ONLINE SECURITY FOR HOME USERS
Introduction
With the recent boom in internet, every day more and more user adds up to the internet .With this increasing number of users and activities the very first thing that comes to our mind is are we secure? How do I make sure the personal data I’m sending over internet wont fall in zombie hands?.. However all these questions remains unanswered for a home user due to lack of precise information on how to secure their PC. Today I’m going to write a article on how to secure your computer from online threats as well as how safe is to \enter my personal data where as well as what you can do if you feel unsecured online.
These days, on the transition period of generations online security is a matter of great worry for the fellow guardians too as they don’t know what their 12 year kid might be doing online. They feel helpless and they give up which in turn effects how a child uses the internet. This article at the end will enlist the basic activities which will help them to secure their kids pc as well.
Before starting let me tell you one thing, online security is a relative term you cannot tell your 100% secure at all. So a layman may ask what’s the need to waste time and securing a home pc when we can’t be sure 100%? For them they need to understand what the very basics of security means it means to lessen the probability of a threat. as long as your connected to the internet your are vulnerable but the probability of getting infected can be taken down almost to zero if done correctly which I’m going to discuss in this article.
One thing let me clear up that the needs for securing the networks VASTLY changes with the way a user wants to use the pc. This following article will discuss mostly security in home standards and small home based office. For dedicated or corporate securing purpose its beyond the scope of this article but they normally hire pen testers to test for network vulnerability and stuffs. Even for home users security will differ if they want to run some specific type of service in a pc say apache server but to generalize this will mostly discuss on a normal windows based pc and the way 95% of the users will use it as well as some exceptions and whereabouts.
Terms Related With PC Online Security and Getting Familiarize With The Terms
Firewall
A firewall is a application designed to prevent unauthorized access from a network. It can be implemented in both hardware level as well as software or both can be used at a time. They are used to filter going and coming packets in the internet. It analyzes each packet which when are defined by the instructions and acts accordingly to block it or bypass it.
There are several types if Firewall types such as packet filtering firewall, application gateway firewall, port filtering firewall etc. When firewall receives packets, it will compares the header information. If the information is correct the firewall will allow the
packets to pass through it. If not the firewall will not allow the packets and discard them.
Firewalls can also block applications to pass through it. It only allows applications that have permission to access the internet. This permission is defined by you. Normally, the permission will set to allow for applications that you frequently use such as Yahoo, MSN etc. it is not defined it will ask your consent before allowing the application to grant access to internet.
Beside that firewalls can block ports too. Limited ports will be open to connect. As For example, Port 80 (used for browsing) Port 25 (used emails, default port) etc.
However for our home use a free effective software firewall is what we need to give programs access to internet that we want to and block others.
Some examples of firewalls are Zonealarm, Blackice defender etc.
It is considered as the main battle tank in the field of spammers and viruses as it works as a semi-transparent able membrane between the user and the vast internet. For greater security; data entering and leaving can be encrypted using various encryption algorithms or using public security keys.
Encryption
Data that is leaving and entering our PC is very vulnerable even if the web page is SSL secured, how? Let us see how it can be vulnerable.
First of all our credit card information or phone number or name address whatever even if is send through SSL/TSL socket is prone two three major threats.
1> ISP spying on us without we knowing.
2> End user while processing the credit card request can act as potential fraud.
3> We might .be fooled into entering data in a fraud site which uses a fake encryption and ultimately redirects the sensitive information to third party website.
To be frank there not much a home pc user can do in case of the first two types of crimes which sometimes are also known as social engineering, but incase of the third the more we stay cautious more unlikely our information will go to third party websites.
But in the middle of all these things better practices exists, such as using special keys of encryption. It works like this your data is encrypted with a certain key and a certain key which is required to decrypt it is available at your destination user. Now incase of potential fraud your data wont get away that easily as the encryption key is not available with any other except that two people. But encryption can be broken which is a long and tedious task, so until your information is related to defense or state security there is not much to worry about, for small offices a good user to destination special public key security is more than enough practice to keep things under control inmost of the cases.
And in the third case what we send information’s specially which are related to credit card, we simply need to verify we are sending it to the right website and not any other links. Its more of a matter of realization rather than learning.
So its very much clear that encrypting data is significantly harder to break through than normal data moving here and there, and thus is a safe practice for securing your data online.
Spywares
Spyware is a broad category of malicious software intended to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the user's informed consent. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user as a spy would, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spywares]
There are number of spywares in a system which which roughly more or less falls under the spyware category.
