Gone In 240 Seconds
According to PC Authority Australia an unprotected computer will be attacked in as little as 4 minutes online. Attacks can render your computer totally useless, as well as putting at risk your privacy, security and identity.
Personal Computing and internet security is what we specialize in. It is one of the most misunderstood and underestimated subjects to do with computers. People just expect the internet to work, and more so today, have little trouble in connecting to their favorite sites giving little thought to how they connect to other computers across the world. Quite simply without the proper security, any computer that you can connect to, can connect to you - often without your knowledge. We have not found one good program that you can trust to do all jobs, but you can install one good program for each security issue.
We have many professional tools to help diagnose the state of your computer's security levels. The most important thing is to have the three main security tools in place, anti-virus software, a functional and reporting firewall and a spyware checker.
Telstra and Optus have introduced online Internet Security Suites, which are apparently managed from the Internet Service Providers end. This can lead people into a false sense of security. There is no way that a security package can fully protect your computer from the internet. Although it might be able to offer some protection it can not protect your computer from home based attacks using USB devices or wireless attacks. An improperly set up wireless internet connection means that anyone, even your neighbors, can access your computer, your internet connection and all your files. ISP based internet security is Ok but you will still need a local security suite as well. The issue then remains that you are running two security suites, which in the most part just causes many conflicts and errors because two programs are trying to do the same thing on two different levels. Stick to one security suite only and make sure you trust it and it works.
File Sharing (Limewire / Torrent)
The first thing we want to mention is peer to peer programs. These programs are designed for you to access free versions of programs, free music, free movies and basically any file that you can think of. Originally pirated programs and music were stored on servers on the internet by sites like napster. Hosts used to put these programs and files on websites with names like "warez" "filez" or "gamez" free of charge and you could download whatever you needed. The issue however was that these programs were often tainted with many viruses and unless you really knew what you were looking for and exactly where to get it you would end up with two results. You would have infected your computer with a virus and you still would not have the software that you were after.
After copyright holders started suing the hosts of the websites, many of the websites closed down because they were storing or "hosting" the information form their sites. Many sites did not close because the warez sites didn't actually have the files in question just the viruses. When the warez market crashed distributors of these servers got around the legal angle by enabling the specific users to "host" the files themselves on their own computers and let other people who want to download these programs connect to them, they would just develop the software. This became known as "file sharing" or "peer to peer (p2p) sharing".
Everyone likes free software, especially when you can either spend thousand's of dollars for the real thing or get it for free with file sharing. If you don't know what you are doing though, the likelihood of downloading a virus from one of these file sharing programs is 90%. If you do know what you are doing the likelihood of downloading a virus drops to 50% with each click, so stay away from torrents and file sharing programs.
Anti-Virus
A good Anti-Virus program is essential for connecting to the internet. It is better to over-do protection than to underestimate it. One of the best anti-virus for home computers is AVG Anit-Virus it is a fully featured program that is light on system resources. We are an authorized re-seller of AVG and we stand by their product because we have been using the free version for years. We trust it and highly recommend it to our customers. Anti-Virus acts as a barrier between your computer and the internet, scanning everything that comes in and goes out.
Choosing an Anti-Virus program can be a pretty confusing task. Often people choose to install the Anti-Virus program that came with their new PC or laptop. This is usually a 3 month trial period, after the trial period expires you are asked to buy the full version. Many people choose not to buy the full version believing that the program is still on their system and that they are still protected. Unfortunately this is just a false sense of security. These computers are not protected and worse still it can fool the Security Center into thinking that you have protection when you don't.
With any hardware or software it is important to do your homework before making any decision to purchase. A great method to do this is to figure out what you need the application for (in this case its Anti-Virus) You have probably heard about Norton so you would do a Google search for Norton, find out the latest version, in this case its 2009, then type "review" so you search or query in Google would look like this ' "Norton 2009". Don't just stop at one try a few different sites.
Firewall
A good functional firewall is essential for internet security. Microsoft first acknowledged the need for every computer to have a firewall in 2004 when it released Windows XP service pack 2. This was as a result of some major attacks by the "blaster worm" virus that brought down many computers running windows XP. The virus attacked Windows security vulnerabilities and rendered many computers totally useless. Although Windows Firewall was a major step for Microsoft to realize the importance of internet security and the introduction of Windows Security Center, this was only a token effort on behalf of Microsoft and really can not be trusted or relied upon. The first thing you must do when installing a new computer system is install a good firewall and turn off all aspects of Windows Firewall. When we first installed Windows 7 our test computer was running slow and sluggish. We installed a 64bit version of "Vista Firewall Control" and disabled all services for Windows Firewall and since then we have not had a problem.
A good firewall should let you know what is happening to your internet connection. How it works is that it creates a barrier between your computer and everything else that is trying to connect to it. Several communication lines are open from your computer to the internet and other computers. These are called "ports". Once it detects something trying to connect to or from your computer via these ports it should let you know. As an example, if you have installed a new program that first tries to connect to the Internet to update itself the firewall should block it, then ask you what you would like to do. If it is an important program like a new internet browser you should be able to tick a box that says remember this answer then click allow or deny. The firewall should not bother you again regarding that service or program. If you install a firewall and it does not ask you about anything then it is not doing its job and I suggest that you should look for another one. We use and suggest Sunbelt Personal Firewall for 32 bit operating systems and Vista Firewall Control for 64 bit operating systems.
Spyware
An essential part of any security suite is spyware protection. Microsoft has created Windows defender as part of their free security package. We have never turned this feature of any Windows operating system off on any of our clients computers. It has not once alerted us to threats of any kind. We have however detected many threats from different computers running Windows Defender.
Spyware often called "adware" or "malware", is different to a virus, a virus affects your computer and attacks the running of some programs, or tries to block your usage of the internet and other programs. Some even try to stop your computer working completely. Spyware is designed to get into your system via an open port. These ports are open and necessary for your computer to connect to the internet and other networks. If spyware is well designed it will move straight past your firewall because you have already told the firewall to allow anything from that port. It is not detected by your antivirus because it does not directly affect any programs on your computer. It then affects a small program and attaches itself into one of your main programs.
Spyware is usually designed to fool Windows Security Center into thinking it is working properly. So with the Security Center disabled it can now install anything that the creator wants. This is followed by planting a virus that reports back all your personal information via a key logger. The key logger remembers everything you type, including what program you opened and what password you used to access it. This includes internet banking, facebook, any email programs that you access from your computer, and many other important programs.
Spyware usually gets into your computer as part of a program you have installed yourself or your kids have installed. Many such programs include free flash games, free desktop features like wallpaper, and most of all toolbars. Two main culprits are "gator" and "mywebsearch toolbar".
As a rule of thumb do not install anything on your computer that you have not researched. If you are not sure about anything, before you install anything do a google search about it. A simple search you can do is "mywebsearch virus". One of the simplest anti-spyware programs and most effective is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
