Computer security for home users
Ξ February 11th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Geek, Infosec |
The topic of safe computer practices is brought up on a regular basis with members of my family and friends network. Almost all of them use a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. So, this post may seem slightly focused on one particular operating system with some of the recommendations because a majority of the computer users do use Microsoft Windows. I will not get into the fact that there are other operating systems available and their level of security, all operating systems have vulnerabilities. One of which is the computer user. Some of the sites that I reference later on actually have additional information specific to Linux and Mac users. I am broadly addressing the fact that my family and friends have computers and need to practice safe computing when on the internet. So, back to my conversations with my family and friends.
It usually starts with a comment like “my computer is running REALLY slow” or “I keep getting windows popping up on my computer”. These comments are only two of the many that inevitably arises during a conversation. They all know that I’m an IT professional and work with “computers” and I am disturbed some of these people are getting advice that is definitely incorrect or grossly misinterpreted. I feel that it’s inexcusable when bad advice exposes people to computer viruses or identity theft. So, I am using this post as an opportunity to provide information showing that my recommendations or suggestions are in line with industry best practices and are recommended by well known computer experts.
I am also going to provide links to web sites that anyone can visit to see what other computer experts are saying about home computer and internet security. There are additional steps that everyone should take if you run a business out of your home or are mobile (laptop or intelligent phone), but those topics are for later discussions.
For starters, Get Safe Online has a 10 minute internet safety guide. The 10 minutes to read the information and then a little more time to make some changes could save you hours of recovery later on; not to mention the cost of the services by the “geek team” or whatever support service you employ. You should also consider the cost of potentially losing all of your computer data because your hard drive failed or is destroyed or held rasom by evil computer software.
CERT and their web page for “New and Home Users” is another great location for information related to computer security.
And don’t forget your internet service provider or ISP. In my area the three major high-speed internet service providers are AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications. All of these companies provide free information to their customers on safe computing and internet use. They also provide computer security software programs for free as part of their internet service offerings (at the time of this post). Charter offers a High-Speed Security Suite that is free with certain internet access packages and Comcast has a Comcast.net Security site where they offer the McAfee Security Suite for free to all with a Comcast High-Speed Internet subscription. As Comcast promotes, it’s “No strings attached.” Comcast’s security site has some valuable information that any computer user can use. I will take this opportunity to mention one link in particular from the Comcast.net Security page, which is the “Top 10 ways that you can protect yourself and your computer online.” I discovered that AT&T has security information related to it’s services. And checking the features of the AT&T basic DSL package revealed that they also include solutions for computer security. Astute users will notice that these recommendations are repeated across most of the computer security web sites.
There is little excuse for someone not use one of these free offers if your a customer and you can’t afford or are just unwilling to buy computer security software. Also, I am fully aware that there are free computer security programs that I intentionally omitted from this post. My experience is that most people will not update their computer programs by themselves, especially when it involves 3, 4, 5 or more programs. So, I almost always recommend solutions that are easy to use, include as many of the security features as possible and have the ability to update, or check for updates, automatically. I recommend that customers ask their ISP customer support if there is a similar offering when it’s not clearly apparent.
So, just like wearing your seatbelt in a car is common sense, you should develop a computer security common sense that includes the 10 most common computer security recommendations.
