A matter of security

After recent conversations on spam and malware with friends in a Chinese restaurant and my Father by email, it occurred to me that my response might be worth posting. It’s a conversation I’ve had quite frequently over the last few years, and whilst what follows is old news to seasoned campaigners, or those in danger of complacency, Internet newbies often trip up on security.

Firstly, unmaintained security software is worse than nothing at all, giving the user a false sense of invulnerability! Therefore, to improve your chances of remaining safe on the Web, for each computer you use:

• Ensure you have a decent Internet security package with online support for updates installed on your system. In no particular order, I’d include the products of the following but it’s by no means an exhaustive list:
  • Symantec (Norton).
  • McAfee.
  • Zone Labs (ZoneAlarm).
  • F-Secure.
  • Trend Micro.
• Spend the money annually to subscribe to the service on a continual basis, upgrading the software as required to ensure you have a supported version.

Next come the weekly tasks:

• Check for operating system patches and updates.
• Check for updates to other software, like your browser or email client.
  • If these are MS Internet Explorer and Outlook Express the automated Windows update process should take care of these as well as the operating system.
  • If your using Safari and the Mail application on an Apple Mac their Software update; under the Apple icon, usually top left; should do the same.
  • If you’ve installed something else; and why not, I like Firefox and Opera browsers for example; ask yourself if you should be installing software that you don’t know how the maintain.
• Run a full virus and spyware scan of you computer to find anything that might slip through.

And then the daily update:

• Check for new virus definitions and security patches for your security software when you switch the machine on.

Finally, and most importantly, always think about what you’re reading and/or to what you’re providing username, passwords etc. Unfortunately, it’s almost always the user’s behaviour that is the security weak link. Talking of which, those of us using Linux and Mac OS X, once we grow to become a viable economic target, the malware producers will be after us too. It’s only a matter of time.