Securing Your System

There are several measures which you can take to secure your system. The first and most important is to become informed about how your system works and what the threats are. Reading this guide and acting on the tips contained here is a good start.

• Personal firewall - If you are not behind a corporate firewall, purchase and install a personal firewall on your computer. This will help protect your system from many vulnerabilities that some worms will try to exploit.
• Updates - Perform system updates often. You can go to the Windows Update site to download updates for your system. Another way to get updates if your system is running Windows 2000 or Windows XP is to configure your system to download automatic updates. This can be done by opening your control panel (Click on "Start", then select "Settings", and click on "Control Panel". To configure updates double click the "Automatic Updates" icon and choose one of three configurations.
• Use anti-virus software with regular updates. Be sure to run anti-virus software and download updates at least twice per week. There are many brands of anti-virus software which may be purchased at your local computer, office supply store, or on the internet. I will not be recommending any name brands in this tutorial.
• Be aware of how viruses spread and don't open attachments unless you are SURE they are legitimate. Call the sender if necessary to be sure they sent the email. Be sure your system settings are set so you can recognize potential virus files that may have multiple extensions such as filename.txt.exe. If the extension ends in .exe, .com, or .bat don't double click on it or run it unless you are SURE it is from a legitimate source.
• Avoid installing bad applications. As mentioned in the section about application programs, some computer programs may come with spyware or adware. Avoiding these can be important in both securing your system and keeping your system performance from being degraded. Keep in mind that adware programs may download and install other programs from the internet. A personal firewall is one defense against this happening because it will normally notify you when a program accesses the internet.
• Configure your system so you will see all file extensions as described on the page called "Windows File View Settings".

To help you protect your computer, it is helpful to understand how you get viruses, worms, trojans, and other bad software. First I would like to provide some terms which will speed this process.

• Attack - An attempt to gain unauthorized control of someone's computer.
• Vulnerability - Typically, a software bug or misconfiguration which affects the operation of an operating system or other program run on a computer allowing it to be more easily accessed. Hackers, worms, viruses, and trojans use vulnerabilities to gain access to computer systems without the user's knowledge.
• Virus - Malicious software that spreads by attaching itself to files or creating files that may be executed in some way. Usually it is sent to users as an email attachment. It may require a computer software vulnerability to spread depending on the type of program it uses to spread.
• Worm - Spreads without the user taking any action and usually exploits a bug (or vulnerability) in an operating system or some other program that may be running on a computer. This requires a computer software vulnerability to spread.
• Trojan - A program which is usually given away for free which has a hidden purpose. It may be some type of file such as a video that user's may be interested in. The user would normally install and run this program although the installation would be so simple the user would be unaware of it. This program may or may not use a vulnerability to spread.
• Hacker (for this discussion) - A person who deliberately attempts to manually break into other systems and use them without the knowledge of the owner. Usually hackers exploit computer software vulnerabilities on the victim's computer, however once they have control of a system it is not possible to be sure they are denied access again without reformatting the hard drive and re-installing the operating system.
• Spyware - Spyware is not as serious a security concern as viruses, trojans,worms, and even hacker attacks, but many free programs contain spyware such as the current popular freezip program. Spyware is mainly a privacy concern than a security concern. Spyware does not take control of a computer system, but sends information to the spying entity about how the computer system is being used such as what web sites are being visited. The biggest concern with spyware or any other potentially malicious software is that it may download other code and install it on the user's system. Additionally it may hide itself from the user to prevent it from being removed.
• Firewall - Firewalls in simple terms are used to limit remote access to specific parts of the operating system or programs running on the system. They may block incomming attempts to connect to an application or exploit a vulnerability. Firewalls remove many of the possible methods of breaking into a computer without permission. It will help prevent hackers, viruses, worms, and trojans. It may also block spyware from contacting the spying entity.
• Backdoor - A program which allows an unauthorized user to have access to a victim's computer.