Computer Security
John White, 23 September, 2008
These notes were made following a discussion on computer security held on 18 September 2008.
Threats
Potential threats identified included:
Viruses
Trojans – these send out data Key loggers – which trace the keystrokes you use
Worms
Phishing – persuading you to give confidential information such as bank details
Hacking – someone can manipulate your computer as though they were in your room
Spying – where someone can gather information from your computer.
How can we defend against these threats?
A number of specialist programmes have been designed over the years to combat these threats, with a high level of success. They can be kept up to date automatically, or when the user chooses to update them – usually via the Internet. Some programmes are easier to use, or have fewer side effects (such as slowing down your computer) than others, and we all have our personal preferences.
Anti-virus software is generally regarded as a must. Common ones include AVG version 8.0, Norton, Kaspersky, MacAfee and many more. Members of the club favour AVG, because in addition to being free, it identifies most viruses, warns the user of any threats, and has a variety of other functions as well. These are:
Anti-spyware - e-mail scanner
Active Surf Shield – prevents you from accidentally becoming infected by drive-by downloads and similar, so that web pages are safe when you are about to click on the URL to open them
Active Search Shield – works with Google and other search engines to give a safety verdict on search results. You hover over the link you are about to open and a box advises whether it is known to be safe or not.
Resident shield – scans files as they are copies, opened or saved and, if a threat is found, prevents its activation.
Anti spyware
Separate programmes exist for those cases where the anti-virus programme chosen does not have the extras; e.g. Spybot
Firewall
Zone Alarm was the most popular. Some routers act as hardware versions of a firewall. Separate programmes for e-mail scanning, phishing filters etc.
Windows security features.
Service Pack 3, which is available through automatic updates, increases the scope of these features. Automatic updates should not generally be disabled because most of the updates are security measures and are kept reasonably up to date.
Members' experiences with computer security
Most members found that Norton anti-virus (whether as part of their security suite or not) slows down the operation of the computer. AVG was the favourite and is often supplemented by Zone Alarm firewall, Ad-aware – which is activated manually, but is very good at identifying threats such as tracking cookies (identity theft can start this way) and possibly Spybot. Windows Defender (downloadable from the Microsoft website) has been found to combat worms when other programmes had failed.
Wireless Routers
Unlike wired network data, wireless transmissions can extend beyond your walls and can be received by anyone with a compatible adapter. For this reason a security feature must be set up. There are 3 different security systems –
WEP WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is the simplest and is suitable in most cases. To set up a WEP 9 digit passphrase (code), refer to the router manual, different makes have varying systems. This code then has to be entered into the computer to log on to the wireless router.
WAP WAP uses a similar system to WEP but can have up to 63 ASCII characters in the passphrase.
MAC code A MAC system is the most secure method of protecting any wireless transmissions. Every computer and wireless adapter has a unique 12 digit MAC address. Wireless routers can be set up to accept only known MAC address devices. So in order to log on to a MAC only wireless router, the MAC address of each allowed device must be entered into the router’s memory.