August 10th, 2014 by Ronen

Top 7 Viruses That Have Wrecked Computers In History

Most people who have never had a serious computer virus issue before might not think too much about these computer problems. However, when you consult some of the people who have had the misfortune of having one infect their computer, the damage that is done can come as huge proportions. This is why many of the companies that depend on IT spend a lot of money on measures that are aimed at reducing the risk of being susceptible to such viruses.

However, have you ever wondered which viruses are the worst? In the world of computing, most of the viruses tend to be nothing more than annoyances that can easily be gotten rid of. However, there are some that have gotten into the history books as being the worst including:

MyDoom

This was a virus that spread itself through email attachments. Once a computer owner opened an email that had the virus, it would then download itself, copy the addresses in that computer’s address book and then resend itself to all the contacts in that address book. It was in this way that it managed to cause more than $38 billion worth of damage.

Cryptolocker

This is an entirely new type of virus known as ransomware. Basically, it restricts access to all the files in your computer, and only allows you to open them after you have paid some money to an address that it specifies. Since it relies on the use of bitcoins to do so, it is very difficult to trace the people who are responsible for the virus.

Alureon

This is a Trojan that has many effects on a computer, including theft of information including passwords and credit card details. It also has the potential to make a computer practically unusable. It does this by changing some of the settings that a user will need to access the desktop as well as the task manager. This means that once it starts running, you will find it very difficult to use the computer as you regularly do, have problems getting rid of the virus and also have your information stolen.

Conficker

This is a virus that was released in 2007. Its main effect was to create an infrastructure that could be used for cybercrime around the world. One of the other effects that it had was to reduce the usability of a computer network, which would then make it more difficult for people to access IT services when needed.

Agent.btz

This virus was mainly spread through infected flash drives. In the process, it ended up disabling the computer in question, and also collected information from it as well. The destructive capacity of this virus was so great that it caused the Pentagon to ban the use of any flash drives within their premises.

PoisonIvy

This is a particularly virulent type of computer virus. It is designated as a Trojan, and can be used to control any computer remotely. This means that once it’s installed in your computer, you may be locked out of it and may have a hard time getting rid of it as well. The virus can allow one access to hardware such as the webcam and the speakers.

Stuxnet

As far as destructive viruses are concerned, this is probably the prototype of them all. A demonstration of the capability of this virus is that it was able to shut down an entire uranium enrichment facility, which is usually operated using highly secured computer systems.

As you can imagine, there are new threats that arise in the world of computing. However, by simply doing things such as using the right antivirus and regularly updating your operating system, you can protect yourself from some of these. You may also need to adopt some behavioural measures such as not opening email attachments that seem suspect, or downloading files from sites you can’t trust.

July 12th, 2014 by Ronen

6 SEO Secrets that Can Help Your New Website Grow

Search engine optimization is a necessary evil. Without it, your website won’t show up on Google’s search results. Every new website has to invest heavily in SEO to improve its page rank. For the uninitiated SEO can seem like a complicated magic trick. However, once the curtain is pulled aside the mysteries are unraveled. Here are 6 SEO secrets that can help your new website grow:

Design Your Website Keeping SEO in Mind

SEO isn’t something you do after your website is up and running. You need to plan for it beforehand. There are certain web design etiquettes you must follow to improve your page rank. This includes adding text descriptions to images, videos and links. This is because Google spiders read text and if your site is low on that, then it won’t have a very good ranking. Inform your web designer in advance to make the website SEO friendly.

Write Quality Content

Writing quality content is the key to good SEO. Your content should be informative, relative and grammatically correct. The reason most websites don’t show up on Google’s search results isn’t because they’re low on content. It’s because they are low on quality content. Hire an experienced content writer to write for you. That way you can be sure that your website has quality content for Google’s spider to read.

Improve the Quality of Links

Links are also an integral part of SEO. The internet is a network made up of infinite links. If you want your website to shine, you’ll need quality backlinks. If a website with a high page rank links to you, it will automatically improve your page rank as well. A dozen of these and you’ll end up on the first page of Google results when someone searches for related keywords.

Keep the Site Updated

Google tends to prefer sites that are regularly updated for their search results. It’s not enough to just build a website and do SEO. SEO is a continuous process that never ends. You need to keep updating your site periodically if you want to stay on Google’s search results. That is the reason why you need to hire a content writer, because they can write about 1500 to 2000 words a day. That’s how much Stephen King writes regularly.

Include Keywords in Your Content

If you want your website to be seen on Google’s search results, then you need to know what people are searching for. You can find keywords specific to your website and then include them in your content. These keywords will be picked up by Google’s spider and your website’s page rank will improve. There are tools available on the internet that will help you with keyword research.

Include Social Media

Social media is a popular method for marketing your website online. Facebook and Twitter are powerful tools in your arsenal that you can use for this purpose. You may have seen Facebook and Twitter icons at the bottom of a webpage before. There’s a reason they’re there. That denotes the website’s social media presence on those sites. If you want to spread the word about your site, then there’s no better way to do it than to use social networking. Make those posts and tweets count for something.

Now that you have a better understanding of SEO, you can appreciate the hard work that search engine optimization services put into it. If you think you can handle this humungous task all by yourself, then you have our blessing. However, if you’d rather let a professional handle this task for you, then you know who to call.