Internet Hygiene
Lecture Notes 7/6/2005
How to keep your system safe from intruders and malware by using a firewall, antivirus software and other malware scanners.
Why does malware exist?
- There are two motivations these days
- Data or financial theft.
- Computer resources theft.
Data Theft
- Industrial or commercial espionage
- Bank account details and access codes
Data theft - Passwords
- password is a commonly used password
- A strong password such as ARs3x7d2ik4S1 is much better
- As a compromise, join two unrelated words eg. Squarethrottle
Data theft - Passwords
- Don't use the same password for everything.
- How to remember them all?
- Use a program such as Whisper32 (free) to maintain a password database.
- Protect it with a compound password..
- ..which you change regularly.
Data Theft
- What about security questions?
- The thief can obtain a copy of your birth certificate which will reveal your mother's maiden name. That's no good.
- Pick something less obvious such as your bosses name (which you invent, obviously)..
- ..and save in your database.
Computer Resources Theft
- email spammers make money
- They need two things to achieve that
- A supply of valid email addresses
- Cheap servers..
- ..yours.
Modern Malware
- It doesn't try to destroy your machine
- It uses it as a platform to..
- Spread itself to any email address it encounters
- Send your address book home
- Send many spam emails (as part of a bot farm)
Protecting your email address
- Always read emails as plain text to prevent embedded scripts or executables from running and beacons from calling home.
- Consider having several email addresses - one for trusted friends and a disposable one for one time contacts.
Protecting others' email addresses
If you need to send an email to several people who have no other connection, use BCC (Blind Copy) instead of To. Then their addresses won't propagate to other people's address books.
The net is a dangerous place
- Computers connected to the net are probed - often several times a minute.
- A firewall ensures that only requested / permitted traffic can pass.
- Use Windows XP or Zone Alarm (not both)
- Broadband routers, usually have a built-in firewall.
Firewalls
- Block unauthorised inbound traffic and prevents malware from arriving by that route.
- Block unauthorised outbound traffic which prevents any installed malware from calling home or worse
- .
Malware Scanners
- Use a dedicated antivirus scanner and keep it up to date. AVG is free.
- Use at least two other malware scanners.
Recommended Malware Scanners
- Ad Aware SE personal edition (free)
- Spybot Search & Destroy - (free)
- Microsoft Antispy - (currently free)
- A-squared Anti trojan - (free)
Keep Things Up to Date
- Windows
- Web browser if not using Internet Explorer
- Office
- Antivirus
- Other malware scanners
Summary
- Trust nobody.
- You and only you are responsible for protecting your system and data.
- The methods outlined tonight work.
- Use them.
Recommended Software
- Whisper32 password database
- Zone Alarm firewall
- AVG antivirus
- A-squared Anti trojan - (free)
- Ad Aware SE personal edition
- Spybot Search & Destroy
- Microsoft Antispy