Learnings from a Paypal Hacking Experience: Part Three - Preventive measures to avoid Paypal account getting hacked

In order to ensure you are protected against hackers please remember some guidelines

Learnings from a Paypal Hacking Experience: Part Two - What to do after your Paypal gets hacked

In Part One you were shown what a Paypal hacker might do to your account. This part gives you advice on how to proceed after you get hacked.

Learnings from a Paypal Hacking Experience: Part One - What the hacker does to a PayPal account he hacks

   For most of us especially those who sell online like on eBay, PayPal is very important. It enables buyers to have the security of paying online and for sellers to have the opportunity to receive payments fast and across international borders. However the occasional bad hacker (yup, there are good hackers also) comes along and mess with your happy online existence.

   Our store Paypal account was the hacked recently and we've thought it best to narrate the experience here in order to help and warn other people. The article will be divided into 3 parts to explain what the hacker does to an account he has hacked (Part One), how to deal with it immediately (Part Two) and precautionary steps to avoid it from happening (Part Three).

How to open your computer without a password

Sometimes you might forget the password you've set for your computer. Like when you have just have come back from a refreshing two-week long vacation. If this does happen, then don't worry just yet. Try this simple trick below to open your computer again without a password.

1. when you are at the logon screen click CTRL+ALT+DEL twice
2. type username Adminsitrator and then click enter

Voila! You should now be inside your computer. All you have to do next is just edit the password of your previous account which is demonstrated in this post. If you are concerned with having an Administrator account without a password then just add a password to this account as well to secure it.

Malware 101 : Keeping your computer safe and clean

There are nasty things from the internet that can mess up your computer. They are programs that are generally categorized as malwares. Wikepedia discusses malwares in detail but for the benefit of simplicity I'll just discuss the top malwares to be wary of.

1. Spyware - collects information about the user, their computer and browsing habits without their consent and sends it back to a homebase.
2. Adware - displays advertisements on your computer with or without your consent.
3. Worms - self-replicating computer program that spreads through computer networks which can have the effect of disrupting or slowing internet connections.
4. Virus - is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. Viruses can have nasty effects like erasing precious data from your computer.
5. Trojan - is a non-replicating computer program which the user allows to run thinking it is beneficial when it fact it is causing undesirable functions for example is allowing other users access to your computer.

The ways for you to get malwares on your computer are:

1. Opening email attachments whose sender or contents are dubious.
   
2. While surfing the web especially if you go to unsafe websites sites.
3. Installing unknown programs you got from the internet.
   
4. Plugging in external devices like flash drives, memory cards, or external hard drives that are infected with malware.
   

In order to fight and prevent malwares from invading your computer observe the following guidelines:

1. Do not ever open an email from someone you do not know or whose file names are ending in EXE.
   
2. Use Firefox as your web browser and install the plug-in Adblock plus. If you still have not installed Firefox check my earlier posts on installation and plug-ins. Safe websites are those starting with https:// while an example of usually unsafe websites are those about hacking and porn. Please do if not try to stay away from porn :)
3. Do not immediately install programs especially when free, if their vendor or creator seems untrustworthy as their software may be trojans or contain viruses that will do more harm to you than good.
4. Before you open the folders or copy files from an external device, make sure to run security checks with an anti-virus program and an anti-spyware program first.

Now that you are aware about the different kinds of malware, what they do and how you get them, just keep your computer safe and clean by following the suggested guidelines above.If you want to learn more about antivirus and how to get one for free you may proceed to this article. I hope you leave a comment if you find this helpful.