10 Simple and Inexpensive Ways To Protect Your Computer
1.
Anti-Virus Protection. The first thing to do is to scan your computer for viruses. PandaSoft and Trend Micro are both software companies that makes antivirus software. They also both provide very nice online virus scanners. Give these a try and see what they come up with:
There are many anti-virus packages on the market that do a good job. The best free anti-virus package I've found is AVG. It's simple to use and works well, and you can get it free for personal use. Download this program, and then do a full system scan to see what it finds:
Once you have AVG installed, right click on the system tray icon, and select "Run AVG Control Center". Then select Update Manager. Check "Allow Scheduled Update", and set it so that it updates at 3:00 AM if the database is older than 1 day and repeat in 1 day. This will keep your virus database updated daily. This is important since many viruses move very quickly over the Internet, spreading in just hours. If your virus database is days old, you're unprotected.
Now go back and right click on the AVG system tray icon again, and this time pick "Run AVG Anti-Virus". Click on the Scheduler button at the bottom, and set the time to 4:00 AM. Click the "Enable scheduled tests" check box and save it. This will set AVG to do a full system scan every 24 hours, just an hour after it's checked for the latest virus updates. And now you have totally automatic anti-virus protection totally free of charge. Hard to beat that.
2.
Firewalls. If you connect to the Internet using a high speed "always on" connection (DSL/Cable/ISDN), and you don't have a firewall installed on your machine, you're a sitting duck for hackers. Even if you use a dial up modem, you should still think about having a firewall.
Your computer has many ports (65,000 of them) that allow data to be sent in and out of your computer. Many of these ports are answered by system programs running in the background on your computer, and if a hacker figures out an application exploit (a security breech), he can use these open ports to gain access to your machine.
Depending on whether or not you've already been hit by a virus or worm, you could well have a Trojan sitting dormant on your system right now, listening for some hacker to connect with it on a specific port. Once a hacker gets a response from a Trojan, he can then use that Trojan to gain complete access to your system, usually without you ever knowing it. Stealing passwords (mail, banking, etc), getting full access to your personal files, use of your hard disk for parking files, and the using your computer to attacks other machines are all things that a compromised machine allows a hacker to do at this point.
The keys to preventing this are:
Use anti-virus software that can stop a virus or worm from installing the Trojan in the first place.
Prevent outside hackers from using system exploits to come in through open ports.
Prevent programs on your computer (Trojans or spyware) from sending information out to the Internet on ports of it's choosing without your permission.
Since Trojans generally rename themselves to look like legitimate system files, they are very hard to detect. The solution to this issue is to use a firewall that has an executable file registry that keeps track of "signatures" for your executable files. Each time an executable file starts up, it's signature is checked. If a signature changes for a particular executable file, the firewall stops it and asks you to approve running it before it can execute. If you haven't updated that particular application recently, it could be a Trojan disguised as a legitimate file.
There are two firewalls to consider as best in class. Zone Alarm can be used for free for personal use. Zone Alarm does a good job and is fairly simple to use, but if you don't mind spending some money (not a lot), check out Tiny Firewall Professional. This is a very strong firewall, used by the U.S. Air Force on their machines, and it has a lot of great features that makes it a better choice than Zone Alarm for people who are a bit more technical and want more control over the process.
So how do you know if your firewall is doing the job? Well the goal of a good firewall is to make you invisible to hackers randomly polling ports on your computer. This is going on all the time, so if you don't have a firewall, it's just a matter of time before you get hit by a hacker. A good firewall will eat these queries from hackers without responding to them, effectively making you invisible to the hackers.
To test how stealthy your firewall is, and to see what the hackers are seeing when they poll you for open ports and Trojans, check out these free online security tests. These tests will check all the more common ports and will show you just how effective your firewall is in preventing attacks:
Spyware Removal. Spyware is something that most people have on their systems and don't even know it's there. Many "free" programs fund themselves by running spyware on your machine where they monitor your Internet surfing habits and then sell the information to advertisers. Just by visiting websites, spyware can be loaded into your computer, often without your knowledge or approval. Most of the applications are pretty harmless, but when you get a bunch of them running on your machine at the same time, they can really drag your computer down. In addition, you may find that some are not so harmless, and could be sharing passwords and personal information with people spying on you. Many people will be shocked by how many spywear programs are running in the background, slowing their computer down to a crawl.
