|
Some general security
settings and practices to live by. By keeping Internet Explorer at these levels, and following
these simple tips, you have a higher probability of keeping your box
free of malicious code. Thereby giving you a more pleasant, stress free
surfing experience, and thats what I am all about. |
-
Always keep your OS up to date
with all critical security patches, up to, and including XP SP1, if
your one to not use many security applications, I would strongly
advise getting XP SP 2 as well. You can see how well protected you
can be, avoiding infection from some of the nastiest sites on the
web without XP SP 2 installed
here. You must of
course have all the security apps installed as described on my
Security Must Haves
page.
-
Do not, under any
circumstances allow an application to start\run which you are
unsure of its origin. A great way to find out about any apps
your unsure of, is to check around in the
security forums. Nine
times out of ten, someone will have some info about it,
and or steer you to an alternative.
-
Disable file transfers
with any of the IM programs currently available. Do
not accept IMs from anyone not on your buddy list. Both of
these settings can be found in the 'preferences' section of
your related IM client. You can also try changing to a more
secure IM, such as
Trillian
IM. Read
this IM rootkit
thread in our forums and be sure never to click on a link
from someone you do not implicitly trust.
-
Disable ActiveX and Java in
your browser. As a rule, I highly recommend you use the following IE tweaks:
-
IE6 Security
Tweaks
-
IE7 Security
Tweaks
-
Use a quality well
known firewall which monitors both inbound and
outbound traffic. If you have WIN XP w\SP 2, disable
the contained firewall, and get a third party one.
What MS provides is not good enough. You can find
some on the
AV-Firewall
Protection page. I would suggest you even
opt to buy a pro version, as opposed to free,
usually there will be some more robust features,
which will give you even greater control over many
things on your system.
-
Find a good
well documented quality anti-virus application.
This is another area I suggest spending some
money on. Very much like firewalls, in most
cases you get much more than free apps. As
opposed to anti-spyware apps, you can only run
one of these at a time. This is an area I say, spend
the $$$. Some good ones can be found on the
AV-Firewall
Protection page.
If you need some extra security, you can also set up a
limited user account for others who may have access
to your PC.
Email Rules
- Never open
emails from someone you don't know, ever!!
If you don't recognize the sender, delete
the email.
- Disable HTML display in your email
client. Or choose 'plain text' display
if available. Better yet, get something
along the lines of
MailWasher Pro.
- Never respond to any entities asking
for personal information, such as
Social Security numbers, credit card
info, bank accounts, passwords or
any other forms of specific security
related info. Most establishments
will never ask for this info via
email.
- Set up a secondary 'throw away' email
account for anything such as a newsletter subscriptions, or any site where
your asked to register with an email account. Many times these types of
services sell your email, and generate tons of spam. Use this account
specifically for these instances, and your primary email for trusted sources.
You can find additional information
about email security in our
Email Security
page
Related Links
|
Malware
Advisor Blog 
