Let's face it, this topic is not one of the
first to pop into your head if you are a new computer user.
In fact many do not have a clue about the who, what, where,
and why when it comes to security on their personal computer.
Most think, mistakenly so in most cases, that their factory
bought computer come with all the software installed to keep
them safe and secure online. The fact is little could be
further from the truth. As most systems are set up, they are
ready willing and very able to network and share information
with anyone who knows how to ask for it. The trick in all of
this is to limit and control the use of the system without
making it very hard to operate and get the desired results
you need online. Lets take a look at a few points to keep in
mind and go over a few suggestions that may help you toward
that end.
First off, use some common sence. Few would be so bold as to
think they could play golf against say a Annika Sorenstam or Tiger Woods, and not
be taught a lession or two. No one in their right mind would
blindly wander onto the ice during an hockey game or football game without
some protection, or attempt to run a marathon in their bare
feet! The preperation for going online is not all that much
different. When you go into a chat room or website do not
wildly announce your name, address and phone numbers to
everyone or give other personal information that allows
anyone to track you down easy. The fact is often a good idea
to set up an email address solely to deal with junk mail so
it does not clog up your nomal email address or give spam operators chance to fill your email with offers or worse. Giving your
real name, address, phone #, and other items like your zip
code is pretty much like telling everyone where you are at to
anyone who knows to do a bit of research - with tools that
are not at all hard to come by online. Never let your kids get
online without keeping a very close eye on the nature of the
content they are talking about or sites that they may be visiting. When you do go to websites to
fill out forms for entrance review the privacy policy of the
site and only believe about half of what you read there. Your
email address will likely get shared and generally any other
information you leave will as well. Even if it is not shared
intentionally, it can often be monitored by those who can
control internet traffic, and believe it or not, some ISP's
even sell information about the ISP users. It is not my
intention to make you paranoid but a little caution is well
placed and prudent at this point anyway.
Oh, and it is never a good idea to look for trouble. There
are many smart Internet savy people around, and some of them would not be
the type to start a cyberwar with, even if you know what you
are doing, let alone someone who is starting out or a very
casual user like many are. Doing so can bring about a good
deal of problems with your online and offline existance. Common sence and
a bit of discression will go a long way in keeping you out of
trouble. As long as we are talking common sence, one of the
most common mistakes made is the use of common words for
passwords. Make a hard password that is at least 8 characters
in length and uses both letters and numbers randomly. Longer
and more random with as large a group of possible choices for
each character works best. So if you can use upper and lower
case do so, if you can use other items like Pound Signs, Dollar signs, percentage signs and
so on, as they only adds to how hard it will be to crack the
password - if your server allows for such. Most will accept
at least upper and lower case as well as numbers up to about
16 places in length. This one item will go a long way in
keeping your data and operations secure.
The next few steps may sound boring but they are vital to
being successful at avoiding problems online. Get real time antivirus software
on your system and keep up with antivirus software
updates! Most new factory systems come with antivirus
software trials, some even only a basic link to an online scan. These are rather limited for real effective protection. You should get some real time software that will scan either some or all files coming in from email and websites you may visit. In most cases Antivirus software will last for up to a year before they expire with free updates. Others such as trial versions may last only 30 to 90 days. Most every
antivirus program has what are known as Virus Signature files
which are kind of a finger print of the virus's that may
attack your system, and there are often over one hundred new
virus files added to the list every month. So it does not
take a rocket scientist to see that if you do not keep
updated soon your antivirus software will be less than
totally effective. I will also mention that it is much harder
to remove virus files after they are on the computer than it
is to have them stopped by the antivirus software before they
are really infected. The fact is there are even freeware
antivirus programs that do manage to provide the basic
protection so there is little reason not to run antivirus
software. See the links at the end of this page for antivirus
software suppliers. I should mention in cost cutting measures
on some new systems they do not even bother with real time
virus protection but instead provide you with an online scan
URL. These online scans do serve a useful purpose but they
cannot replace real time monitoring and protection of your
system. I personally suggest real time scanning of all files
coming into your system ( including webpage HTML content ) as
well as boot sector monitoring. Some antivirus software
allows you to only scan EXE or other program type files but
sometimes these can be hidden so as to appear as image or
media files also.
