An introduction to PC security
Posted on 02. Oct, 2008 by Mike Halsey in security
Many people are confused and concerned about computer Viruses, Firewalls and Spyware as they don’t understand what it’s all about and how to protect themselves. If this sounds familiar to you, read on.
There are simple and easy steps that you can take to protect yourself, your home and your computers from attack by people with nefarious intent. We’ll deal with these one at a time.
Anti-Virus software protects you against nasty software that you may be tricked into downloading and installing from the internet, from a colleague at work or, most commonly, via email. Always be vigilant about opening email attachments from people you don’t know or that sound suspicious. “Check this out!” and “Celebrity in Hot Sex Action!” are the type of emails that may appear to come from your friends that will spread viruses.
If ever you are in doubt about an email attachment there are some simple steps you can take. Save it to your hard drive, right click on the file on Explorer and select “Scan with…” your anti-virus software. Alternatively if it came from a friend of yours you can email them to check if they really intended to send it to you.
on the downloads page (click on the link of the left) you can find a link to my recommendation(s) for anti-virus software. I have to say that I do not reccommend anybody use Symantec or Norton anti-virus products. In my experience I have seen these do more harm than good and, in the light of court action with Microsoft regards Windows Vista, I can see these problems getting far worse in the coming years. My top reccommendation is AVG by Grisoft which is completely free. Microsoft OneCare is also excellent very inexpensive as is ZoneAlarm Security Suite from ZoneLabs. Other worthy software includes Sophos and Panda. If you are using one of these and keep it kept up to date you have the best protection available.
A firewall is your next package and it doesn’t have to cost either. ZoneAlarm is one of the finest firewalls on the planet, and has been so for years, it also comes in a free edition. Grisoft also now produce their own integrated security suite, as do Microsoft with OneCare and they don’t cost much. Again you can find links on my downloads page.
So what is spyware? Simply put it’s small pieces of software that are loaded onto your PC automatically when you visit websites. The latest web browsers Like Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 will help screen out many spyware packages but nothing is foolproof. There are many excellent free utilities (linked from my downloads page) including AdAware and Spybot but these don’t automatically check your PC every day unlike the free Microsoft Windows Defender (included as standard with Windows Vista and available as a download for XP). However Defender isn’t one of the very best and I’d always recommend you have two of three anti-spyware packages installed.
So should you have two of three firewalls and anti-virus packages installed? It doesn’t really matter too much with Firewalls, though you may find having two installed annoying at times as they will both try to warn you about potential attacks. Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed has a one-way firewall that will block incoming attacks. Windows Vista goes one step further with a good two way firewall. If your home is behind a router then you have even more protection. It is not recommended however that you have two anti-virus packages installed, just stick to the one. The problem here is that they can interfere with one another, thus reducing their effectiveness.
So what about integrated security suites, are they any good? There are some excellent suites out there from the likes of Grisoft, ZoneLabs, Microsoft and others. The advantages these offer is that all your security settings and updates are handled from a single location and that it makes these packages much simpler to understand and use. These are never free but are well worth the money.
So I’m protected but how can I avoid being attacked in the first place? There are several things you can be on the look-out for to keep your PC safe and secure. The first is email attachments as I mentioned earlier. Any website that pops up the information bar in your browser asking you to install some software or a driver is usually something you should say no to. There are notable examples such as Abode’s Flash player (required to view the Inspirare ‘in action’ website on the menu above) but if you’re ever in doubt when one of these pops up you can always open a new browser window, go to a search engine such as Google and type it’s name to see what people have said about it.
All these types of software are available from my downloads section (right) along with excellent patches and other utilities. Everything there comes highly recommended, not just from me, but also from many thousands of other internet users. But remember…
Always keep your anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware software up to date! It’s well worth it.
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