Protecting yourself against Spam & Spyware

Earlier we had to contend with viruses creating havoc with our computers. Then came
Spam, closely followed by Spyware and Phishing.

With almost every computer now connected to each other via the Internet and through popular peer-to-peer software, spyware, viruses and trojans are becoming an integral though unwelcome part of our daily lives. In surveys, the majority of people have commented that over 60% of their email is all spam; i.e Unsolicited emails sent to promote a wide variety of products or services. And as these spam emails are sent by unscrupulously getting access to mailing lists and/or automated software, it is possible to send hundreds of thousands of emails within a matter of a few hours without any major human intervention.

There are a number of things one can do to protect yourself against such threats to your system as well as your privacy. While one can always install software products, other measures and some caution will go a long way in minimizing these threats.

For defeating spammers, you should take care to;

Not buy anything that is promoted by a spammer.
Not to reply to any spam mail or click on unsubscribe link. In most cases, clicking on unsubscribe links actually validates your email and thus makes you a legit target for spammers.
Disabling preview panels in mail client software will prevent information about your system relayed back to the spammer.
Domains and IP addresses from which spammers are targeting you should be reported to blacklists online.

Viruses:

Been around for almost 2 decades now, the Internet has really made it possible to transmit and infect other computers faster than ever before. One must be careful while opening email attachments even if they are from known senders. Use a quality anti virus software.

The Linux and *nix operating systems are less prone to viruses. A lot of people are switching over to Linux to avoid the hassles of having to deal with viruses, software updates etc.