It surprises me how many users don’t take computer security seriously.
With hackers, spammers, and viruses lurking around every corner, you can’t afford not to follow some basic steps in protecting your PC and your personal information.
Here are the 10 ways to keep your computer safe.
1. Update your OS
2. Install anti-virus and update
3. Use anti-spyware/adware
4. Secure your home network
5. Use a firewall
6. Don’t use IE
7. Watch out for email attachments
8. OpenDNS
9. Be careful with dangerous websites
10. Keep your personal information safe
1. Update Your Operating System (Windows Update)
The first thing you should do, after getting a new PC or reformatting, is to run Windows Update.
In my household, I have 4 computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.04, Xubuntu 9.04. Some dual-boot while one triple-boots etc.
Whichever operating system you are using, make sure to update them frequently. Especially if you’re running Windows, I recommend that you turn on the auto-update in ‘Windows Update’ if not already done so. Microsoft releases frequent vulnerability and security fixes.
Keeping your operating system up to date is the first step in keeping your computer safe. To check if you’re covered (in Windows), open up your control panel and click on Windows Update. If you see the automatic update option selected, you’re all set. If not, either choose the full auto update or the option that gives you the chance to choose which updates to install yourself. Just don’t turn it off. If you must turn it off for whatever reason, manually check the Windows Update website at least once a week.
Recommended: Try out Ubuntu, the most popular Linux Distro. Using a Linux OS may sound too nerdy for some, but the level of user-friendliness has gotten a lot better over the years. It has all the pretty GUI, too. And, if you’re having problems, a huge online community is waiting to help you. It’s FREE and SAFE.
2. Install Anti-Virus and Keep the Virus Definitions Up-to-Date
An anti-virus software is a MUST. If you don’t have one, you are almost guaranteed to get infected; it’s only a matter of time.
It is amazing how many people don’t have an updated anti-virus running on their computers. Especially if you bought a pre-assembled PC from Dell or HP or Acer etc., your computer may come with a free trial period of 30 days to 1 year. Be mindful of this when you purchase a new PC.
When your subscription period runs out, you will need to either pay to continue using the anti-virus you currently have or get a different anti-virus software. Shop around.
Recommended: There are tons of options out there. But Avast and AVG are two of the best. Why? Because they’re free and very effective. Now, if you want more features and protection, you can move up to a paid anti-virus software. I know Symantec and Mcafee are two of the dominant players, but I don’t recommend them as they take more resources to run and there are others with better detection rates. Full list of recommended is below.
3. Anti-Spyware / Adware
Many times when a PC user complains about a sluggish computer or a slow startup, it is due to a presence of ad/spyware. Most common ones are mostly cookies from your browser as you surf the web and are not very dangerous, while some spywares are very malicious in nature. One example is a key-logger that can log your key strokes to steal your credit card numbers and passwords.
There are also adwares that hijack your browser’s homepage to display their content every time you load up your browser and toolbars that won’t go away.
These days, a lot of anti-virus softwares are able to protect your PC from spy/ad-wares, too. But if you want to be extra safe, install a couple of anti-spyware programs that will more aggressively block various malwares.
Recommended: Free: Spyware Blaster, Windows Defender, SuperAntiSpyware
You can get started with just a couple of those. If you have Windows Vista or 7, you will have Windows Defender by default. So, you might as well use it. I recommend Spyware Blaster in all cases. You simply run it, update, and protect. It doesn’t need to run in the background. It adds black lists to your browsers, and provides an effective prevention. SuperAntiSpyware is a complete suite with real-time protection.
4. Secure Your Home Network
In today’s typical household, multiple computers share a single internet connection. Usually, a router is used to share that connection.
What many people forget is that router is not only an internet sharing device, but a firewall to protect your whole network as well.
Setting up your router’s firewall is the first thing you need to do when setting up a network. Make sure that the firewall feature is turned on in the router settings.
What’s more concerning is that, with the gaining popularity of wireless (WiFi) networks, people are leaving the door wide open to potential hackers and your neighbors (who’s accessing your wireless network right now). You need to protect your computers not just from threats on the internet but also from threats close to your house.
If you have a wireless network enabled in your router, please look at your security settings. If you’ve never touched it, it is very likely that your neighbors had a peek inside your network a few times.
Set it up so that you are using WPA or (preferably WPA2 if supported) with AES encryption (or TKIP if your device doesn’t support AES). WEP is no good. It can be cracked within a couple of minutes. Even WPA is not all that safe these days, but you might not have the option to use WPA2.Create a shared key (password) that’s impossible to guess.
My key is 60+ characters long with numbers and lower/upper case letters randomly generated by the router.
5. Use a Firewall
A firewall prevents intruders from getting in. If you have a router, you already have a firewall. Just confirm that it is up and running. A software firewall can increase the level of security, and especially if you don’t have a router, you need a software firewall. Windows has a built-in firewall, and should be enabled by default. There are other popular firewalls like Zone Alarm.
What I’d recommend, if you want to keep things simple, is to use a security suite that has both anti-virus and firewall included.