Next thing is to
get a firewall and test it after it has been installed. A firewall is just a way to
control the access to your computer. Setting up the firewall
is not hard in most cases and once done you need to do little
to it to provide a decent level of protection. The level of
the protection needed however depends greatly on the purpose
you plan on using your computer for, the connection you have,
and the sensitivity of the information you store on your
computer. If you are on a dial up, just check your email
twice a week, and only spend perhaps a hour or two a month
looking up a subject online the requirements for you would be
pretty low. If you spend hours on end online or have a fixed
IP address on a DSL or cable modem connection, perhaps even
have sensitive information on your system or network you may
require a pretty well set up and maintained firewall. One of
the largest factors about a firewall is if you happen to also
have a good antivirus program running. One without the other
limits the effectiveness of both. Firewalls tend to also come
in two major types, software based and hardware based. The
hardware based generally cost a more money and get
used on networks and fixed address connections such as DSL or cable modems when used with small home or office networks. Software
based firewalls are generally more suited to the home users running one computer.
You should be aware that any firewall that has not been
tested should not be considered to be secure, and such
testing should be done every month or after new software has
been installed that interacts online. On software based
firewalls you should also keep in mind that they will require
anywhere from 3 to 8 mb of system memory in most cases. So if
you a running low on system memory you may wish to keep an
eye on the size of the firewall you install. Without a
firewall it is very possible for someone to steal data and
gain access to your passwords and account names. Also you may
wish to review the File Sharing settings on your version of
Windows. Again firewall software suppliers will be listed
below.
Beware of the software you get. Not all freeware programs are totally free but
come with strings attached. They often tend to have software to track your online use and movement so they can sell that information to marketers which in turn covers the cost of the program they have given you. These are generally called spyware they can and will track the use of the program and even what else you are using your computer
for. It is best to get a bit of a review of the program and
also check around to see if the software has any spys that it
sends to you as well. Many websites also have items known as
webbugs which are a sort of cookie that can be retrived later
with updated data on it as well. You need to be mindful of
these as well to be secure online. I generally suggest you
install a program to control cookies, or delete them nightly.
I also recommend Spybot Search and Destroy or AdAware to keep spyware applications off
your system as well as Microsoft TweakUI for keeping your
history and other trackable data from being available to
those who would monitor your online time. See links below.
Keep up with Windows Updates if you get online. Over 50% of
the updates on the Windows Update site are for security
issues. It is a very good idea to get current with at least
the critical updates for your computer's version of Windows.
Often times recommended updates are optional but you should
at least look them over while you are updating. Then about
every month it is not a bad idea to check back from more
updates. Most of the newer versions of Windows have an automatic update feature but I personally do not use it as I perfer to update manually. The first time around with Windows Update can be a
long and drawn out affair. Since they are downloads they can
often exceed an hour per update and it is very possible to
have several updates waiting if you are going for the first
time, even on new systems. You see the makers of the computer
do not always update their software bundles and keep using
the same package of software for sometime. If downloading
files is not your thing, you can order the update on CD from
Microsoft also online for a fee. See the Windows Update link
below.
Do not boldly go where no one has gone before. The internet
is not Star Trek, more like the wild, wild west to be honest
about it. If you wander into the wrong areas such as webpage
with a script to log your IP address and then forward it to
the site owner you may find someone other than you running
your computer, or perhaps a Trojan Horse uploaded to your
system so that anyone scanning a given port address can be
into your system if you have a firewall or not. ( some
firewalls only work in one direction and some Trojans can
breach firewalls ) Most antivirus software will stop such
Trojan Horse programs from operation or at the very least
detect them. However this brings us to perhaps the last major
security issue...
Email is perhaps the best source of a virus/trojan infection.
One need only look at the amount of virus pattern updates to see most any person with a bit of
programing and a willness to do so can make a virus. From there it is a small item to find a way to deliever
it. Depending on the functions written into the code used for the virus or trojan they can give all manner of access or produce all sorts of problems for the person whos computer is infected.
