PC Magazine Fighting Spyware, Viruses, and Malware

I normally like to write some detailed reviews but not on this book. If you really want a fast read broken down into areas that let you know how the bad guys are screwing with your computer AND you buy this book. You will learn what spyware, malware, viruses and trojans are and the best ways-products to use. No second guessing and in fact this book should be required reading for all American students. On average I find about 35 instances of pests per PC I work on so do yourself a favor. If you want to learn more in detail, get this book. And don't forget as Red Green says, "if the women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy". Mike

This book gives alot of information, probably more than most will want to read. But if you can wade through all of it you will find some very useful information. It is very techinical information. It does however provide an indepth explanation of how viruses, hijackers, etc work and what you can do to protect yourself. Overall it is a great buy with very much useful info.

Tittel can certainly unsettle the reader! He warns of the increasing encroachments against your computer. The biggest single danger is that this might be your home computer. Not a computer at your workplace, for which you might be able to ask a sysadmin for help. So it's you and Tittel against the 3 menaces. Be aware that the terminology in the text and title may vary from what others use. Often, malware is taken to include viruses. I think he chose to break viruses out separately from malware so that the title would outreach to more people. Malware is still somewhat of a techie term, while spyware and viruses have broader recognition. Naturally, since we're discussing personal computers, the text tends to focus on those running a Microsoft operating system. But in fact, much of his advice applies to Macs and linux/unix machines. Though users of the former 2 types might take heart in knowing that most viruses or worms won't go after their machines. Tittel explains that increasingly, it's harder to draw clear lines between malware, spyware and adware. But he shows how to use existing anti-malware products that can scan for these and remove them. These products use combinations of signatures of known malware, and also search for "strange" activity that is typical of malware. However, since new variants of malware are continually being developed and found, you should always download the latest sets of signatures from your vendor, before running the tests. Tittel also gives a succinct description of phishing. A particularly virulent type of malware that has increased enormously in the last 2 years. He suggests that you scrutinise the links and be very wary of any message that asks for personal information; either in a reply, or in a web page pointed to from that message. Unfortunately, the phishers continue to refine their tactics and many users simply aren't savvy enough to follow Tittel's suggestions. These users may be a minority, but there are enough of them to make this worthwhile for the phishers.

Any of us connected on-line for even a few minutes has probably been the recipient of at least one virus attack. Not only viruses, but many other kinds of intrusive software would like to come into your machine for its own purpose. This book talks about the major kinds of invasions you might expect and how to prevent them from entering your machine. Most of us have learned about viruses the hard way, we cought them and then had to learn how to clean the system. Here in one book is a complete introduction to the problem. It covers all the common types of problems a PC is likely to encounter in one place.