Monday, 3. May 2010 15:22
It’s easier than you think for your computer to become infected… All it takes is a visit to the wrong website (or a visit to a hacked one you normally trust) and your computer could become infected. Your computer might be infected right now and you wouldn’t even know it.
Here are some guidelines we’ve developed at i2M to help users stay safe out there.
1. Question everything. This is the single most important thing you can do. Get an e-mail from someone you don’t know? Don’t download it’s attachments. New software installed on your computer? that’s not “normal”. If something seems fishy, it probably is. Always Err on the side of caution.
2. Read number 1 again. it’s that important.
3. Don’t use internet explorer for general browsing. Some websites require internet explorer, so use it only when you need to.
4. Just because you’re not using IE, doesn’t mean you’re safe. running firefox, chrome, or safari on windows doesn’t mean you’re “protected” in some magical way. it helps, when used correctly. But overall, using one of these browsers does not mean you can be careless. You can (read: will) get infected someday.
5. Keep everything up to date. These days, applications themselves can be bigger targets than the OS’s they run on.
6. Just because you’re on a mac doesn’t make you safe. You’re safer, but you’re not indestructable. While there are no known viruses and spyware for mac like there are for our PC brethren, tomorrow is a new day. And all it can take is one wrong link.
7. Get your computer some life insurance.What if your computer gets infected so badly that it needs to be wiped clean and everything needs to be reinstalled? It can happen to the best of us. What will you do? What if you could save yourself the headache? One option you can utilize is something like Acronis, Which continually backs up your entire machine and lets you do things like “Revert computer to it’s state last week”. If you’re on a mac, use time machine. An attitude of ‘What if…’ is good to have and allows for proactive computer safety.
8. Your friends are probably infected. And they probably don’t even know it. You might be too. Some infections can send e-mails out to everyone on their contact list, posing as the user in an attempt to infect your machine. Or, they could accidentally send you an infected file. Or send your e-mail address to spammers. That’s what friends are for.
9. You’re on your own if you use any kind of P2P services like bitorrent or limewire. Such services can be a breeding ground for all sorts of nasty stuff. Instead, use hulu or netflix online to watch videos. Purchase music from amazon (oft cheaper than itunes) instead of downloading illegally. Doing so ensures the files you receive are not infected. (but, if you do, use protection.)
10. Don’t use your credit card unless it’s on a site you trust. Even then, use a secondary payment option (such as paypal or google checkout) if available, to reduce the number of companies that have a copy of your credit card on file. And you should ALWAYS be cautious when providing any personally identifiable information. Your social security number, name, and e-mail address are ALL things you should be careful to protect. (Don’t sign up for or post info on websites. Don’t use just one e-mail address.
11. Stupid questions are ones that have never been asked. If you’re unsure of an e-mail or website, or are having some problems, use google. A simple search for “facebook password reset confirmation” will provide you with plenty of reason to be cautious of opening an e-mail with that subject line. Of course, it also helps to have someone you can go to if you have a problem or question that google can’t solve, We’re here to help.
12. Get a checkup regularly. You should get your computer a checkup 4 times a year, every 90 days. If you know how to do it yourself, you can of course do it yourself (but don’t think that you’re exempt because you’re smarter than that. your neither.). A quick list: Review event logs, delete temporary files, check for any software updates (OS update as well as for ALL software installed, use ‘remove programs’ in windows to get a good overview), run full anti-virus scan (preferably during machine boot), run full spyware scan. Ensure backups are working as desired.
Powertip 13: embrace the polar bears. Deep Freeze lets you “freeze” your computer at a certain state. doesn’t matter what happens to the machine while your using it – next time you reboot, it’s back to it’s self. You can save your files to a separate drive (or setup a few directories to not freeze) and ensure your computer stays in a known-working configuration. You can boot your computer “thawed” and perform updates or new installs, and they will remain there on the next reboot. Cool.
–
Free Software to help you stay safe:
spybot – spyware detection and removal. Also helps remove nasty startup items in ‘advanced’ mode.
avast – free anti-virus (for home users), with the boot-time scan has proven to be invaluable. However their paid products offer additional features and are worthy of consideration. ($60 to these guys helps you stay safe and helps them stay employed)
zonealarm – free personal firewall. If you like it and think it does a good job, consider upgrading to a paid version. (We support paying for software we use, even if it’s free or otherwise GPL. Encourage quality software!) NOTE: we have not evaluated this product.
Additional Resources:
How to protect your family PC – from the folks at zonealarm.
13 ways to protect your system – mcafee threat center. Required reading for all.
Marc Maiffret Q&A with cnet – insight into the current state of computer security (Microsoft has a good internal process of auditing and securing their system, while Apple relies mostly on native unix security and has been otherwise lax)
endjunk – use one e-mail address and give every site / friend their own e-mail address. Helps you identify and eliminate spam sources.
