Safe Computing - Is It Possible?

Leurgy, Looks like Train meant to say "a no".

Poppy, From looking back at what has been done I feel the chance of something getting out of my computer is less than with having a bunch of defense programs running. This said, let me say nothing is 100% and I feel this test setup I'm running is configured to quickly take care of any exceptions that may occur.

And the backups and preventive maintenence that has been discussed in the past in various threads takes on a new and deeper meaning. It can cover malware defense and recovery operations quickly, without alot of computer user frustration.

Personally, I like the feeling of control over my computer that is allowing me to say, I have a Happy computer.

Also the stability of a WIN98SE configuration is the best I have ever had. XP should have even better results as it is a far tighter system.

Maybe all computer users have to do is shake off the marketing hype that brainwashes us into thinking we need this or that to combat malware. Also maybe this industry realizes how we think and do things on our computers and can use this knowledge. I for one feel they have.

greengoose1
This is all so fascinating to me.....computing and all of it's ramifications.....and you've definitely given me food for thought about the 'protections' I use and how I go about my business while on line.....so far I have a 'happy computer' as well.....and of course a lot of that has to do with constant cleaning out of temp files and the like, and at least one weekly defrag...if not more.
VDR has made computing an enjoyable trip for me.:D :D

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Originally posted by poppy4
greengoose1
This is all so fascinating to me.....computing and all of it's ramifications.....and you've definitely given me food for thought about the 'protections' I use and how I go about my business while on line.....so far I have a 'happy computer' as well.....and of course a lot of that has to do with constant cleaning out of temp files and the like, and at least one weekly defrag...if not more.
VDR has made computing an enjoyable trip for me.:D :D

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Poppy, looks like part of your maintenence program is already geared to Malware Defense also.

I believe that Malware Defense would take most users 30 to 45 minutes a week with what we have been talking about and save some money on paid programs.

I need to repeat something here. The nasties that get to your computer have access to weak points of a OS or IE or whatever but unless the computer user allows it to open which completes the loop it cannot get in 95% or more of the time. I do not say a hundred percent as you cannot tell what the writer of a program is doing or thinking or coming up with. And also server attacks and the like are beyond your control.

Fascinating - yes. Controllable - yes. Computer stability - yes. :D

And another thought to consider is that this method can be applied to brand new nasties just hitting. Don't recognise it don't click on it.

It doesn't always take a click. For whatever reason many, many computers have install on demand enabled in IE (as the default) and you can become infected in a drive by download without even being aware of it.

That is easy to disable too. There are two of them. Install on Demand and Other. When disabled you get the choice of allowing or not allowing the Active X plug Ins. Thanks Leurgy, a good point to bring up.

Leurgy and greengoose1.....it would be an instructional to this thread if the 'how-to' on disabling the downloads, in the different OS's were added.....????....hmmm...poppy

Here you go poppy:

For some reason Install on demand is enabled by default in IE causing problems such as yours. To protect yourself against this situation do this:

In Internet Explorer go to Tools>Internet Options>Advanced and take the check mark from Enable Install On Demand (Internet Explorer) and Enable Install On Demand (Other). The consequence of this will be that you will begin to see Security Warnings when something tries to install on your computer. Unless it is something you want to install (which happens rarely) always say no.

Its not just activex controls either. Any type of program will install. But don't ask me how its done. :)

Leurgy.... let's see if I got this right..."the controls" for enabling/disabling downloads are in the 'Browser'....and not part of the 'OS'....?...so it's the same for xp and win2000..?
poppy

This is an example of the control an OS or browser can give you. I think many times they are overlooked for one reason or another.

Thats correct. IE is mostly common to all Windows OS's. I think Win95 will take up to IE5 or 5.5 and from 98 to 2000 you can go to IE6 SP1. XP SP2 has a further version of IE only available to that. I'm pretty sure that starting with 2000 one of the Install on demands is disabled by default finally but I'm not sure which one as I'm using 98SE here. Will be interesting to find out what they do with IE7. I think that is one of the big security holes. Spyware/adware like Gator, Gain, NewDotNet, Cool Web Search and IST bar all are installed through Install on demand.

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Originally posted by Leurgy
I think that is one of the big security holes. Spyware/adware like Gator, Gain, NewDotNet, Cool Web Search and IST bar all are installed through Install on demand.

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so other browsers also have this option,ie: firefox, opera, etc..??poppy

Don't know. Don't use them. But I think that is why a lot of people do. Plus everybody likes to bash Bill Gates and Windows.

I hardly ever have any problems with nasties. So using IE is not an issue. As long as you are properly secured.

"Spyware/adware like Gator, Gain, NewDotNet, Cool Web Search and IST bar all are installed through Install on demand."

I have found that a few of the likes of those will enable the install on demands after they get on the computer. :(

Bright and early on this Monday morning, I have a question. The presence of any type of malware on a computer is usually as a result of a computer user's action.

Is there anyone that can give me an example of any type of malware that installs on a home computer, server, whatever, by its self without being given permission by the user?

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/default.mspx
NT based OS,s only as far as I know and then only without the updates.