How to Prevent "Hacking"

First off most hacking is not hacking at all, normally what happens is that someone gives their log on to some one they trusted, or a friend.If you do buy an account from someone, make sure that the person has a "good" rating, or that the person no longer has the CD key.

With that said, there are the few incidents of "true" hacking , and we will go over ways to help prevent them.

1.) Tricks of the trade:

There are several tricks that people may use to get your info. One of the questions to change your password is commonly," what is the name of your pet?" Now this one is pretty slick, for the mere fact that this infact does come up in a normal conversation. A simple solution would be just to say, "I don't have a pet", or use the name of a niece or cousin instead. This can go hand in hand with making "look at my new puppy his name is spot" type posts.

2.) Cookies/malware/data ware:

One of recent advents of the internet is tiny programs that install themselves without your permission. Typical virus scanners do not yet have the capability to remove these programs and that's because Anti-Virus software don't consider AdAware6 to be viral. The tool that I use to remove these programs is AdAware6, it is a free download and simple to install and run. You can use any Spyware remover you would like as well, another coukle highly recommended tools are Spybot. and CClean, Make sure if you do get these, that you update , and run them on a regular basis. Another way to prevent people getting information on you is to delete your cookies on a regular basis. you can do this by going to the top of your internet explorer screen.

3.) Virus scanning:

The title itself you should be enough. Get a good virus scanner. I would not suggest using a free/shareware one, as the money spent on this type of program is worth every red cent. I use Norton 2003 Pro myself and love it. UPDATE YOUR VIRUS DEFINITIONS OFTEN. you should be at least checking for updates 2 times a week. Hackers work full time it doesn't take more then 5 min to click "Update now".

If you are after a Firewall as well then don't assume your Anti-Virus software has one. In general, antivirus software doesn't come with a firewall. In the case of Symantec's products, you need to purchase the antivirus/firewall package to get both. McAfee also has bundles. But if you just buy Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee...uh...whatever they call it, you only get the AV software.

My next updates will be on TIPS AND TRICKS AND HOW TO UPDATE THE ANTIVIRUS.