The Internet offers the best of humanity, but the worst of humanity is online, too. Fortunately, protecting yourself is relatively simple, with the right knowledge.

	Protecting Against Computer Viruses
	Spy-ware and other "Trojan Horses"
	Dealing With Spam And Other False Email
	Staying Safe

Protecting Against Computer Viruses

Computer viruses are programs that try to spread themselves to other computers, using your computer's resources. They often cause your computer to do things you don't want your computer to do, such as sending spam, E-mailing all your friends with a virus, or allowing remote hackers to take full control of your computer without your knowledge.

One of the most common ways computer viruses spread now is through E-mail attachments. Most of these viruses now forge the "from" address of the E-mail, making it look like, it had come from your friend, or even from MichTel Communications. MichTel will never E-mail you an attachment without prior notification. It is very important for the users to delete these E-mails without opening the attachment. "From" addresses are just as easy to fake online as it is to write a false return address on a physical mail, and should not be trusted.

MichTel recommends that you buy an anti-virus program, and set it to scan your E-mail for viruses. Since Virus Scanners require frequent updating to detect the newest viruses, anti-virus programs are not perfect protection, so it is always a good idea to be careful about opening E-mail attachments, unless you are certain they are safe.
Viruses can also be spread by other means, but currently E-mail is the cause of most virus infections. Anti-virus software will also help protect against these other virus infection methods.

Anti-virus software may be purchased from any software store, or online directly from the vendors, including:

	Symantec (Symantec's list of Latest Threats)
	McAfee (McAfee's Virus Information Page)
	TrendMicro (TrendMicro's Top Threats page)

Spy-ware and other "Trojan Horses"

There are some programs that the anti-virus programs have refused to classify as a virus, even though you aren't going to like what they do. Spy-ware is software that tracks your activities online and sends it to somebody. Spy-ware is typically either disguised as a program that does something useful ("Trojan horses"), or is, against your will, installed via a security flaw in Internet Explorer.

Many of the nifty little free programs you can download online are just the fronts for spy-ware. There are a lot many good free software on the Internet, including entire operating systems, but the good free software sites typically will not have advertising (with some exceptions), usually having a "donation box" at most.

To find out if you have a spy-ware on your computer, download, install, and run AdAware (there is a free version for personal use).

To avoid getting spy-ware in the first place, be careful of what you download, and be sure none of the other users of the computer are installing software on the computer from untrustworthy sources on the Internet. Consider downloading and using Mozilla FireFox, as your web browser, as in addition to being much less susceptible to having spy-ware installed through a security flaw, it can also shut off pop-ups and stop image animations if you ask it.

If you're running Windows, be sure to stay up-to-date through Windows Update. It may be several hours to download some of those updates over dial-up, but many of them fix security flaws in Internet Explorer that allow people to install spy-ware or viruses secretly.

Spam is an unsolicited commercial E-mail. The best way to deal with a spam E-mail in your Inbox is to delete it without reading it. Most spam E-mails are fraudulent, even if they seem interesting. Since the person sending the spam is often impossible to track down, and often not even in this country, spammers have little reason to actually provide promised goods or services after taking your money.

Common frauds include:

	Cheap or illegal drugs without prescription: If you receive anything at all, it is often just sugar pills.
	"Phishing" scams: E-mails that attempt to get you to enter personal information (credit card number, social security number, etc.), in order to "verify" it. No reputable online site will send an E-mail asking for such verification, including MichTel. The site will use your entered information to fraudulent drain money from your bank account, or order things with your credit card.
	Nigerian Scams: Somebody needs your help moving money out of their country and will cut you in, if you just send them some money up front to get some paperwork out of the way. You send the money; but they never do.
	Spammers are always coming up with new ideas. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Along with spam as defined above, you may receive other false or illegal E-mails, such as chain letters, false virus alerts, untrue urban legends, or very out-of-date information.

The Federal Trade Commission maintains several pages about these issues:

	Spam
	Identity Theft
	Avoiding "Phishing" scams online
	Chain Letters and Alerts
	"Pre-texting" - getting your personal information under false pretenses

For more information about computer viruses, email fraud, urban legends, and other such things, please see Snopes.com. Snopes.com is also fun to read, as well as informative. Some direct links to Snopes' information:

	Common computer virus alerts, both false and true
	Common email fraud online
	The Nigerian Scam
	Snopes Search: Please check all chain E-mails here for truth before sending them on.
		Missing children may have been found, or never existed.
		Forwarding email will not net you money or charity donations.
		Emails that infuriate you may not be true.

Staying Safe

This page may be intimidating, but it all boils down to one thing: The Internet is no different then the rest of the world. Be careful, be skeptical, be aware, and you'll be fine.