Secure, Safe, Internet Browsing
One of the main things I try to teach people when I am at a client’s house is to surf the net effectively and safely. When people decide to buy a new PC they rarely stop to think that there may be other internet browsers on the web apart from internet explorer. This blog sets out to inform you of the main choices and try to get you to put a little more thought into getting the most out of your internet experience.
Internet Explorer
Most people have used it, but a lot of people do not update it. Internet explorer is generally speaking one of the most secure internet browsers that you can get. It has built in security features that leave the others for dead. As time and technology has advanced we have seen Microsoft go from passive awareness of security issues to gong completely overboard with its security features.
Internet Explorer is used by around half of the internet users on the web. This fact alone attracts a lot of virus writers to target it. Just by sheer numbers, a simple virus can attack the vulnerabilities that will leave your computer completely paralysed within seconds of clicking on a wrong link. To combat this internet explorer 8 has come with some new weapons to try and combat this.
- Smart Screen Filter – A simple program that checks every website that you visit before it loads it onto your computer
- Domain Checker – This is a new feature that will highlight the domain name of the web address that you are visiting in the address bar.
E.g http://www.seecureit.com/pages/security-check.html, The benefit of this is to avoid confusion as to whether you are visiting a bank website or a page that looks like it’s a bank website.
- Malicious Code Detector – Explorer will look at the page that you are about to open and check the “source code” (the language that the internet page is written in) and check for potential viruses.
- In-Private Browsing – A feature that will allow you to not leave any traces while browsing, this feature is good for public internet use because it does not record history, content, data or cookies while this feature is turned on.
These features can be great if you are new to computing, and you have a fast internet connection and a relatively new computer. Unfortunately this is the exception rather than the rule, and like many security features from Microsoft the result leaves a lot to be desired. Many times I have been frustrated by IE8’s inability to distinguish a reputable site from a dodgy one. Often on slow computers Explorer has just left me hanging.
What I tell my customers to do is to take advantage of IE’s security features for good. Only use Internet Explorer for Internet Banking, checking secure accounts like phone credit and bills, making online purchases, government logins and places where you will be sharing your most personal details. The basic reasoning for this is the less you use IE the less likely you are to encounter an unsecured tracking cookie.
The other thing with internet explorer is that over time it has become an integral part of the Windows operating system. So if you can corrupt internet explorer you can corrupt Windows.
Most websites these days use “cookies” to report back to the server information on who has been to their site, where they have come from, direct you to a local address to help you to get the correct information and to verify that you say who you are when you log on to secure websites. These cookies can also be used for marketing purposes for gathering data without your knowledge. The more you use the internet the more cookies you attract. Some advertising syndicates collect this data from your computer in the form of tracking cookies, or “third party cookies” and with enough of them will create a profile of who you are, what you like and what websites you visit. The danger comes when you purchase things from a non-secured website with ill intention and you give them your details, they can then use youir information for identity theft, this is called "phishing". If you disable cookies though, you will run into major issues while trying to browse the web, so what I recommend to customers is to use another browser for daily common use.
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox is Internet Explorers main competition with an estimated 20% of market share and growing. This is a free download and many features that internet explorer itself has adopted. The first and most notable is tabbed browsing; This allows you to instead of opening new windows to view new web pages, click on the tab to the right, and bingo you have a new page to continue your browsing. Another feature is extensions. With extensions you can customize your browser to suit your needs, from changing the look or the “skin” of the browser to turning it into a giant web media player. The main benefit of using Firefox is that it is not attached to the Windows operating system, so if you do run into trouble by clicking on a wrong link and totally corrupt the browser you can just re-install it without affecting Windows itself.
What I tend to do is load up Firefox as a fully featured internet browser that can open, play, view, and interact with any websites that I could possibly think of. I have lots of add-ons installed in my browser to make sure that I do not get caught out if I ever want to view something at a moments notice. This includes keeping Firefox up to date with Adobe flash, Adobe Reader for viewing PDF’s online, Sun Java, download managers, web media players, virus checkers, Google toolbar, and Skype extension just to name the main ones.
More information on Firefox Add-Ons can be found here at our blog here:
http://www.seecureit.com/pages/helpdesk/issue-2-top-12-firefox-addons.html
Toolbars
A very popular thing now days is to load your browser up with toolbars, and most toolbars that you install will be compatible with Internet Explorer and Firefox. But just because it might save you a few clicks when browsing your favourite sites or they might look pretty do not be sucked in. I would say that installing toolbars account for at least 20% of all virus acquisition in today’s web browsing environment. There are only two or three toolbars that you should use on a regular basis, these are;
- Google Toolbar (or your default search engine e.g. Bing or Yahoo)
- AVG safe search (or your own anti-virus e.g. Norton Security Toolbar)
- Windows Live toolbar (or your own IM Toolbar like Google Talk or Facebook)
Please note that I have deliberately used only well known brands. If you see something that looks practical but you have never really heard of it before do not install it because it might have a virus attached. Some of the worst ones are mywebsearch , and gator.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is the newest member to the browser family but its popularity grows each day. It is a simple 32 bit browser that has no add-ons. This means that it will never be fully featured because its design is deliberately scaled down. With most internet sites (including Facebook) you will only need Sun Java, Adobe Flash, and Adobe PDF reader installed on your computer to browse effectively. As these are already installed on most computers Google is ready to go as soon as it is installed. The other advantage of Google Chrome is the fact that your search bar is also your address bar so if you miss type an address or you just want to do a basic search it all happens in the same place in the browser. Bookmarks (favourites) are managed through a simple bar below the search bar. If you want to save an internet address for later all you do is highlight the address that you are on and drag it to the bookmark bar. You can also add folders to the bookmark bar as wel for those that are even more organized.
Google Chrome I estimate is at least twice as fast as any other browser that I have seen, making it perfect for slow computers or simple web browsing. The added security feature is that because it does not install downloaded programs into itself, it greatly reduces the risk of downloading a virus. That being said Chrome does not install the security features, like AVG safe search, from your anti-virus program either so if you want extra peace of mind use Firefox with an antivirus toolbar installed. I strongly recommend you use chrome as your default browser because of the lack of add-ons allowable for the browser. The less control it has on your browser the less damage it can do to your computer.
Browser Security Test
To check the safety of your current browser I have found a site called “Browser Security Test” found here:
http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/
It will run some tests to see if it can crash your current browser. Click “run all available tests” then click “start the test” and sit back and it will do it’s best to try and get through your security defences. Do this for each browser because they are all written in different code. At some point your anti-virus should detect a virus, at this point do not be alarmed because the virus is totally harmless. Click “move to virus vault, or delete the virus. If you encounter no warning messages when testing internet explorer, or to find out more about how not to contract a virus please see the security check page of this website found here:
http://www.seecureit.com/pages/security-check.html
Mike Griffiths
any comments questions or suggestions please do not hesitate to drop us an email. helpdesk@seecureit.com |
