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7-7-05
Kelly Martin at SecurityFocus posted an interesting article Tuesday that pointed out who is actually to blame for the spread of viruses, trojans, spam and spyware. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/337 blames all of us, from home users to small businesses to large corporations, and I can’t say that I disagree with any of his conclusions.
The thing that initially caught my eye about this article was:
“In this instant-on, instantly-available world, the best thing many people at home can do (besides ignoring the next virus received in their email) is to simply turn their computers off when not in use. It sounds oversimplified, but it works.
Years ago, about ten thousand people asked me if they should turn off their computers at night, or keep them running. I made the mistake of telling them that I never turn off my machines -- but then, I run half a dozen Unix-like servers spread across several countries. After friends, family and one computer-touting unemployed man on the street have effectively been online 24/7 and infected with worms, I regret to admit that I was wrong. Power up your computer, check your email, surf those nefarious websites that you love, and then power down. Disconnect gently from the network.
Left to its own meanderings, your Windows computer is not to be trusted. Don't do any online banking unless you have a router, a firewall, the latest anti-virus, the latest Windows patches, the latest Windows OS, three anti-spyware applications, and you fully understand what "phishing" means. If you don't know what these are, what you're doing or how to properly configure, secure and operate your own server, turn your computer off. Or buy a Mac or Linux desktop and slip under the radar.”
I did the same thing as Kelly. I have always suggested that leaving your PC on at all times was fine as long as you listen for odd noises that might indicate a failing bearing in a cooling fan. Like Kelly, I must admit that in this “always on” world that may not be the best advice.
This tickled another “truism” that I’ve espoused since the advent of ubiquitous broadband access, which is you don’t really need to run a software firewall if you access the Internet via dialup. All things considered I would say I’ve been wrong with that assessment as well.
I always assumed that “hackers” wouldn’t be interested in a dialup connection because it wasn’t fast enough for them to use for any sort of attacks or spam spewage but I’ve been a bit remiss in ignoring worms like Blaster and Sasser that will crawl into a connected 2K or XP PC regardless of the connection type.
Taking a fresh look at today’s online environment I have these new guidelines (which sound a lot like the old guidelines with a few exceptions):
1) Every PC should have an antivirus program that either updates itself or reminds you to update manually at least once every couple of days.
2) Every PC should have multiple spyware scanners/filters installed which either update and scan automatically or that are updated and utilized manually at least weekly.
3) Every PC should be behind a software firewall. Dialup users using XP are probably safe in using the built in firewall, dialup users with 98, ME or 2000 should consider a free alternative like Zone Alarm.
4) Any broadband user should consider using a router, even if you only have one PC. A router acts as a hardware firewall through NAT routing by default.
5) Any broadband user should power down the PC when it will go lengthy periods of time (several hours) without use.
6) As a precaution against storm damage any PC should be disconnected from power, phone line and broadband connection (USB or Ethernet) during vacations or any other long-term absences.
Those guidelines go against what I and many other Gurus have said in the past but things change and we have to keep up.
We are all responsible for the spread of viruses and other malware and we must all take precautions to protect not only our own computers but also those of our friends, families and the Internet population at large.
Trying to find the Power button…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Actor Morgan Freeman is working with Intel to
make a legal movie
download service a reality---and they want to make movies
available
while they're still in theaters:
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68105,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
Some
colleges will soon be running the Napster music service on local
Dell servers
to improve the service's speed. Whodathunkit?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/06/dell_napster_college/
Are
you going to be in line to get the first generation of
methane-powered cell
phones? Me neither, I'm waiting for uranium
enrichment:
http://www.techspot.com/news/18014-Revolutionary-methanol-fuel-cell-on-its-way.html
Have
spyware and virus writers scared Internet surfers into safer
surfing habits
and different hardware? According to Pew, the answer
is yes:
http://www.newsday.com/technology/business/wire/sns-ap-spyware-worries,0,4437489.story?coll=sns-ap-technology-headlines
Copy
us on the good stuff ;-)
Matthew Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.opaquelucidity.com
Google has this search engine thing down. It’s simple, yet it is powerful and has many different functions other than just for searching. With all the things it can do, most would say it’s close to perfect. This week’s Firefox Extension of the Week makes that perfection even a little better. CustomizeGoogle is an extension that adds to the functionality of Google and does a really good job of it. First, as always, you have to download and install it:
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=743&application=firefox
Then, after you close and restart Firefox, go to Tools -> Extensions and in the list, choose CustomizeGoogle and hit Options. Most of the work we will do will be in the Web tab. If the ads on the side of Google’s pages annoy you, there is an option to remove them with the selection of a check box. You can choose to let links to search competitors be added to the listing pages. There is a new feature Google is working with called Google Suggest that helps you with searching by reading what you want to search for as you type it in, and gives example searches below. CustomizeGoogle replaces the default search box on the main Google search page with the Suggest box (and if you really don’t like it remove the checkmark in the Web tab). Another handy thing that it does is to make the log in to your GMail account more secure by automatically switching it to a secure connection.
Side note: If you are going “What’s GMail?” read about it here: https://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html. If you want a GMail account of your own, e-mail me at danielaaronwilliams@gmail.com. You can only get an account by invitation right now and I have many to hand out.
Just play around with CustomizeGoogle, and see what it can do for you. There are lots of things to try, different options to turn on and off, and you can’t really hurt anything.
Happy browsing (and remember to update, too)!
Q: I have a question about Firefox
downloads. Every time I download an update to the browser it keeps going
and going and going. It never
completes and never goes to the next
screen. Have you heard of this
before?
A:
I suggest that for updating the Firefox browser itself you
don't
use the built in update function. Instead, go to the Firefox
website to get
the newest version. That website is:
If
it is hanging on extension upgrades then my suggestion is to wait it out.
For me on high-speed Internet, it can take up to a minute sometimes, and on
dial-up that would be somewhat longer.
Hope this helps and e-mail us back
if you have any more problems!
Daniel A. Williams
daniel@thepcgurus.com
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