system up to date as it allows the machine to be aware of the latest discovered security holes. If you don’t do that, you are just giving open invitation to the hackers who just evolve from every failed or ‘taken care of’ hacking attack.

5. Never ignore the patches when they arrive for installation. Usually what happens is that a hacker makes a way to enter your computer through some common programs. By installing security fixes and patches you make your computer safe from hackers as they are developed with the sole motive to fix security related issues.

Well, these tips are just the primary precautions to keep your system safe from the hands of hackers. But it’s better to take help of experts to take care of security measures. Many companies nowadays employ ethical hackers with knowledge of network security, cracking and hacking to counter the menace of criminal hacking.

Let me explain a little more. Hackers are broadly categorized into three groups:

- Black-hat hacker- These are the malicious or criminal hackers that break into networks or computers, or create computer viruses.

- Grey-hat hacker: These are skilled hackers who have mixed characteristics of white and black-hat hackers. They usually hack for fun or challenge but in the process can do some pretty damaging things.

- White-hat hacker: These are ethical hackers whose task is to provide security and protection to IT systems. Such people are employed by companies to enhance their IT security and keep their network systems free of hackers and spammers.

Ethical hacking is thus fast becoming a chosen career option for young IT pros given the fact that the IT security market worldwide is growing by leaps and bounds. There are various courses available for computer hacking and network security training. Professional cracking tutorials and other courses prepare IT security pros for attractive careers in big organizations.

About the Author

Mandira Kumar is working as a network security consultant in a reputed IT firm in India. She is also an amateur writer who has contributed several insightful articles on the importance of cracking tutorial, ethical computer hacking training or network security training.

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