Security

[Harry Palmer]

I have been studying Internet Security, following a recent hacker attack. Some of the 'legal things that I have picked that I can share with you guys... I use a few programs that greatly help in improving my 'security'. You can get paranoid about this but just to be on the safe side I can recommend...

- Get yourself a decent firewall, a good choice (in my opinion) is the Outpost-firewall, there is a free version that is very good, but if you can afford it, get the Pro version.

Note - Outpost was developed by a group of former Russian hackers that have great experience, & are not affiliated with any 'governmental organisation', they are/were based in Cyprus, and offer the great 'neutrality' in the Firewall-market.

- Get eDexter, this will greatly enhance your surfing experience by intercepting all calls to the Hosts-file, the file in your system-folder that tells your system to look no further for certain links.

- Get yourself ad-blocking lists from sources like this excellent one (the one I prefer): E.Howes blocklist for firewalls and/or IE. Regularly updated and very good. His site is an excellent resource for security issues anyway.

- Get yourself blocklists, whether they are for the Hosts-file or a Firewall with this excellent tool: the Blocklist Converter from this site. Especially when you are on P2P alot... You need this!

- Keep up to date on Spyware/Adware/other annoyances with tools like: MRU-Blaster, ID Blaster, Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware

- Get yourself a good Anti-Virus software. I can recommend F-Prot for DOS and AntiVir PE

- Goto the Gibson-site and get yourself the freewares offered there. They are very good, very useful and you can test your system online too.

Remember, don't get paranoid...

Anything you would like to share?

[paulfr]

Wow I am impressed. And confused too.

I have Norton Anti Virus basic; Webroot Spyware and use the MS WindowsXP IE firewall.

I tried to get AdAware, but they wouldn't take my credit card because

they detected I was out of the USA.

Am I vulnerable here ??

Spending too much money as I had to pay for all but XP ??

[francois]

hi'

from long time experience, I can say ;

the best firewall is Zone Alarm Pro, easy to configure and use.

antivirus is a personnal choice, it depends mainly on your system ressources(ram), as a lot of them are pretty heavy consumer of ram ...

like norton or kapersky ... some lighter but also lighter in efficiency.

Zone Alarm has an anti pop-up and adds blocker.

for the paranoid, one more called BlackIce Defender.

for spyware and any badware ...

spybot or adaware ..basic and has to be run at least once a week,and keep it(them) up to date.

my 2baths in here

chers

francois

[Khun Jean]

I use an external firewall with dial-up conection and Ethernet WAN.

1500 Baht. ALL incoming ports closed.

And i keep up to date with security patches for my WIndows XP Prof. and Internet Exporer.

For my e-mail i use yahoo which has a builtin always up to date virus scanner from norton.

Never had problems with viruses for many years.

The security updates are often sooner published than the spreading of virusses exploiting those vulnerabilities.

I don't use popup killers because i use popups on my websites. (useful popups i might add) and some of these programs prevent the proper functioning of websites. I have one easy rule if i encounter a website that has popups i don't ask for. Forever blacklisted!

Local virusscanners interfere too much with the functioning of my computer so i not use them, and because i use yahoo for my mail i don't need them.

Just my personal experience.

[Harry Palmer]

I tried to get AdAware, but they wouldn't take my credit card because

they detected I was out of the USA.

Just get the freeware version from tucows or here

[caughtintheact]

Here's a few more tips on security:

I tried to get AdAware, but they wouldn't take my credit card because

they detected I was out of the USA.

Adaware free can be downloaded from www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ When downloading software for any reason, go to the web site of the vendor, otherwise you might get some spyware, or other malware thrown in on top of the download. Tucows is now in a block list for at least one anti-spyware program.

Remember, don't get paranoid...

I disagree. Being a little bit paranoid is a good thing in security...keeps one from getting careless. There is no such thing as an anti-malware program of any kind that will catch everything that can get into your PC.

Before downloading any so-called anti-spyware, check it out at http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm - otherwise you might end up downloading the very thing you are trying to protect against. And some of it can be very hard to get rid of.

You need both preventive and after the fact protection (scanners). SpywareGuard and Spyware Blaster are both Preventive. Some, like Spybot S&D can do both. Others are after the fact scanners, but are needed because none of them will catch everything, and some will catch items that you need another program to clean.

Good malware protection not mentioned above:

Spysweeper www.webroot.com

Aluria Spyware Eliminator www.aluriasoftware.com

The best one I've found is Pest Patrol www.pestpatrol.com - it has the largest data base of any I've seen (over 30,000 pests detected). It has a keylogger detector and other features and a fast scanner.

I haven't used Outpost firewall for some time so I cannot compare it, but Zone Alarm Pro has a number of security features hard to beat including port blocking and protection of passwords, PINs, and other security codes, blocks popups and cleans out tracking cookies.