If your system is acting funky and/or slow, you need to check for spyware. To detect and eliminate spyware, the two best programs are Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware. Download these programs and see what they find. Then use them regularly to get rid of these parasite programs:
Email Protection. Most viruses come in by way of email. Since most of the world checks its email by using Microsoft Outlook, most of these email viruses are written to take advantage of holes and "features" found in Outlook. The best way to avoid getting hit by 90% of the viruses out there is to simply use an alternative email program and ditch Outlook.
One of the best email packages and one that's been popular with techies for many years is Eudora. Eudora is a full featured email system that's used by millions, backed by a huge corporation (Qualcomm), and has been around since long before Outlook. They have a free version that is full featured, but is supported by advertising.
Spam Protection. If you switch to Eudora, you can also use a really great spam filtering application that only runs on Eudora called Spamnix. This $30 spam filter is quite advanced and works very well. Spamnix is smart enough to know if the sender is in your address book, automatic white listing the mail no matter what it looks like. It also allows you to set rules for mail that looks like spam, but is really something you want to get. Within a few days, you'll have your rules on it set (point and click) so that you then get very few false positives. Spamnix is based on the very successful public domain application, Spam Assassin, so it's very effective. They have a 30 day free trial, but if you get a lot of spam, you're going to be hooked on this program inside a week.
While SAProxy is better than nothing, it's a very poor substitute for what Spamnix can do in Eudora. In fact, even without the anti-virus reasons for switching to Eudora, the ability to get total control of your spam filtering (without having your ISP decide what email gets through to you) makes moving to Eudora well worth doing.
6.
Hard Disk Protection. We all recognize that all hard disks will eventually fail (back up your machine!). As a way to make your disks last much longer, check out a great utility program called SpinRite. This disk failure prevention program has been around for a long time, and is well known in the ranks of computer professionals.
In most cases, hard disks fail because the heads that write to the disk gradually move out of alignment with the tracks under them. Not much can be done about where the heads are inside the sealed hard disk, but SpinRite does something really clever. Instead of aligning the heads, it aligns the tracks on the disk itself. It does this by doing a low level reformat of the drive (without harming your data), and rewriting the tracks (and your data) so that it all lines up under the heads again. This is a utility that you don't want to be without.
Windows Update. Most of the exploits that viruses, worms, trojans, and hackers use to take over our machines are known to the experts (and Microsoft) long before we get hit. Consequently, one of the best ways to guard ourselves against these exploits is to keep our Windows updated with the appropriate patches. This is quite easy to do and free of charge. Simply go to Internet explorer, go to the Tools menu, and then click on Windows Update. You will connect with Microsoft's update center. Run their system scan to see what you need, then just follow the instructions. Some updates are optional, but don't skip the critical updates.
Optimizing. To keep your machine running well, defrag your hard disk occasionally. You can get to it from the accessories choice off your start menu. When your hard disk is highly fragmented (which happens over time), it slows down drastically. Defragging your hard disk will improve access speed a lot.
To speed up your machine, consider adding more memory to it. There is a lot of difference in a machine with 128 MB of RAM and a machine with 512 MB of RAM. Memory is pretty cheap right now and it's quite easy to put a memory chip in a computer. If you're not a techie, find a techie friend. This is a cheap upgrade, and may give you another year or so of use from your machine.
If your browser seems a bit slow, go to your Internet Explorer Tools menu, select Internet Options, and delete your temporary Internet files. You can also kill your cookies and history if you're concerned about others seeing where you've been surfing. Although cookies can be used by large advertisers to track where you go on the net, they are also helpful on many sites since they remember your personal preferences and login information when you were there last.
Lastly, clean the dust out of your computer occasionally, especially if it sits on the floor. Your CPU chip gets quite hot as it works. If it has a lot of dust on it, it can't disperse the heat and will eventually fail as it overheats.
9.
