Batten down the hatches! Hackers, spammers and thieves (oh my!) are after you! The mere act of turning on an Internet-connected computer can put you, your family, and your personal finances at risk by exposing you to viruses, scam artists, hackers, identity thieves, and spammers. How do you fight back? Absolute Beginner's Guide to Security, Spam, Spyware and Viruses is your first line of defense.

Clear, easy-to-understand definitions of viruses, spyware, and hackers will help you understand what you're up against everytime you go online. Then, you'll learn about other threats, such as identity theft, phishing, and other potential dangers you'll face in your everyday computing. Find out how to search out and destroy spyware, malware and other viscious programs that could potentially harm your computer. Then find out how to lock out hackers, spammers, and theives for good.

We'll tell you how to immediately cut the risk of being attacked in half — in less than 10 minutes! Protect your bank accounts, digital photos, digital music collection, masters thesis, and everything you hold near and dear on your computer with the help of the Absolute Beginner's Guide to Security, Spam, Spyware and Viruses.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Helpful But Repititious and a Bit Disorganized - 2006-03-09
Reviewer Rating:
This book does a pretty good job at clearing away some of the mystery surrounding home computer security. For the uninitiated, it defines viruses, spyware, adware, spam, phishing, etc. and does a pretty good job of helping you to understand how these threats differ from each other. The book is less successful in differentiating the symptoms that help indicate which type of infection you might have. I think the author should have included a "symptoms matrix" which showed, in one chart, which symptoms apply to which threat and which threats might exhibit overlapping symptoms. Let's face it, many readers of this book bought it because they are having some type of malware problem and they need help in diagnosing it and then fixing it. Understanding what may have caused the problem is an important step, but it's only a step.

The book puts too much reliance on virus checkers and spyware to resolve your problems. Even if these tools prevent 99% of all threats, it only takes one threat to bring your system to its knees. I don't think the book does enough to help you fix that type of problem.

I also felt that the book may be a little irresponsible in encouraging you to wipe your system clean (reformat your hard disk and start over) if all else fails. It's a little bit like a book about warfare that spends a lot of time on dropping a nuclear bomb but didn't explain very well all of the other less drastic measures that should have been tried first.

Another issue with the book is that Parts I, II, and III contain essentially the same tips organized in a different way. So, while the straightforward and humorous writing style should make a cover-to-cover read entertaining, the somewhat redundant sections actually make such a read a boring task as the book wears on. I suspect that the writer was trying to make these sections as self-contained as possible, but I don't think the book's organization was sufficiently well thought out. The author needed to make up his mind whether this book was going to be a compendium of stand-alone articles or a step-by-step tutor for beginners. It tries to be both and that gets messy as one gets deeper into the book.

In summary, if you know little or nothing about the topics covered in this book, I recommend it as a learning tool. It's also great for gearing you up to prevent problems. But don't expect it to help you much in getting rid of an infection after the fact. Unless you are into nuclear warfare.

Practical, with attitude! - 2006-03-16
Reviewer Rating:
If you were a fan of Call for Help, you remember Andy Walker's madcap segments. From the bunny suit to the propane torch and marshmallows, this guy can take a complicated topic and make it easy to understand. Andy's attitude comes through in this book - it is easy to understand and fun to read.

Excellent Product More for Experienced Users - 2007-04-06
Reviewer Rating:
I checked the book out of the library to give me something to read on a trip, and liked it so much, I purchased it when I returned. It includes step by step instructions for the beginner, but as you get further into the book, some of the details may scare away new computer users. Working on computers for 20+ years, I figured it would be a good review, but I learned a lot.

Safeguarding Your Computer! - 2009-08-12
Reviewer Rating:
I found that this book answered all of my many security questions in great detail. My current interest was to install a router for my computers and to provide additional security. This book provided step by step procedures on installation and setup, as well as explanations of security measures and precautions. The writer has a great sense of humor and makes what might be a dry and boring subject, a page turning experience.

THE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM FROM HELL - 2009-04-18
Reviewer Rating:
I took their advice, downloaded one of the 'highly recommended' online free antivirus programs they like, and the darn thing hijacked my computer. Holy Cow!

This book's authors dont warn you that some FREEWARE is bait to download a trojan virus that corrupts your computer, then pesters you endlessly to buy the $30 upgrade. And some of the FREEWARE they like does this. Its like...buy protection from the mob and you'll never have a mob problem again.

Their other advice is okay, but dont download the highly recommended free software. You'll be sorry.

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