You can however stop most of this very simply by not blindly
accepting attachments and virus scanning any email you get
with current antivirus software. Some firewall products will
put up a quarentine wall to prevent email from infecting your
system and many of the Windows Updates are in place to plug holes used to infect people thru email attachments. This also holds true for Instant Messengers as most can be used in much the same way if you are not
careful about their use and curb the function to accept any files sent without question. In some cases even website links for
graphical backgrounds or effects and as such allow for virus
or Trojan payloads to be passed as well. As a general rule it
is best to limit your acceptance of files and so on to people
you have known for a while. Even then scan everything with a virus
scan before opening it as they can be infected and not know it themselves. I also recommend if you do not have a
memory issue to enable real time scanning of everything that
comes into your system. If you do have a memory or processor
speed issue, scan at least boot sectors and incoming program
file extentions. It may be useful to set up your Windows to
also display file extentions and not the large icons only which is the default setting.
Many would not have been fooled if they knew the type of file and not gone solely by the icons seen in Windows Explorer by default.
I mentioned it above but the last thing is a suggestion I
recommend to most who are just personal computer users. Look
up how to disable file and print sharing. Most people do not
need the function in operation and it allows someone looking
to do so a much easier job of getting into someones system. I
personally have it turned off and have for sometime and do
not miss it a bit so far. Perhaps if I networked to another
system it will be needed but at this point it does not seem
to effect the operation and may speed it up if you disable it
if you are only running one computer at home.
If you are keeping sensitive documents on your system back
them up to a removable media and do not leave them on the
hard drive if you can do so. If you keep your sensitive data
on a removable media it will not allow access to it unless it
is in the drive, and honestly it is often safer if it is on
the CD or diskette where you can lock it up or secure it
otherwise. Plus if there is a failure of the hard drive your
data can be recovered. With the cost of CDR media and CD
Writers, there are few reasons to be without them in most
cases. If you do not have one all systems come with a
diskette drive. You can often save a pretty large file in a
diskette if it is zipped, typically up to of 3mb of data.
Often times you can even password protect the data you zip
with programs like Winzip as well adding in another layer of
protection. You can even use Winzip or something like it for
transfering email documents with password protection with a
very small about of practice. Even zipping and including a
password on your system files can be helpful or perhaps
hiding the entire folder on the system and zipping the
contents. That way if someone does gain access they would
have more of a job locating anything you have also.
These items can keep you out of trouble in most places
online. Below you will find a few software links
classified into groups and in order of my personal experence
with them. I am not here however to rate software and what
works for me may not be what you like. Some may like more
hands on software or software that can do more functions
without user input. Some program versions work better on a
certain Windows version compared to another, or even in rarer
cases a given processor or motherboard over another. Of
course Windows Update and how current you are with these and
in other cases other programs you have installed will also
determine how well a given program works. So any review of a
given program on my part may not be the results you see in
your case on your system. I also will mention I am big fan of
freeware programs. Call me cheap but I do perfer to not buy
software if I can avoid it with something that works as good
and is freeware, may lack some of the polish of retail
software.
One other thing you may wish to look at if you are a Win2k or
Win XP user is the clear page file registry key setting. Be
default these two versions of Windows do not clear the
pagefile at shutdown so the data that may be in the pagefile
( virtual memory file ) may be left for someone else to view
on your computer. Here is a step-by-step page on how to
change the registry key to keep this from being the case (
change it to the setting to clear this file at shut down ),,,
Morgan Web's Tech TV page about changing
the registry key setting for Clearing Pagefile.
Patrick Norton from Tech TV about Security on WiFi Networks from 11-13-02
My Malware Threats Page
Microsoft Security Audit Download for Win2K and Win XP
|
Antivirus
software
Firewalls
Firewall Port Tests
Zip Utilties
Other Software - Downloads - Security
Sites
|
© Joanna ( aka easy2confuse ) 2002 and proudly
provided for inclusion into www.nhyrvana.com
Last Revised: Thursday, October 23, 2003
|