Power Protection. Most computers fail when doing a "hard" reboot or when powering up the computer. This is because the initial power surge coming through the computer which is really hard on the system componants. If you use your computer regularly, you can extend the life of your computer by simply leaving it running all the time rather than turning it off. This is not true of your monitor, so turn the screen off when you're not using your computer.
When you do need to reboot your machine, do a soft reboot by doing a restart off the Start menu. If you have a really bad lock up, use the reset button in the front of most computers. You last choice should be the on/off switch (a hard reboot). If do you have to cut the power to the machine by turning it off completely, leave it off for 30 seconds before you start it up again.
To handle blackouts, brown outs, and power spikes, it's highly advisable to spend $70 on a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) to clean up your power. In addition to cleaning up your power (which is a lot worse than we'd ever guess), and keeping you from losing your work in a lightning storm, it also gives you plenty of time to do a normal shutdown if you should have a power outage. The added life that clean power will add to your computer will more than offset the expense of the UPS. If you use a modem, get a UPS with modem line protection as well. Lightning strikes will hit your phone line and modem more than anything else.
10.
Be Smart, Alert, and Think About Your Internet Security and Privacy. The Internet is a dangerous place. You have to always be thinking about how someone might be trying to sucker you into letting them past your security.
Don't open email file attachments that you were not expecting, even from your very best friends. Call or write the person and ask them if they meant to send you the file attachment. Even then, be careful about accepting files from your friends. If it's an executable file (see below), there's a chance that a virus on your friend's machine may be buried in the file he sent you.
Be aware of what types of files you're dealing with, especially the ones that execute program code. Turn on file extensions in your Windows Explorer (by default, you can't see a file's extension which is really dumb!). You do this by going to Windows Explorer, clicking on the View menu and then Folder Options. Choose the View tab, then uncheck the box for "Hide file extensions for known file types". This will allow you to see the full file names of things sent to you, including the file extensions.
The following are extensions for executable file types that can be run as programs carrying virus code. Be careful about clicking on files ending in:
.exe
.com
.bat
.cmd
.pif
.htm
.do
.xl
.eg
.lnk
.vbs
.scr
.hta
.chm
.cpl
.crt
.ml
.hlp
.isp
.pcd
.sct
.shs
.url
.vb
Don't open ecards (they can install spywear). Don't run software if you don't know where it came from or if it's from a legitimate software company. Don't give out personal information to people you don't know unless you know it's a legitimate company you're doing business with.
In addition, you should be careful about what surfing the Internet will leave on your computer. Browser caches, browser histories, typed URLs, cookies, and a whole lot more will let anyone that gets access to your computer know where you've been and what you've been looking at.
There are two security programs that do a great job at handling this security breech. In addition to cleaning your machine, they also have government approved secure file deletion.
If you really want to cover your tracks, then use a browser that doesn't record anything to your hard disk. NoTrax does just this. It can limit your Internet experience since it doesn't execute JavaScript (which most of the nicer sites require), but it's the safest way to be sure nothing gets put on your computer that you don't know about.
Think about where you go and who can identify you. On the Internet, the link that identifies you to the rest of the world is your IP address. Your IP address can change (dynamic) or it can remain the same (static). If you're on a dial up account, each time you dial in, you'll be assigned a dynamic IP address. You can be tracked through your ISP by some with a subpoena, but other than that, you're pretty safe. If you have a static IP address, which is often the case with broadband connections, then you are much more identifiable, and can be tracked much easier.
There are ways to mask your IP address and make surfing the web safer and much more anonymous. This entails the use of proxy servers and a certain level of complexity. Luckily, there is a product called GetAnonymous that handles all of that for you.
Lastly, don't get lazy with passwords. Always make them a minimum of eight characters long, and use upper and lower case letters with numbers mixed in. You might easily think that a five character lowercase alpha password (which is very typical) is pretty secure, but when you do the math, it turns out that if you create a password with eight characters and use mixed case alphanumeric characters, you're 18 MILLION times better protected. When creating a password, don't use real words (dictionary attacks), pet names (very common), date of birth, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, or anything else that could be guessed by a clever hacker with access to your personal information. Most important of all, don't write the password down and then leave it unsecured near your computer. This is the single biggest way passwords get compromis
