Most of us are well aware of how widespread malicious software (i.e. viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware, etc.) is in today’s digital age -- having heard, read about, or experienced it for ourselves on numerous occasions. But at this writing, I wanted to enlighten you on some shockingly hard statistics of how computer viruses negatively impact our computers, security, finances, and entreprises.

US judge orders Microsoft to hand over email data held in Dublin

Phishing mails have been a constant risk for a number of years now, and as the spammers/scammers constantly adapt in order to try to get their mails through the various measures that are put in place to block them, it has become increasingly important to learn how to identify phishing mails. This is massively important to help to protect your identity, your financial details and the login details for any online accounts you may have.

Recently,the Irish Examiner newspaper brought to our attention that more than a million people discovered — some for the first time — what it is like to be a victim, or at least potential victim, of a criminal conspiracy carried out online.

They revealed that the firm targeted by the suspected cyber criminals, Loyalty Build, acknowledged the major security breach and that credit card customer accounts may have been compromised, while the names, addresses and phone numbers of 1.12 million people may have fallen into the wrong hands. Loyalty Build customers include SuperValu, Axa and Stena Line.