Internet security

[Danks81]

What does everyone use ensure their security over the internet? Recently I acquired a laptop from a friend that has not been outfitted with anything. I believe my router has some security measures in place, but I do not trust it implicitly.

[Scarecrow]

What does everyone use ensure their security over the internet? Recently I acquired a laptop from a friend that has not been outfitted with anything. I believe my router has some security measures in place, but I do not trust it implicitly.


ZoneAlarm Pro,
Norton,
Ad-Aware,
FireFox Web Browser
Of course if you want it more secure, use Linux.

[OtakuFanGrrlSupreme]

I use:

Firefox
Zone Alarm
AVG
Spybot
Ad-Aware
Spywareblaster
Spyware Doctor
CounterSpy
Microsoft Antispyware (nearly identicle in design to CounterSpy)
CrapCleaner

...and yet...CounterSpy picked up on some KEYLOGGERS?...Think I'll get a Mac Mini for the internet, and place the little toaster on top of my pc mid-tower, because the Windows operating system seems to be a giant security hole in of itself :p

[Metros Striker10]

It's not a giant security hole, it's that there's more PCs then Macs.

[Kryptonite]

It's not a giant security hole, it's that there's more PCs then Macs.

That is part of it. If Mac had 95% of the market, and Windows had the minority share, then we'd probably be hearing about how mac is a horrible system, etc.

But yeah, Windows is the #1 system for hackers, etc.

Here's what I use:

Spyware Blaster
Spybot S&D
Ad-aware
Microsoft Anti-Spy
Norton SystemWorks 2004 (really doesn't do jack for spyware, but still keeps everything clean.)


And Firefox and Thunderbird. And Trillian as my AIM alternate (considering how bloated AIM has become with recent versions.)

[Metros Striker10]

Kryptonite, I've heard that Trillian uses up a lot of system resources. Does it really?

[Chicago1871]

Firewall: Zone Alarm (you can get pro if you want, but the free version is just fine)
Antivirus: Norton
Adware/Spyware: Adaware, Spybot
Browser: Firefox
Extra: Tweaknow Registry Cleaner

The only thing I have to pay for is Norton. The rest is free.

[noaihmtch]

Forget about protecting your PC. It's worthless. Because either nobody cares about your PC even though they attack yours or there's no way you can stop a real hacker. So just give up

[striker]

I just use Safari as my browser on my Mac. Should I install anything else for internet security?

[dsk_oz]

Forget about protecting your PC. It's worthless. Because either nobody cares about your PC even though they attack yours or there's no way you can stop a real hacker. So just give up

That's a really poor attitude .. it's people like that who "just give up" that allow things like DDoS.

It really doesn't take that much effort to do the little things that matter, eg. keeping up with the patches, having updated AV, using a secure browser (Firefox anybody?), not installing any old rubbish unless you trust the source, etc etc etc

Simple stuff and most of it can be automated too.

[ndp21f]

I just use Safari as my browser on my Mac. Should I install anything else for internet security?

No.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/entertainment/0302/gallery.simpsons.characters/gallery.mr.burns.jpg

[Kryptonite]

Kryptonite, I've heard that Trillian uses up a lot of system resources. Does it really?

For me, it takes a while to start up, but it's connecting to MSN, Yahoo, and AIM. It can be customized more than the menus allow (through registry and whatnot), so it may not be as cumbersome as it sounds.

The people on the trillian forums know what they're doing though.

[OtakuFanGrrlSupreme]

Metro, Kryptonite...Aside from Windows having a stranglehold for at-home desktop systems and portables, it's not just the whole "security through obscurity" that accounts for the rare virus outbreak (and "outbreak" is a strong word in this instance) among Mac users...From what I've read during the time I've spent lurking in comp tech related forums (TechSpot, Hardforum, NeoWin, Mac Forums), as well as reading some articles and subsequent reader comments from news sites like Slashdot, because of the Unix core, or OS X being a derivative, the OS is a really tough nut to crack by hackers
I even remember reading an article about an experimentation where several coporate systems using OS X versus Windows NT Server (or something, and both without process guards, firewalls- no protection) were left on 24/7 for a couple a months...It was some insane figure of sucessful break-in attempts on the part of the Wintel boxes and had some nasty malware installed- all happening in just under half an hour...damn, I wish I can find that article again.
I've also heard about competitions where hackers had to try to do their thang with different OSs, and extra bonuses were awarded to successful break-ins for Macs...I'm just regurgitating what I vaguely remember.

