2. Viruses Hackers Backups Stuxnet Portfolio

4. Computer viruses are small programs or scripts that can negatively affect the health of your computer. A computer virus is purposely made to harm a computer without the user’s permission! Some viruses can get bigger and attach themselves to programs; and travel across networks. Viruses can range in size, but are all still very nasty! The most common virus is when opening an e-mail attachment that has been infected. what is a computer virus? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-computer-viruses.html

5. What damage can a virus do? These horrible, unwanted little programs can: create files! move files! delete files! eat up your computer's memory! cause your computer to not work properly!

6. What are the different types of viruses? http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of- computer-viruses.html Resident Viruses Direct Action Viruses Overwrite Viruses Boot Virus Macro Virus Directory Virus Polymorphic Virus File Infectors Companion Viruses FAT Virus Trojans or Trojan Horses

7. How can you stop your computer from getting a virus? Download an anti-virus software on your computer to remove any viruses on your computer. (You must update the anti- virus software very regularly, though!) Make back up copies of important documents and files. Incase of a bad virus on your computer that could delete your things you will have a back up copy available. If you use a school or public computer, ask an adult to run a scan before you save any files that you may use on your own computer at home to make sure they are safe and not hiding any viruses! http://www.askdeb.com/internet/computer/viruses/

8. What problems might you face when trying to protect your computer? Although downloading an anti-virus software programme is a good idea, it wont always be able to stop the virus; as it depends on the type of virus and how big it is! Sometimes anti-virus programs appear to look good, but cant always be trusted, as some can do even more damage than the actual virus! So make sure to be careful when choosing a safe website to protect your computer! Use one that is popular and that looks safe, rather than a less popular one that doesn’t look too helpful! By backing up your computer’s documents doesn’t always mean it will work, so you are better getting the anti-virus software, just to be on the safe side. http://www.askdeb.com/internet/computer/viruses/

10. What is hacking? Hacking is when a person without permission breaks into someone’s personal account to be able to see anything and everything that is on that account. Hacking allows the hacker to see the person’s documents, files, data and personal details etc. The hacker is usually a very smart person but they are not a nice person. Hacking is a criminal offence, but some people do it for fun and as a challenge. They're not interested in attacking private individuals. It's the big companies they go for.

11. What damage can hackers do? Hackers can do lots of damage: It can affect computers at home, in school and at the workplace and can cause them to stop working. It can crash, delete your work and personal information. They can find out personal information and can use it to pretend they are you! If someone hacks into your account it can cost a lot of money to fix the problems they have caused, e.g. buying a new computer etc.

12. How can you stop hackers being able to get into your computer? Use a good password, that is easy for you to remember, but not too simple that anyone could guess it. Use a range of capitals and lowercase letters; use numbers and use (*)to make it even more difficult to guess. For example; instead of having: lily1998 You could have: 19*LiLy*98 Make sure you always close the internet before you log off, because leaving it on makes it much easier for the hacker to travel across networks. You can also download a firewall, this helps to stop hackers gaining access to computers. You can also download safety systems like anti-spyware and care.

14. Why is it important to back up your work/information? Backing up your work is very important, because when important work is lost due to: theft Accidental deletes viruses Hardware failure It means that you will have a spare/extra copy of your important documents, data and files if anything bad were to happen!

15. Where and what should you back up your work or information to? A very good and popular place to backup work is onto a U.S.B, it will be safe here and they are portable too! U.S.Bs are very handy little devices; they can hold a fair bit of data and they are easy to use. Although if you do not own a U.S.B, you can use snap shots of your work and copy them when they are needed You could also burn all of your important data onto a floppy disk.

16. How can you keep your backups safe? Snap shots are the answer! A snap shot is a picture taken of any important things stored on your computer, e.g. data or word documents etc. They are used like a backup but are much safer to keep hold of. By taking a picture of important stuff on your computer you are keeping a spare copy of it. It is easy to take a snap shot. Simply just press the shift key with the print screen key and save!

17. Saving a backup copy of my presentation onto my U.S.B If I have already saved my presentation onto the M drive on the school computer; by saving the presentation onto my portable U.S.B; I am making a spare copy of my work in case of a virus damaging my documents. I will have an extra copy so my hard work wont be lost! Here is an example of keeping a backup copy of my work on my U.S.B.

18. Stuxnet is a Windows computer worm discovered in July 2010 that targets industrial software and equipment. In July 2010, a worm virus was set up by hackers and was specifically designed to harm the computer programs of Iran’s industrial business and nuclear power plant plans. It is was quite a big and nasty virus that did a lot of damage to Iran. Iran’s nuclear power programme has not been totally wiped out; but it has suffered major damage and setbacks. The hackers were from Israel and were not very nice people; they were trying to destroy another countries nuclear plans which is very dangerous and could of caused so much damage! This virus was on a much bigger scale than one you are more likely to receive you must still be careful! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12465688

19. So to recap…… To protect your computer from viruses you need to download an anti-virus software. But remember to update it weekly! Make sure your account login password is not too easy, but something that you will remember well! Always shut the internet down before logging off to prevent hackers. When looking for helpful website to protect your computer, make sure the site looks safe and is a popular; because you don’t wont it to give you another virus! Always keep a back up of your important documents etc that are saved onto your computer. Whether it is on a U.S.B, floppy disk, etc. Snapshots are also a really good way of keeping a backup and are very easy to do.