Computer Security Tips

Thanks to such podcasts as the excellent Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson podcast, "Security Now" I have picked up lots of advice on the best things to do to keep you safe from hackers and malicious software.

Here are some of the things I've learnt, including the best software to get for your computer.

1. Make sure you upload the latest security releases for your operating system.

2. If using Windows, do not use Internet Explorer (except to get your Windows OS security updates) but download the free web browser Firefox. For testimonial on why not to use Internet Explorer, visit http://browsehappy.com/why/ and http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/20040615_why_you_should_dump_internet_explorer.phtml

3. Do not open attachments in emails (even if you know the person who sent the file) until you check with the person that they were the one who sent the file (as a virus may have accessed the person's email client and sent you a virus attachment).

4. You may want to think about adding digital signatures to your email so people can confirm that a message came from you. I'll include a link to one such company that offers a free certification service at the end of the blog.

5. Make sure you have a firewall turned on before going on the internet. This can either be a hardware firewall via the use of a router or a software one such as the ones found for free in OS X or Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Failure to do so will give those using Windows the Sasser worm within 30 seconds of going online. You can also get additional firewall software but the problem is spyware and viruses look for popular brand names (such as Zone Alarm) on the computer and can be quite successful at turning the protection off.

6. Windows users will also need to have antivirus software installed on their machines although Mac users may want to get some software too. Mac users need to be aware that there has now been found a trojan virus in the wild. Be careful what you open - see Point 3 above. Mac Users may also want to try the free application Paranoid Android.

7. It is also worth not having your antivirus auto-delete or auto-quarantine any suspicious code because the antivirus program may simply be reporting a false-positive and could be making a perfectly safe application unusable.

8. There is a relatively new risk, not exactly a virus or spyware but code that effectively becomes invisible to the computer. It is known as rootkit. Microsoft Defender does spot well known rootkit, such as the infamous Sony BMG one. You can also go to the websites I list at the bottom of the blog for rootkit specific assistance. Not all rootkit is bad - developers of antivirus software put some of their code as rootkit to prevent viruses or spyware deactivating the protection the antivirus is offering.

9. Windows users will also need to have anti-spyware installed on their machines. No one piece of anti-spyware is 100% effective. In tests, the best are only about 60% effective at spotting spyware so Windows users will need to have more than one program installed. Luckily, unlike antivirus software, computers will not hang or crash if two or more anti-spyware programs are installed.

10. Anti-spyware is not great at removing spyware once it is on a machine so prevention is always better than cure. Therefore, avoid websites that are more likely to having spyware residing on them, such as porn, gambling and websites where one can download illegal items such as music, videos and software utilities.

11. Don't be too concerned with false positives thrown out by such software programs as Ad-Aware because negligible risk items such as tracking cookies can be included in the search results. The best thing to do is ensure that in Firefox or similar web browser, you disable third parties being able to put cookies on your machine (thereby only allowing the actual website you are visiting to be able to put a cookie on). Cookies are not inherently malicious - they can be used by the website to save your preferences and make visiting the website a quicker and easier experience.

12. If you are concerned about your IP address being available for all to read on the internet, you can use anonymizer services to shield your identity. Be warned though: the corporations that offer this service may very well give up your identity to law enforcement if pressed so don't assume you can do whatever you want on the internet. There is a freedom of speech organization that offers an anonymizer service (called "Tor" - which stands for The Onion Ring) and destroys its logs so if you are concerned with lack of anonymity, you may want to check their website out; a URL to their website is included towards the bottom of this blog.

13. If using wireless LAN, you must encrypt with WPA not WEP as the latter has been hacked. WPA is perfectly safe providing you create a very long (63 character) random (and preferably all ASCII text and not just alpha-numeric) key. Steve Gibson's GRC website will do one for you if you go to:
https://www.grc.com/passwords
He does not keep a copy of this password and it will never be repeated. Listen to the Security Now podcasts if you want to learn more.

14. Another couple of things re wireless LAN: Mac addressing and hiding the SSID will not stop hackers who use sniffer software and other programs to hack you and get access to your wireless network. These measures will stop the casual browser from using your wireless network but WPA encryption is all you need to do.

15. If you want security when surfing on a LAN (or wireless LAN) that is not in your trusted and firewalled home network (e.g. when in a coffee shop or hotel) you must download and use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client. This is because the Ethernet is inherently insecure and vulnerable to attacks called ARP Cache Poisoning. This topic is covered in detail in some of the Security Now podcasts - for example, listen to Episode 29 "Ethernet Insecurity" and also read the information on the following URL: http://www.grc.com/nat/arp.htm

16. If you want to recover data lost on a hard drive, the best piece of software is SpinRite.

17. When replacing or giving away your old hard drive, to completely erase the data, use Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN).

18. To avoid lots of the above security issues buy an Apple Mac computer. While no operating system is 100% safe and viruses/exploits do exist on all platforms, Mac OS X is the "consumer operating system" - it is easy to use and with UNIX at it's core, it is still safer to use on a day-to-day basis than Windows.

There is very little software for home users that is not replicated on the Mac and the Mac is easier to use (once you get used to the change). The only issue for general consumers is the lack of computer games but most serious gamers will have an Xbox or Playstation.

List of Programs:-

Web Browser

Firefox (free) - from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Email

Thunderbird (free) - from http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Digital Certificates

Thawte (free) - from http://www.thawte.com/secure-email/personal-email-certificates/index.html

Firewall

Firstly, get a router as the hardware firewalls are better than software ones because they are not vulnerable to viruses/spyware turning them off.

However, if you still want a software solution and want something different to the inbuilt operating system firewall, for the PC you could use:

Kerio (free and commercial versions) - from http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio-Download.cfm

While the Mac OS X firewall is great, it doesn't show what is leaving your computer and trying to "phone home". Therefore, you may want to purchase:

Little Snitch (commercial) - from http://www.obdev.at/products/index.html

Antivirus

For PC:

NOD32 (commercial) - from http://www.eset.com/home/home.htm

or (not and as you should only run one antivirus per machine)

AntiVir (free and commercial versions) - from http://www.free-av.com/

For Mac:

ClamXav (free) - from http://www.clamxav.com/

And you may want to try a free program that checks that a downloaded file is trying to open the correct application for that file type:

Paranoid Android (free) - from http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/pa

Rootkit Finders

Rootkit Revealer (free) - from http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html

F-Secure BlackLight (free for now but will be commercial) - from http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/

Microsoft Defender (see below) also detects rootkits

Anti-Spyware

Microsoft Defender (free for now!) - from http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

and

Ad-Aware (free and commercial versions) - from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

and

Spybot Search & Destroy (free) - from http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

and

SpywareBlaster (free) - from http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

IP Address Anonymizers

Tor (free) - from http://tor.eff.org/

or (for PC):

Anonymizer (commercial) - from http://www.anonymizer.com/

Virtual Private Networks

OpenVPN (free) - from http://openvpn.net/

or

Hamachi (free) - from http://www.hamachi.cc/

or

iPig (free) - from http://www.iopus.com/ipig/

or

Hotspot VPN (commercial) - from http://www.hotspotvpn.com/

Hard Drive Recovery

SpinRite (commercial) - from http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Hard Drive Data Deletion

Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) (free) - from http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Buy a Mac

http://www.apple.com/uk/
(remove the /uk/ part and you'll go to the US website)