Here's the most current example of a Slashdot article dealing with OS X and security: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/22/0055237&from=rss

So, in short, Macs are not just safer, because so few home users and professionals use it- far from it.

I'm happy with my Wintel box, though :D
I'm just trying to have the best of both worlds...The Mac Mini for web browsing, and my XP Pro installed comp for "productivity"...How will I use both?...A nice KVM switch hub to use my one ViewSonic monitor, my keyboard and mouse.

Oh, and about Trillian...When I ran it, and checked it out in amongst the other processes, it clocked a little over 12,000K, and this is hardly resource-hogging for me considering: 1) I have 1GB of ram 2) Even though I have XP Pro, I'm running the GUI in "Classic" mode to conserve on ram; and 3) only few programs run on startup.

[Dyvel]

I just use Safari as my browser on my Mac. Should I install anything else for internet security?

Make sure your firewall is turned on.

[Scarecrow]

Metro, Kryptonite...Aside from Windows having a stranglehold for at-home desktop systems and portables, it's not just the whole "security through obscurity" that accounts for the rare virus outbreak (and "outbreak" is a strong word in this instance) among Mac users...From what I've read during the time I've spent lurking in comp tech related forums (TechSpot, Hardforum, NeoWin, Mac Forums), as well as reading some articles and subsequent reader comments from news sites like Slashdot, because of the Unix core, or OS X being a derivative, the OS is a really tough nut to crack by hackers
I even remember reading an article about an experimentation where several coporate systems using OS X versus Windows NT Server (or something, and both without process guards, firewalls- no protection) were left on 24/7 for a couple a months...It was some insane figure of sucessful break-in attempts on the part of the Wintel boxes and had some nasty malware installed- all happening in just under half an hour...damn, I wish I can find that article again.
I've also heard about competitions where hackers had to try to do their thang with different OSs, and extra bonuses were awarded to successful break-ins for Macs...I'm just regurgitating what I vaguely remember.

Here's the most current example of a Slashdot article dealing with OS X and security: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/22/0055237&from=rss

So, in short, Macs are not just safer, because so few home users and professionals use it- far from it.

I'm happy with my Wintel box, though :D
I'm just trying to have the best of both worlds...The Mac Mini for web browsing, and my XP Pro installed comp for "productivity"...How will I use both?...A nice KVM switch hub to use my one ViewSonic monitor, my keyboard and mouse.

Oh, and about Trillian...When I ran it, and checked it out in amongst the other processes, it clocked a little over 12,000K, and this is hardly resource-hogging for me considering: 1) I have 1GB of ram 2) Even though I have XP Pro, I'm running the GUI in "Classic" mode to conserve on ram; and 3) only few programs run on startup.

The big security drawback to using Windows is that in the quest to make the OS user friendly, they created too many instances where you can write to the registry from programs. Office being the main culprit. You can secure the system, the best way is to make sure that when you are connected to the internet, do not use an account that has admin rights. You may also want to not use a super user account either. If you find that you need to install something, you can still download it, but you will have to switch users, or right click and run as an admin to install it.

The BSD *nix software has always been secure right out of the box. That is what OS X is built on. What makes it more secure is in part that the shells in use by a user do not access the kernal directly. Unless of course you log in as root or superuser. Which again I do not recommend.

You can go into a long drawn out debate on the whole issue, but the bottom line is that you have to take steps to secure any machine, with windows you have to take a few more.

Trillian is a very nice program, have used it for a couple of years now.
Zone Alarm Pro works nice, you can always use WinMX or Bearshare or any other file sharing program to download it.

