Maintaining Security Online; Steering Clear of Phishers
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about Web browsers, external hard drives and phishing.
If you have a question, send it to me at
mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg's Mailbox.
Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can't routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.
Q: My techie friend is urging me to stop using Internet Explorer on my Windows XP computer and switch to a Web browser called Firefox. He says it's better and more secure. Does this make sense? Are there any downsides?
A: Firefox is a Web browser that is a popular alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It comes from an open-source organization called Mozilla (
www.mozilla.org) and is offered in versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. It is more modern than Internet Explorer, and features tabbed browsing, an approach I like a lot that lets you open multiple Web pages at once on a single screen.
Only a small percentage of Web surfers use Firefox, but that number has grown sharply recently, in the wake of warnings that Internet Explorer's security holes are making it easier for viruses, spyware and other malicious software to enter a computer. Microsoft has recently fixed some of these problems in the new Service Pack 2 update to Windows XP, but Firefox has a number of characteristics that still make it inherently safer than Internet Explorer.
If you're worried about security, Firefox is a good way to go. I have been using it recently, with no problems. But there are some downsides. For one thing, it's not finished. It's still a preview, or beta, with a version number that hasn't reached 1.0 yet. And, there are some Web sites it doesn't handle properly, because the developers of those sites have tailored them to specific features of Internet Explorer. But it's stable and fast, and you could always use Internet Explorer for those few sites Firefox doesn't render correctly.
Q: I have purchased an external hard drive for backing up my key files, and now I need a software program that I can use to tell the computer to "copy these folders from my desktop to this drive" on a daily basis. Does such a program exist?
A: Yes, there are a number of software programs that can synchronize folders from your main hard disk to a backup hard disk. In fact, I use one of them every night to automatically synchronize folders in this manner. It's called SmartSync Pro, from SmartSync Software. It costs $35, and can be downloaded at
www.smsync.com.Q: I have received an official-looking e-mail from my bank asking me to contact their Web site to reconfirm some details of my account. But I have read that such e-mails are often fakes. Should I respond to it?
A: I wouldn't. Your caution is well placed. Scammers are using a type of fraud, called "phishing," in which they send out e-mails that look very official, right down to the logo and a web link that appears to be that of a financial institution or other company where you might have personal information stored.
The links in these e-mails often lead to a clever forgery of the company's Web site. In some cases, they may even take you to a company's real Web site, but with part of the site -- the part where you are asked to enter passwords or account numbers or Social Security numbers -- actually tied to a scammers' Web site. Either way, any information you enter actually goes to the scammer, not the company itself.
In general, I advise never responding to any e-mail that asks you to go to a Web site and enter any information you consider private. If the e-mail suggests that providing this information is mandatory or urgent, then go to the company's site using your Web browser and the Web address you usually use -- not the link in the e-mail -- to see if the company is actually demanding such information. Very likely, it's not. Or, call the company to check it out.
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Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can't routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.
能用Firefox替代Internet Explorer吗？
在我们大多数人所拥有的大型电器中，再没有什么比个人电脑更令人费解、更变幻莫测的了。每个人或许都有些关于电脑的问题，而《莫博士信箱》将为您提供帮助。
本期将回答的问题包括：Firefox网页浏览器与Internet Explorer相比的优缺点、如何将电脑中的文件夹自动备份到外部硬盘上等。
问：我的的一个学技术的朋友催促我不用在Windows XP电脑上面使用Internet Explorer，而是换成一个名为Firefox的网页浏览器。他说，后者更好用并且更安全。真是这样吗？Firefox有没有什么缺点？
答：Firefox是一种很受欢迎的可以替代微软(Microsoft)Internet Explorer的网页浏览器。它是一个由名为Mozilla(
www.mozilla.org)的公开源代码组织开发的产品，并且分别有Windows、Macintosh和Linux不同的版本。它比Internet Explorer更时尚，并且支持在一个窗口里面打开数个网页，这是我非常喜欢的一个功能。
虽然只有少数人使用Firefox在网上冲浪，但是最近使用该浏览器的人数却急剧增加，因为此前有关人士发出警告，Internet Explorer的安全漏洞使得病毒、间谍软件以及其它恶意软件可以很容易的侵入电脑。微软在其新的Windows XP补丁Service Pack 2中已经解决了其中一些问题，但是Firefox的许多特性仍然使它在本质上仍然比Internet Explorer安全。
如果你在安全方面心有疑虑，Firefox是一个不错的选择。 我最近一直在使用它，没有发现任何问题。但是它有几个不足之处。其中一个是，它仍然是一件半成品。目前Firefox仍是试用版本，其版本号甚至还没有达到1.0。而且，有一些网站它不能正确显示，因为这些网站的开发商为Internet Explorer量身定做了一些功能。但是Firefox稳定而快捷，你总是可以使用Internet Explorer去浏览不能正确显示的少数网站。
问：我购买了一个外部硬盘用来备份重要文件，现在我需要一个能帮助我每天把台式电脑上的的文件夹复制到外部硬盘里面的软件。有这种软件吗？
答：有，有许多软件能够将你的电脑硬盘上的文件夹与备份硬盘的做到同步更新。实际上，我就每晚使用一个软件对文件夹进行自动地备份。这个软件名为SmartSync Pro，由SmartSync Software出品。其售价为35美元，可以在
www.smsync.com下载。
问：我从我的银行那里收到一封看上去很正式的电子邮件，要求我访问它们的网站以确认我的帐户的某些详细信息。但是我听说这种邮件十有八九是陷阱。我应该对这封邮件做出回应吗？
答：我不会。你完全应该保持警惕。诈骗者正在使用一种新型的骗术，他们发送看上去非常正式的电子邮件，这封邮件中的标识和网址链接看上去与你存储个人信息的那家公司或金融机构一模一样。
这些邮件中的链接常常连向一个经过巧妙伪造的公司网址。在一些案例中，这些链接还会把你带到真正的公司网站，但是在这个网站上的某一部分－－要求你输入密码或帐户号码或社会保障号码的地方－－可能与诈骗者的网址相连。在两种情形下，你输入的任何信息实际上都被转到了诈骗者手中，而不是真正的公司。
对于此类要求你访问一个网站并输入私人信息的电子邮件，我通常建议不要做出任何回应。如果电子邮件称提供个人信息是必须的、或是非常紧急的，那么你要使用自己的浏览器和你通常使用的网址去访问那家公司的网站，而不要使用邮件中提供的链接，看看公司是否真有这样的要求，很有可能公司根本没有提出这样的要求。你也可以直接打电话到公司问明情况。
