How to help secure a PC against viruses & other malware

[bodisha]

After seeing several posts about attacks against a PC, and knowing that 80-90% of the attacks (Viruses, trojans, malware,etc) can be avoided if Microsoft updates is enabled, I thought I'd post a youtube video of how to do this.

Since a significant part of many models income is made through their PC, I thought it might have value on sharing how to implement some security on them.

The video is a little over 9 minutes long, and can be slightly technical, but if you follow the steps in it, a computer should be reasonably secure.

Following these steps is not a substitute or a replacement for having some anti-virus software loaded.

 

[bodisha]

I decided to follow up to my initial post with some videos showing how to update the virus definitions of the major Anti-Virus software out there.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but I got all the major ones I could think of. The videos show how to perform a manual update of the virus definition file (How anti-virus applications recognize various malware types) of the various applications. If this is done on a weekly basis, in addition to enabling Microsoft Updates on a computer from my earlier post, the majority of systems should be secured against most types of malware out there.

People are encouraged to append this list with videos of any anti-virus applications I might have missed.

I hope anyone interested finds this helpful

McAfee




avast




ZoneAlarm




AVG




STOPzilla




Malwarebytes




BullGuard




F-Secure




Comodo




Kaspersky




Nortons

 

[Zoomer]

Apart from those, keep your browsers up to date too.
That means enabling or checking updates for whatever browser you are using. If you use Internet Explorer, it should update with windows updates - but check. If you are using IE6, time to move on.

Google Chrome and Firefox are both excellent browsers, and Firefox updates very regularly (ver 7 is the current version). You can find out what you've got (if you've got it installed) via the help -> about.

There are many settings to tighten up security within each web browser as to what can run, or be disabled - such as ActiveX.
Under Firefox you can go to Options -> Options (or Tools -> Options depending upon the menu display style) and click on "Security". Ensure you have "Warn me when websites try to install...", "Block reported attack sites" and "Block reported forgeries" ticked for starters. These only help stop you from visiting known bad sites, but won't necessarily protect you against stuff.

Honestly, this topic could be a mile long

 

[Neudiin]

or Install a distro of Linux :dance:

 

[reggieholtz]

Or get a Mac. :mrgreen:

 

[Neudiin]

hmmm...Linux = free and can be installed on almost anything...Mac = 3x the price of a windows machine and you're supporting Apple. Yeah...free is good thks =)

 

[Zoomer]

Macs are susceptible to some virus, hacks and more. Go Google :roll:

 

[Sevrin]

Mac and Linux users are under the impression that the operating systems in their computers are somehow superior because they aren't attacked as frequently as Windows computers, when the actual reason is that it's the small market share is what's keeping them relatively unmolested. In other words, few vulnerability exploiters care enough to bother with them, when there are so many more Windows machines to attack. Security through obscurity, as it were, but it's still security, sort of.

In the case of handheld devices, the high profile and homogeneity of iPhones and iPads will make them the same kind of target that Windows machines are in the PC world.

 

[bodisha]

I've worked as a UNIX/Linux Systems Admin for close to 20 years... and I've spent 4 1/2 years in IT Security... I can't speak for all version of Linux... but when scanned with a vulnerability management tool like Qualys... a default installation of Red Hat RHEL 5 has more exploitable vulnerabilities than Windows 2003... And Servin is correct... Economy of scale keeps most malware within the Windows arena... crafted attacks are a different story though... all someone needs to do is become familiar with a tool like Metasploit to understand UNIX/Linux is just as susceptible to attacks as Windows... And I'm not an Apple guy at all but i know Apple released some security fixes last week for IOS

 

[Keithy]

Hack to Own is almost always won by a Mac hacker first every year. The Linux always last. Almost always the method of winning involves a human on the other end clicking something. Your computer is only as secure as you are smart.

 

[Deleted member 4846]

Hack to Own is almost always won by a Mac hacker first every year. The Linux always last. Almost always the method of winning involves a human on the other end clicking something. Your computer is only as secure as you are smart.

Absolutely. It mostly comes down to a numbers game in the end - fewer people run Mac OS or Linux, so there will be a lesser proportion of gullible users who will click anything that is presented to them without reading it first. I would also say that I think the largest proportion of linux users still consists mainly of computer geeks, so the linux user base as a whole probably has a much better understanding of computer security than the Mac or Windows user base.

I firmly believe that if someone really wanted to hack my system, they could. Users need to be smart and protect themselves at the most basic level - hackers can only get to what's on your computer, and only from outside your house if it's connected to the internet; they can't hack a piece of paper sitting next to it!

 

[Sevrin]

I firmly believe that if someone really wanted to hack my system, they could. Users need to be smart and protect themselves at the most basic level - hackers can only get to what's on your computer, and only from outside your house if it's connected to the internet; they can't hack a piece of paper sitting next to it!

That's good to hear. I'd hate for anyone to mess with my Kleenex.

 

[Deathdoll]

LOL I like how models have still not commented this thread.

Maybe because they are all paranoid enough to already get some good protection.