Your Daily Computer Security Tips

The volume of spam now flooding the Internet is approaching 200 billion a day (yes, that’s billion, with a “b”). That’s double the volume of a year ago.

Nowadays, fully 90% of all emails are spam. As more and more people become educated to the perils of this junk, the crooks continually change their tactics to get past our defenses.

One threat that is growing rapidly is personalized spam. Thieves gather or steal some information about you. Then they send you emails for drugs, Viagra, etc. with your name on it. Or it may contain other personal details.

These emails are sometimes sent out in small volumes, and can get past those email filters you and your ISP have set up.

Cisco Systems, manufacturer of networking hardware, says this type of attack has jumped fourfold in a year, to 0.4 per cent of all junk emails. That may seem tiny, but it translates to about 800 million daily messages that are personalized for their intended targets.

The old rules still apply. If you see an email addressed to you personally but from an unknown sender, do not open it, no matter how enticing or alarming the Subject Line may be. It may contain links to a Web site that will hijack or infect your computer.