Security Hype

While on vacation recently I was asked by several family members how to ensure that their computers and accounts don’t “get hacked”. In this case “get hacked” means that they are concerned about viruses, spy ware, and having their PC turned into a botnet zombie. (Bob, we need to do a show on what the most likely threats are to home users and how to mitigate them, there’s lots of hype out there on this topic.)

Here’s my list of 9 “must do” items that every home user responsible for a computer connected to the Internet must do to protect themselves and protect the rest of us. This list doesn’t cover things like safe surfing or addresses identity protection, just basic “infrastructure” work to start with a secure base. If everyone did these, we could safely IGNORE messages that say “forward this to everyone you know to keep them safe“:

1. Install a hardware router/firewall between your computer and your cable modem. Never directly connect your computer to your DSL line or cable modem. There are lots of good ones to choose from, starting at less than $50: Apple (my home favorite), D-Link, Linksys (also my home favorite), Netgear, NetScreen (my home business favorite), and Sonicwall are all popular choices. Chances are that if you’ve got more than one computer sharing your Internet connection, you already have one of these.
2. Turn on the firewall in your Operating System. Both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows now include a firewall built into the OS. Newer releases of each (e.g. XP sp2, Vista, and Apple’s 10.4) now enable the firewall by default. Note that need to also have a hardware firewall (see #1) even if you have an OS firewall enabled!
3. Install Anti-Virus software on your computer. It’s no longer optional to use this software, and some ISPs (like AOL, Comcast, and EarthLink) now give it to you for free. Use it! Kaspersky labs (my favorite), McAfee, and Symantec all make products to address viruses, pop-ups, and other malware.
4. Configure your Operating System and your Anti-virus software to check for and install updates every day. Hackers release new malware every day, Sophos estimates 600 new malwares are created every month. Because of the sheer number of people now connected to the Internet, newer forms of malware will appear and spread much faster than before. (Click here: Windows users, Apple users.)
5. Use an alternative browser and/or operating system. It’s mostly a “numbers game” out there: hackers attack the systems that provide them the biggest likelihood of getting in. I personally limit my use of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer and use Mozilla’s FireFox browser on Apple’s Mac OS X. [optional]
6. Put your machine to sleep when you’re not using it. Besides saving on electricity, the less your machine is exposed to the Internet the smaller a target it is.
7. Never open email attachments from people you don’t recognize (including Osama Bin Laden). And because some malware impersonates real people using their address book: Never open email attachments from people you *do* know if the message seems “out of character” for them.
8. Don’t click on links in emails sent by people you don’t know, or from people you know but the message seems “out of character” for them. I’ve seen new phishing websites up for hours before they were reported to and blocked by “anti-phishing” programs.
9. Confirm hoax emails before sending them on. A good resource is snopes. Don’t forward emails that claim a new virus is running around and will destroy your hard drive, your computer, your pet, or Earth. Yes, I know going to snopes to verify something takes longer than pressing the “forward” button in your email program, but it really will help everyone else out if you did. If the email was a hoax, help educate them by pressing “reply all” and pointing them at this article.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 11:55 am and is filed under general security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.