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Here’s a tip that may help you to keep your computer safe from “invaders”. Not directly related to business perhaps, but you wouldn’t do much business if your computer were compromised or infected, so security needs to be constantly on your list of priorities. Now, if you’re anything like me, you already run a variety of protection, such as anti-virus, spyware detection, firewalls, etc. That’s all great, but once in a while you are asked to make a decision.
Some alert will pop up saying that XYZ wants to connect to the internet and asks you if you will allow it. But sometimes those are spyware or viruses trying to “phone home”, so you definitely do NOT want to say yes, indiscriminately.
How do you know if such a request is legit?
What I do, before answering, is to copy or type the file name into Google. This usually turns up results from tech sites or even forums where the question has already been asked and which gives you the answer you need to proceed safely.
The other day, for instance, an alert popped up on my screen asking if DW20.exe could have permission. I mean, how am I supposed to know about a very non-descriptively named file such as that? I had no idea what program it could belong to, much less whether it was likely to be friend or foe.
So, I searched and the best result I was returned is at a site called ProcessPedia, which kindly told me that this is “Application Error Reporting is a tool which collects (non-private) information when a certain Microsoft Office application crashes.” So it comes from Microsoft: despite other inclinations, we will assume this is friendly! 
ProcessPedia lists files clearly, with the author and version, so you can see what application they belong to.
They also list the “typical location”, which is the second, critical, part of the decision. Whilst it does tell us that this comes from Microsoft that information alone is not enough to assure us that it’s safe, because the same file name in an unexpected location, could be a wolf hiding in sheep’s clothes, i.e. a virus trying to pretend to be something normal. It is not until both conditions are met: a file from a known program and in a location normally used by that program, would I consider giving the file access to the internet.
Bookmark ProcessPedia, because it could be invaluable.
Sponzurz