6. Try Something Other than Internet Explorer
If you are still using Internet Explorer as your main browser, you really need to switch. IE is the most vulnerable and is also the least efficient browser on the market.
Browsers such as Firefox, Opera, and Chrome are much faster and safer. At the moment, Firefox is the most popular alternative. But I encourage you to try out all the browsers and see which one you like the best.
I highly recommend Opera. Opera is faster than Firefox. It has built-in email client, bittorrent client, widgets, mouse gestures and more. Opera has all these features built-in, yet, it is smaller than Firefox. With the new release of Opera 10 with Turbo (speeds up browsing for slower connections), I predict it will gain more market share. I personally use Firefox, Opera, and IE. Firefox is my main browser; Opera is number two. IE is only used when testing website changes and visiting Korean websites. Lots of Korean websites are only compatible with IE, which I really hate.
7. Careful Opening Email Attachments
Even if you receive an email from one of your friends, don’t assume it’s safe to open file attachments. Some viruses take control of a person’s email account and sends viruses to all his contacts.
If an email is from a stranger, most likely the attachment is a virus. Having an anti-virus should protect you from email threats, but still be careful.
Now, if you experience harm because you had replied to a Nigerian email saying you won a $10 million lottery, there’s nothing that can help for you other than your common sense.
8. Try Open DNS
OpenDNS is a free DNS service that can help your browsing experience to be faster and safer. DNS (Domain Name System) “translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide.
An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the “phone book” for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, http://www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.” – Wikipedia
OpenDNS keeps track of and blocks harmful websites and also has a parental control feature and more.
All you have to do is put these two numbers “208.67.222.222″, “208.67.220.220″ into your router settings or your computer’s network settings.
Instructions for various routers and computers are available on the website.
9. Be Careful about Which Sites You Visit
If you got OpenDNS all set up, you can worry about this a little less. But OpenDNS cannot protect you 100% as news malicious sites keep on popping up.
Warez, crack, and adult sites are the most dangerous categories of websites. Don’t visit them unless you know it’s safe.
Again, an anti-virus will protect you from this kind of threats as well. See how important an anti-virus is?
10. Keep Your Personal Information Safe
Many of these threats are aimed at getting your personal information. So, keep them safe!
Don’t easily give away your name, email, phone, and address to any website.
Don’t store credit card and other sensitive information on your computer. Sometimes, you have to store them on your computer. If so, don’t save an Excel file with your credit card numbers as “credit card numbers.xls” and put it in a shared folder.
Your neighbor who was sharing your internet connection might be tempted. Playing with files will be of little help. You should encrypt your files with a password, too, if it stores sensitive information.
Overall, be mindful of protecting your personal data.
I hope you learned some ways to protect your computer and your personal data. Web is a dangerous place. You must always be on the lookout and have protection.
By: Kevin Park
Posts Tagged ‘Anti Virus’
10 Ways to Keep Your Computer Safe
February 24th, 2010Network Configuration Manager Tools For Efficiency
December 22nd, 2009
A large computer network is many times the backbone of any company, large or small. In many cases, a company cannot function at all if its network is not working properly or it is configured incorrectly, resulting loses of many thousands of dollars (just imagine a search engine or a communication company without its Internet access for only a few hours). Relying heavily on computer networks has also many advantages (it greatly facilitates communication between people and departments, it eases data access, and it ensures a better workflow throughout the company), but it can also many problems if the network is taken care of. By growing bigger and bigger, companies require larger and more complex networks. More and more customers also prefer on-line based software packages for many of their needs (anti virus detection, document and email keeping and security to name just a few) and the service providing company is totally dependant on their networks functioning perfectly around the clock, all year long.
One of the most efficient, reliable and cost effective methods of controlling and managing a network is an automated network configuration manager tool. Unbelievably, but ISO (the International Organization for Standards) states five important areas a configuration manager tool must address: security management, fault management, configuration management and performance management.
In the next paragraphs, we will look at all of these major areas. The security management is one of the most important part of every automated configuration manager tool, as the company’s documents and data should remain confidential, no matter how large and complex it is. The Security Management module informs the network administrator if any attempts to access the network have been made from unauthorized sources. The Security Management can be configured to inform the administrators if and when any given component has been accessed through e-mails, SMS or other selected communication method. The administrator can also configure in great detail what components to be monitored (files from the server, routers or modems).
The Fault Management is another vital part of any configuration manager tool, as the administrator should be constantly in control of the network, knowing if and what segments of it are not functioning properly or if the network is faced with any other, functioning related problem. Configuration Management is a powerful tool that allows owners and administrators to monitor, manage and track every software and hardware element. Microsoft’s System Management Server is a perfect example of a network configuration manager tool module used to track hardware and software versions. The Performance Management of the network configuration manager tool is used to perfectly balance and distribute the available resources in order to assure maximum efficiency. If the company’s network witnesses a great amount of traffic and the business relies on these numbers, the performance management module is very important to assure maximum speed. For example, if a server is busy to its maximum, the network configuration manager tool performance management can be configured to spread the load to the other servers housing the same information. Find out more at http://www.configurationcontrolmanager.com
Overall, network configuration manager tools are vital software tools for companies that rely their business on the perfect functioning of their networks. There are many configuration tools available on the market, and among the most known solutions, one can mention Intuit’s manager Software to IBM’s Tivoli, Fidelia’s Helix to AdventNet.