[OtakuFanGrrlSupreme]

Posted by Scarecrowkid19d
but the bottom line is that you have to take steps to secure any machine, with windows you have to take a few more

Aside from your recommendation to switch to a user account with less authority over my system, I have taken steps to secure my machine besides downloading anti-malware apps. Before downloading SP2 (which now automatically turns off some of the more highly vulnerable to exploit services), I heeded the security measure steps of the following sites which tell you which services to stop and disable, and how to configure Account Policy and Local Policy in Local Security Settings within Administrative Tools:

1) http://www.lbl.gov/ITSD/Security/systems/win-2000checklist.html#baseline
2) http://help.med.unc.edu/pubs/virpub/winxp.htm

And yet...Sometime yesterday, my Zone Alarm prompted me that "LSA Shell (Export Version)" was trying to get out in the WWW. Spidey senses kicking in, I immediately denied it...Just a few minutes ago, I Googled up this LSA thingy, and from what I've gleaned during my visit to the websites in the search result...The fact that LSA is trying to get out could very possibly be a symptom that I have a Sasser variant in my system and it's now trying to get out and infect others...In spite of all I've done, this is happening to me, and I don't go to dodgy websites...No porn, no gambling sites- just mostly forums...And the only P2P app I use are BitTorrent and BitLord to download tv episodes from tracker sites that have been recommened in a thread around here.

[Scarecrow]

Aside from your recommendation to switch to a user account with less authority over my system, I have taken steps to secure my machine besides downloading anti-malware apps. Before downloading SP2 (which now automatically turns off some of the more highly vulnerable to exploit services), I heeded the security measure steps of the following sites which tell you which services to stop and disable, and how to configure Account Policy and Local Policy in Local Security Settings within Administrative Tools:

1) http://www.lbl.gov/ITSD/Security/systems/win-2000checklist.html#baseline
2) http://help.med.unc.edu/pubs/virpub/winxp.htm

And yet...Sometime yesterday, my Zone Alarm prompted me that "LSA Shell (Export Version)" was trying to get out in the WWW. Spidey senses kicking in, I immediately denied it...Just a few minutes ago, I Googled up this LSA thingy, and from what I've gleaned during my visit to the websites in the search result...The fact that LSA is trying to get out could very possibly be a symptom that I have a Sasser variant in my system and it's now trying to get out and infect others...In spite of all I've done, this is happening to me, and I don't go to dodgy websites...No porn, no gambling sites- just mostly forums...And the only P2P app I use are BitTorrent and BitLord to download tv episodes from tracker sites that have been recommened in a thread around here.


http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

You can use this tool as well. It works pretty good.
Best thing to do now is run your AV and clean up your files. It is possible to get an infected file from one of your downloads.

Also download HijackThis and post your log file here:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50

Hell goto this link first and read about the site and HijackThis.
I have used this site for a couple of years and they are good.

[OtakuFanGrrlSupreme]

Well, I registered at the Tech Support forum, and posted my HT log: http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?p=213229#post213229

As for the MS Anti-Spyware, umm...from page one:

Originally posted by OtakuFanGrrlSupreme
I use:

Firefox
Zone Alarm
AVG
Spybot
Ad-Aware
Spywareblaster
Spyware Doctor
CounterSpy
Microsoft Antispyware (nearly identicle in design to CounterSpy)
CrapCleaner

...and yet...CounterSpy picked up on some KEYLOGGERS?...Think I'll get a Mac Mini for the internet, and place the little toaster on top of my pc mid-tower, because the Windows operating system seems to be a giant security hole in of itself

Been using it, dude :p

Thanks for the help, though.

[Scarecrow]

Well, I registered at the Tech Support forum, and posted my HT log: http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?p=213229#post213229

As for the MS Anti-Spyware, umm...from page one:



Been using it, dude :p

Thanks for the help, though.


Sorry, trying to type, read, do my homework for my MCSE Classes, and watch my kids wear me down a bit and I miss my details sometimes.

Give the tech forum guys some time and they will give you some good feedback.

[noaihmtch]

Sorry, trying to type, read, do my homework for my MCSE Classes, and watch my kids wear me down a bit and I miss my details sometimes.

Give the tech forum guys some time and they will give you some good feedback.

Don't take classes for MCSE. They are waste of money. If you spend money for that use it to set up your own home lab and study by yourself.