1>Trojans : These works as backdoors and provides sensitive passwords either by mailing them to a predetermined email address, or these opens up a port and runs a client on the victims PC which connects with the server program in a remote PC and the remote pc carries out its operations.Needless to say these are very disgusting as they can steal your credit card details ,email passwords and can keep track of what you do online.A good firewall and anti-spyware if present can easily detech Trojans and kills it.One interesting thing about trojan is that its much easier to detect, but if not protected it causes havoc.
2>Keyloggers : Keyloggers also are a type of Trojan that logs key strokes and emails them to a predetermined email address.These are nasty things too and can be easily detected, sometimes these are used by parents as a means of spying on their kids on what they do, which site they visit online.
3>Dialers : These are spywares that dials certain numbers which are mostly used by pornographic vendors.These disconnects your modem and dials a number which causes huge bills.So from next time best means to avoid dialers is not to visit steroid filled websites that are the source.
These two are most common types of spywares, there are lots of other types of like Tracking cookies, Pop-Ups etc etc etc.
You possibly cant say how to prevent yourself from spywares to enter your system. The best practice is to use anti-spyware and for a daily scan if one heavily uses the internet. Clean the cookies and temporary file cache "Start>Run>%temp%" regularly to keep things clean.
It spreads through the same means as virus spreads, but it is more restricted to disk to disk spreading rather than through internet.One also gets infected if one don’t have proper packet filtering as it might get in more than one form be it pop-ups or be it in the form of dialers etc etc.
Anti-Spywares
Anti-Spywares are softwares which are developed to deal with soft threats such as Trojans ,dialers , pop-ups etc etc etc.They works in the conjunction with different files of the system and a signature file with the details programmed in and recognizes a threat and takes necessary steps to eliminate it.
Some of the best ones out there are Ad aware, Spyware Doctor Etc.
Virus
Computer virus is nothing but a set of rules or a program written to execute certain series of steps in a computer that will hinder the normal functionality of a computer. There are lots of types , however not all of them are harmful. Some are harmful while some not again there are very few which are deadly. It is often said that the predominant characteristic what makes a program termed as virus is the capability to modify another healthy system program which will alter the functionality of the system.
It spreads through Email attachments , Floppy disks , internet etc etc etc.
These are normally harmful and starting from harddrive crash to data corruption, it can do everything.
One of the deadly virus effecting older operating system is the CH virus, plus newer viruses also adopt some type of AI which makes them to have the camouflage characteristics better, like say one virus is there that copies the exact file name rundll32.exe and runs. So when your likely going to terminate the process one is not sure which is the original rundll32.exe and which one is the fake. Normally viruses runs as a child process under the explorer shell which runs as the parent process and feeds the virus indirectly with required data.
Anti-Virus
It is a software designed to scan pc for infected files, follow instructions and delete or remove the infected files along with its roots in registry keys.
Some good anti-virus softwares are AVG, AVAST etc etc.
Worms
Worms are termed as programs which have capability to spread. The word spread defines worm. It is somewhat between the functioning of a virus and a spyware. You can say it’s a mixture of both.It have the capability to reproduce itself and spread through email contacts or sometimes even instant messengers.
That is why random links received in email should not be opened unless from a trusted source.
Phishing
Phishing is the step made using spoofed emails or IM's and fraud websites designed in such a way that it will fool recieptents into directing personal data specially financial such as credit card information, bank account detauls or even passwords.If we talk in the simplest way Pishing asks to to enter your data through some provocative act be it spam emails or redirection. Some os these looks just like real which duplicates company names and their logos and are very hard to distinguish.
However it can be avoided if followed these simple Steps.
1> Dont click on random links and enter personal data be it via IM or email.
2> Get suspicious about email asking your about ur financian data urgently.
3> Dont fillout personal information forms that asks to do soin email messeges.
4>Always MAKE sure your using a secure website while entering data about credit cards etc.Special thing to look for is the paddlock and use of https:// rather than http://.
5>Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar, Use this tools as anti phishing toolbar.
6>Try using browsers other than Internet Explorer, as it is very much prone to attacks. e.g. Mozzilla Firefox.
If the above criterias are followed correctly you wont be a victim of phishing.Unlike spyware attack Phishing has much to do with our foolishness. again its your understanding how to use and where to enter personal data, which will save your money.So dont get overwhelmed by any link which might sound interesting, Look before you Leap.
picture showing the Paddlock.
