Posts Tagged ‘casual’

New Computer Security Mistakes

I wan­ted to pass on what I see as some of the top com­pu­ter secu­rity mis­ta­kes that most casual com­pu­ters users make when first set­ting up a new computer:

1. Set­ting an non pro­tec­ted newly ima­ged com­pu­ter on the inter­net.  Before ins­ta­lling any com­pu­ter on the inter­net, you will want to ins­tall at least an anti­vi­rus and make sure that the built in fire­wall for Win­dows is ope­ned.  I per­so­nally have a DVD with a lot of first ins­tall appli­ca­tions on it.  This inc­lu­des Comodo Anti­vi­rus, Comodo Fire­wall, Win­dows XP Ser­vice Pack 3 (Net­work Admin Ins­ta­ller), and Vista Ser­vice Pack 2 (Net­work Admin Ins­ta­ller).  As well as a few other odds and ends.  I run these ins­talls before I ever con­nect my machine to the wire­less net­work.  I know the virus defi­ni­tion files for the Anti­vi­rus will be out­da­ted, but that is correc­ted shortly.
2. Not run­ning upda­tes as soon as online. After ins­ta­lling all the appli­ca­tions men­tio­ned above, I get my sys­tem on the net­work and run upda­tes on my anti­vi­rus soft­ware and then run­ning the Win­dows Update.  This is a very impor­tant step.  Just because an anti­vi­rus is ins­ta­lled or the latest Ser­vice Pack applied, it does not mean you are pro­tec­ted.  With more and more vul­ne­ra­bi­li­ties and viru­ses being relea­sed daily, it is a never ending battle to keep your­self pro­tec­ted.  Not only should you worry about the secu­rity soft­ware, but any appli­ca­tion you ins­tall, please run all the updates.
3. Set­ting your pri­mary login ID as an admi­nis­tra­tor.  I know this one is hard, but it has been brought to my atten­tion, and right­fully so, it is not recom­men­ded.  An admi­nis­tra­tor account has unli­mi­ted rights and power on a com­pu­ter.  You can create a sepa­rate user and make is a power user.  For the Admi­nis­tra­tor account, you should rename it from Admi­nis­tra­tor and put a secure pass­word on it.  Also, disa­ble the guest account on your sys­tem for safety measures.

1. Pass­word, Pass­word, Pass­word, and did I men­tion pass­word?  I know this is your home com­pu­ter and you won­der who would get into it.  Well, since the com­pu­ter has become so inte­gra­ted in our lives, we store everything on there.  From bank infor­ma­tion, impor­tant docu­ments, Tax infor­ma­tion, fami­lies infor­ma­tion, on and on.  If your com­pu­ter gets sto­len, someone else now has all of that infor­ma­tion.  If you do not have a secure pass­word (see ear­lier pos­ting) then it’s easy for them to get in.
2. Disk Encryp­tion.This is a topic I will dis­cuss more in depth in the next few days.  There are many free drive encryp­tion appli­ca­tions avai­la­ble that are very very good.  The rea­son for this encryp­tion is so that if someone comes in and just grabs your drive out of your com­pu­ter (less then 3 minu­tes for the most part) your data is secu­red.  See item 4.
3. Wire­less Net­work Secu­rity. Again another topic I will get into later, but for the most part I can sum it up quickly.  If you get a brand new wire­less rou­ter, the defaults are the same.  The same IP address, the same root pass­word, the same SSID (Net­work name).  With this infor­ma­tion anyone in your area can get into your net­work.  There are some things you can do to pro­tect your­self and I plan on dis­cus­sing it later, inc­lu­ding what some recom­men­ded set­tings are.  So please check back.

I hope that you found this use­ful infor­ma­tion.  Ques­tions, com­ments and feed­back is always welcome.