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A Basic Computer
Security Strategy
First, if you think your system may already have been compromised, start by
running
Trend
Micro's Free online virus scan (this
is a good idea even if you have an AV program and fear it may have been
compromised). If the online scanner finds anything and can remove it, great - if
it finds something it can't remove, make a note of whatever virus-trojan-worm is
identified and do a search for a removal tool - the best place to start for
finding and downloading one of these is at the
Symantec Removal Tools Page.
Once you've ascertained that your system is clean, follow these steps to keep it
that way:
1. Install a firewall and have it set to (a) operate in real time and start when
your system boots, and (b) autoupdate its signatures. My personal choice is
Norton Personal Firewall but there are also a couple of good free ones,
ZoneAlarm being the one usually rated as best. Once the firewall is
installed, go through any list of "safe" programs it may have created on setup
and delete or disable any entires you know nothing about. If they are legitimate
programs, you'll later get popup warnings from the firewall informing you that "programname.exe"
is trying to connect to the internet and asking you if you want to allow that to
happen, so if it's genuine all you have to do is say "yes - it's safe".
2. Install a real-time antivirus scanner - do an initial total system scan and
then and have it set to autoscan any files that are created, all files from your
diskette and CD-ROM drives as they are copied or installed, and all incoming
email (if you've done everything else right, you really don't need to scan
outgoing email but you can usually to be extra safe). Again, through trial and
error I've become a fan of Norton AntiVirus (I find McAfee gave me two many
false alerts) but there are also some good free ones still available, the two
most highly recommended being
AVAST and
AVG. Do a
full system scan at least once a month as a safety net.
3. Install and run
both
Ad-Aware
and
Spybot
Search & Destroy monthly and delete anything it finds unless you can
identify it as something you need.
4. Install Mike Lin's free
Startup Control Panel 2.8 to easily see what programs are starting up
automatically when you boot - disable any you're not sure you want (if they
absolutely must run, you'll find out soon enough and the utility allows you to
easily re-enable it).
5. Don't install any freeware or shareware or indeed any software at all without
reading the fine print to check that they are not installing other things along
with whatever it is you actually wanted to try - my personal choice is not to
install ANYTHING no matter how good it claims to be if it says it's going to
install other stuff along with it and doesn't give me the choice of NOT
installing those extras. Once you've installed the new software, run at least
one of Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D to double check that it didn't install something
by stealth. Also, after installation, check if anything has been added to
autostart using Startup Control Panel above.
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