Double clicking the Paddlock, you get to see the security certificate.
Social Engineering/etc
Fronm next time if a latino asks your phone number in yahoo chat dont feel too excited and give it to her.She as well might be the officer of your nearest income tax department.
In a nutshell dont trust anyone online until you realize whom to trust whom not.Social engineering is dangerous and you will be vulnerable to give away information yourself by getting indulged in activities which will sway your mind.
Besides this there are numerous types of hacking techniques such as cracking etc etc etc from which you need to be careful, but for a home user if your careful with antivirus/spywares/trojans/phishing/social engineering , your unlikely to face any more threat, afterall you dont belong to the osama dynasty do you?
social engineering is a threat to home users as your next door girl-friend might be jealous and try to find out what you do online through it. so be aware!
I can discuss all types of threats but its beyond the scope of this article.
Basic Steps for Securing your computer from Scratch
1>After Installing Windows install all the respective drivers.
2>Install the modem and its drivers.
3>Download zonealarm firewall and install it.
4>Download a anti-spy ware like ad-aware and install it.
5>Download a free version of avg antivirus or avast or quick heal antivirus. and install it
6>Update the antivirus definition files and the anti-spyware from internet
7>Turn on Microsoft automatic update and install all the updates, this
includes security upgrades for the default browser IE as well.
8>If you want to use mozilla then download it and use it.
9>Secure IT! With latest patches and everything irrespective of whatever browser you use, again Automatic update normally does this job for you.
10>Use a good anti-phishing toolbar such as Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar
Your ready to begin with the advanced stage as in good and bad practices after you’ve done all those 9 steps mentioned above successfully.
Before going anywhere else let me make a list of the links for those free firewalls and antiviruses for your convenience.
Firewalls
Zonealarm: Zone Labs by Check Point Software Technologies - ZoneAlarm FREE Download
Besides this there are other firewalls such as Blackice etc etc but I personally think Zonealarm is the most effective one and its free as well for personal use.
So if you’re a home user don’t look for anything else download this only.
Antivirus
There are lots of free antivurs in the market as well lots of good paid ones.
Since this article is written by me I’d like to tell my readers to stay away from Norton Antivirus for various reasons.
You can try out these antiviruses.
AVG Free edition: AVG Free Advisor: Free anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware tools
AVAST Free edition: avast! 4 Home Edition Download - Free antivirus software download
QuickHeal: Quick Heal - India's Leading Anti-Virus Software.
Quickheal is VERY good, as I’m using it for quite sometime.
You should note this fact that unless you do something “downloading uncertain filesâ€, or use 3rd party floppy disks Virus is not going to come to your PC.
These days rather than virus spywares etc infects more which does less harm than virus but irritates more.
Anti-Spywares
There are lots of highly effective and free tools available for this unlike antiviruses.
Thanks to the number of spywares, they made it almost certain for the developers to develop free anti-spywares.
The best way to use them is use two to three different kinds of and scan one after another.As these don’t take up any resource in realtime or these don’t takes up much hard disk space as well using 2 to 3 wont be much of a problem.
One may ask whats the use of using 2-3 anti-spywares ,The reason being nothing else but Within anti-spywares there are several kinds of threats such as Dialers, Trojans, Data Miners, Tracking Cookies, Parasites, BHO’s, Adwares, Malwares etc etc etc, so it can be easily said that one Particular anti-spyware might not be the jack of all trades.That is why we will use two or even Three if needed.
Here is a comprehensive review of different types of antispywares and theirclasses tabulised.
You can check it here Anti-Spyware Software Review 2006 .
Now as per my recommendation for a home user, I’ll ask you guys to stick with these.
AdAware : Hands down on this, This is the best free thing available right now.Update it regularly for its effectiveness.
Link : Lavasoft
Spyware Doctor: Spyware Doctor - Awarded Best Anti-Spyware Though this is not free but worth buying if your looking for a robust solution.
So AdAware is a must go for, You can couple it with Spyware Doctor or use the Free Online Scan Utility Spyware Doctor Provides.
Here is another link, where some best ones are tabled down Spyware Programs - Top spyware and adware software
Since, you already have the basic knowledge of what is online security and what are the terms related to it along with a list of basic things to do including what anti-virus and anti-spyware do I need and from where, Lets proved to the advanced section on the best practices , what to do and what not.
will take a while to go through the complete guide...anyway reps added....thnx 
