20 minutes to increase the security of a computer, wow that must be a good guide. The guys at itsecurity have written a security guide that indeed covers the basics of PC security. I do know from first hand experience that many users do not follow simple PC security guidelines, e.g. they probably have a anti-virus solution but never update it.

The guide is written for the inexperienced user mainly and consists of several parts. The first, called”The Basics: Spotting and Eliminating Threats” suggests to install a firewall, anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and other software like software that detects rootkits. They always recommend some programs that can be downloaded by following the links.

Now that they have covered the basics they tell you to update your operating system and software that is installed on your system. They suggest to use either Opera or Firefox instead of the Internet Explorer, want you to disable file sharing and be cautious when downloading.

As I said all those tips are good for beginners but geeks like we are should have implemented most of their suggestions already.

Next comes safe emailing with suggestions on good e-mail clients, again don’t use Outlook but tools like Thunderbird or Gmail instead. They also tell you to be wary of extensions and be cautious when clicking on links in emails to avoid malicious websites. (phishing). Last but not least you should setup email filters.

The next part deals with protecting your passwords which can be summed up by choosing different passwords that can’t be found using dictionary attacks. They also suggest to password protect the computer which I think is completely useless.

After that they make two suggestions to protect the wireless network which are really basic suggestions, they also suggest not to use the wireless connection of your neighbours because it could be setup for this case. (scanning the data like passwords that are send over the connection)

The last part deals with physical protection: Disguise your laptop and use anti-theft solutions should not bother most users but could be useful for business clients.

As you can see those are basic advices that could help inexperienced users. They miss to cover some topics that could really increase security but require knowledge of the subject. They fail to address the possibility to create a user account in Windows and use this one instead of the admin account. They also miss to mention that not needed services should be turned off, which user needs telnet or remote access anyways ?

I’m also not very fond of software firewalls and would suggest to use a hardware firewall instead. Software firewalls give a false sense of security especially if you are inexperienced.

OSA Editorial Comments:

This is a great article with awesome information that shows we have to be very smart when it comes to picking the right software to protecet our PC’s! Make sure you are using the most up to date online security for your internet connection including your Viruses and Malware, find out how to keep your PC safe.

Your Online Security Authority
Bill Wardell

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