By: Dean Forster
Posted in Article
Tags: Anti Virus Automated Configuration Automated Network Based Software Communication Company Complex Networks Computer Networks Configuration Management Data Access Fault Management International Organization Management Module Manager Tool Manager Tools Network Administrator Network Configuration Manager Security Management Software Packages Unauthorized Sources Virus Detection
Why Network Documentation Is So Important
October 10th, 2009
Undocumented Networks ————
I can’t tell you how many projects I’ve worked on in which
the customer has little to no network documentation. The
reason for the lack of network documentation is varied. In
many cases this is both the fault of the customer and the
vendor / consultant who designed and implemented the
network. The vendor just does not do it and the customer
does not press hard enough for it. In some cases, technology
consultants do not feel it’s important enough or want to
lock the customer into having to call “them” if something
goes wrong or a configuration needs to be changed.
Not only is this poor practice on the side of the
consultant, it can have a dramatic affect on the future
growth of the customer, increase the costs of future network
upgrades and diagnostics, and can negatively impact the
security of the customers network.
The Results Of A Undocumented Network ————
Before I tell you the basic items that need to be documented
with regards to computer networks, I first want to give you
examples of what I have “not” seen documented, and what
problems this has caused.
During one of my past projects, which was primarily to
implement a new firewall and to secure many of the internal
systems , I ran into some really incredible issues. None of
the primary server systems were documented. No one knew what
server did what, how much memory, disk space, what type of
processor(s), and in some cases, did not know what Operating
System was installed. And worse than that, during my initial
review, we located three servers in a closet, on a different
floor, that no one even knew existed!
Because of the lack of network documentation, no one knew
what was suppose to be done to maintain their enterprise
Anti-Virus system. When I finally determined what the admin
password was to login to the Anti-Virus services, I found
that virus signatures had not been updated in over six
months. Then we found that the system was not even
functioning and nearly 90% of systems on the network were
infected with virus and worms (and not the annoying kind
either, the destructive kind)
We also found there were four different tape backup servers,
and again, because of the lack of network documentation,
none of them had been maintained. The customer just kept
changing tapes. And do you know what, none of the backup
jobs had been running for months. Talk about a false sense
of security!
The very last thing I want to talk about is how lack of
network documentation and procedures can affect network
security. In one case, a customer had a rather expensive
Check Point Firewall in place. No documentation was
available and the customer had been told that nothing needed
to be done to maintain the Firewall. The customer told me
that recently, their Internet access had become very
sluggish. It took two days to locate the Check Point console
password. When I logged in I found that the C: drive had
absolutely no free disk space because the Firewall log had
consumed it all. This could have been avoided if the
Firewall was setup properly in the first place. The Firewall
was also about 4 Service Packs behind, and the rules in
place were quite inadequate. Not to mention that none of the
rules themselves had been documented. And one more thing to
think about. If this network had been attacked and
compromised, how quickly would we have been able to respond
to the attack if so much of the network was undocumented? It
would have been a disaster.
Basic Network Documentation ————
Here is a basic set of items that should be contained in
network documentation:
All server hardware and operating systems should be
documented, including the physical locations and what
primary, secondary, etc.. purpose they serve. All key
service accounts an login account user-id and password’s
should be documented and stored in a safe location, maybe a
company lockbox or vault, or use something like KeyPass to
store them. A visual diagram of the network layout, even
from a high level, should exist no matter how small or large
the network is. Products like WhatsUpGold can assist with
this or you can create a Visio diagram of the network.
Procedures on how to maintain the network technology,
including Operating Systems, security related services,
backup and disaster recovery (business continuity), and
firewall technologies should exist.
Additionally, you should
document and secure all Operating System and application
licensing. This is something that is very often overlooked
and is imperative if you have to recover from a disaster
situation in which the rebuild of systems is necessary.
Other information to have documented is key contact
information. For instance, who do you call if your Internet
connection goes down? Who do you contact if your offsite web
services are not functioning? Do you have a third party that
maintains your Domain Name Services (DNS)? If you have
custom applications, do you know exactly who you must call
if there is a problem?
The above is just the basic items that need to be documented
within a computer network. There are many more aspects to
network documentation.
Who Needs To Document Their Network ————
In a nutshell, anyone who has a computer network, home
office, small office, or large office, should have an
adequate level of network documentation and procedures to
follow in order to maintain the network. If you have
invested in network technology, don’t you want to keep your
investment safe, sound, and performing at it’s peak?
Conclusion ————
If you are a customer, and have a systems integrator or
consultant working on a new network implementation or
upgrading an existing one, demand that they provide you with
complete network documentation. Even if it costs you extra
you should request it. It will save you a lot of time and
money in the future. And, it may actually keep your business
from experiencing long periods of down time.
You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.
By: Darren Miller
