Helpfull Security Tips

[Steve R Jones]

Hats off to dunedin for putting together this helpful list:


FREE ONLINE VIRUS SCANNERS

Trend Micro

Panda


Virus Removal Tools

Bitdefender

Symantec


BLASTER WORM REMOVAL TOOL


FREE ONLINE TROJAN SCANNERS
Gfi Trojan Scan


FREE PROGRAMS TO REMOVE SPYWARE
(When installed, update before running)

SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY

ADAWARE


HIJACKER REMOVERS

COOLWEBSHREDDER
(When installed, update before running)

HIJACK THIS



SETTINGS TO AVOID BEING HIJACKED

In IE go to Tools/Internet Options/Security/ Custom settings button

1. "Download signed ActiveX controls" PROMPT
2. "Download unsigned ActiveX controls" DISABLE
3. Advanced tab and UNCHECK "Enable install on demand (IE)".

[DuaneB]

Here's tutorial to help analyze your HijackThis log.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html

[SuperSparks]

And let's not forget the importance of a good firewall here. The one built-in to XP is better than nothing at all, but here are some excellent freeware ones which are vastly better:

Zone Alarm

Kerio Personal Firewall

Outpost

Sygate Personal Firewall



If everyone had had a properly configured firewall the Blaster worm would never have happened.

[DuaneB]

Here's Panda's free on-line scanner.

http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

[Vernon Frazee]

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd

[Vernon Frazee]

AVG is a very good Anti-Virus, especially for free.

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

I highly recommend resetting your AVG to check for updates daily though.

1. Right-click the AVG icon in your System Tray, (on the right end of your Task Bar, near the clock), and then click Run AVG Control Center.
   
2. Click the Update Manager tab.
   
3. To the right of "Update will start at:", change it to a time that will be during the time you are usually on the computer.
   
4. To the right of "Update if database is older than:", change it to a "1".
   
5. To the right of "If not successful, then repeat in:", also change it to a "1".
   
6. Then go ahead and click the Update Now! button.

[LindaHewitt]

One additional comment about administrator accounts. The name for an administrator account should NOT be "administrator". If administrator accounts retain the user name of "administrator", then hackers just have to hack your password. Security means making it as difficult as possible for hackers to get into your system.

Regarding security in general, consider installing and running these Mailwasher Pro and Benign, which are two Firetrust products.

http://www.firetrust.com/

Mailwasher Pro allows you to delete, bounce and blacklist any suspect email. Benign neutralizes any vulnerabilities that may be in email messages that you receive, whether they are in html or in text.

I have been using both of these products for over 2 years. None of my computers have ever become infected, which I think is because I can control what gets downloaded to my computer.

My policy is to delete and bounce everything that is not from a person, vendor or group that I exchange emails with.

It is important to review all of the email headers because there will be false positives for both blacklist and friends. For example, if a friend has changed their email address, then their email may be blacklisted. Listwise, if spammers put my email address in the "From Address", then and email will be classified with a status of a friend, when it is actually from a spammer.

Cheers,

Linda