Even if you use web mail you can get viruses from visiting web sites, from CDs, from floppies, and in other ways, so for Khun Jean, I recommend you have one or more that you can use to check out downloads, CDs floppies, etc before you open the programs.

Some of the programs I have mentioned will also put web sites in your hosts list. Spybot is one, and Aluria is another.

Spysites.com is another source of a good program.It places known bad web sites in the restricted zone of Internet Explorer, and the pro version can scan for tracking cookies and delete them, has a cookie manager, can scan web pages for possible malicious script, etc. www.spysites.com

A2 (A-squared) www.emsisoft.com is an emerging program with a large data base, specializing in anti-trojan scanning.

We need to keep our home page from being hijacked. I'd recommend hijackthis, but it takes some deep experience to understand what it does, but one can always go to one of the many forums where they can get expert help.

Cool Web Search is a very malicious piece of spyware. The best program for getting rid of it is CWShredder, however, the author is going back to get a masters degree and will not be keeping it up to date any more.

In fact spyware is far more dangerous than viruses. If you get a virus, you can usually find someone or a way to get rid of it, but spyware might result in identity theft, and that can ruin your entire life.

Other recommended security sites:

www.spywareinfo.com/forums/

http://boards.cexx.org/

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php

http://computercops.biz/forum67.html

http://pcpitstop.ibforums.com/index.php?act=SF&f=9

http://forums.techguy.org/t190730/s.html

http://tomcoyote.org/forums/

[francois]

hi'

one real secure solution for paranoid ...

work with 2 coms ...

a Linux server (well configured) and anything else behind to be online

then your mind will be more quiet

cheers

francois

ps; the real best is to be online without windoze and without ms.IE

[paulfr]

I tried to get AdAware, but they wouldn't take my credit card because they detected I was out of the USA.

I did download the free version and it found 3 viruses

that Norton missed. But when I went to delete them from

my machine, it required registration for $30. That is when

I could not finish due to not being in the USA.

Is Windows XP IE firewall any good ??

[Stocky]

I tried to get AdAware, but they wouldn't take my credit card because they detected I was out of the USA.

I did download the free version and it found 3 viruses

that Norton missed. But when I went to delete them from

my machine, it required registration for $30. That is when

I could not finish due to not being in the USA.

Is Windows XP IE firewall any good ??

Something not right there!

I run Ad-aware (free version) and have no problems, it is free. Try uninstalling the version you have, then follow the link in Harry's post and download and install that. Once installed click on 'Check for updates' before you run a scan.

[organic]

What's the point of eDexter?

Are you tired of those empty boxes from missing ads?

No, I can't say they bother me in the slightest, and I block loads of junk via the hosts file.

[cathyy]

There is no better protection than running a nice Linux box with all the latest security patches.

For Windows, I run Zone Alarm, Pest Patrol, BHODemon, and AdAware. I use Gmail (Google web mail) rather than an ordinary client. I never open attachments, not even from friends. I go to DSL reports and get my ports scanned to make sure they are all closed. I do not run any P2P software. I update my virus definitions daily for my antivirus program. And I do all this from behind the firewall in my router. I have never been infected with a virus, but I do get the occasional bad cookie.

[Highwayman]

I did download the free version and it found 3 viruses that Norton missed. But when I went to delete them from my machine, it required registration for $30. That is when I could not finish due to not being in the USA.

If you take a look at this list of rogue spyware products you'll see there are a number of similar sounding Ad-Aware knock-offs. Could it be you downloaded one of them?

Paul, do you still have the url of the site that tried to charge you? It would be interesting to check it out.

WebRoot Spysweeper has established a good reputation so that should solve many problems but of course no single product can clean up everything.

Spyware Blaster mentioned earlier is one program you should install (free) for sure as it will stop a lot of problems happening in the first place.

Is Windows XP IE firewall any good ??

I use it and have never had a virus, trojan etc. in 3 years. Many people prefer ZoneAlarm but for me the WinXP firewall does the job.

[paulfr]

Highwayman

Thank you for your suggestions.

Yes, you guessed the problem. I had something called NoAdware,

rather than AdAware from lavasoft. I corrected this and installed

AdAware for free.

I also use Webroot Spysweeper which I paid for.

I also ponied up for Norton AntiVirus.

And I downloaded Spybot for free.

Those with Windows XP IE firewall are my pest protection

suite at the present time.

I still get these new popup ads which seem to float in the

center of the screen. A pool buddy told me they are probably

shockwave or flash code. I have not figured out how to make

them go away without losing my window yet, but I will keep

fooling around till I do.

What a nuisance all this spy, trojan, ad ware stuff is !!!