How to Protect Your Home PC & Network
The first step in securing your home PC or home network is to ensure that the Operating System and applications running on the PC(s) have all the latest security patches/bug fixes. This includes not only the Operating Systems but the applications running on them as well, such as MS Office™ Suite, Adobe™ Acrobat Reader, WinZip™, Macromedia Flash Player™. MS Windows™ Media Player™, etc. Microsoft™ offers the Automatic Updates feature that is built into is Windows™ 98/ME/2000/XP Operating Systems. Using this feature by turning it on to receive updates (often Security patches) is a must. Microsoft no longer supports the Windows™ 98/98SE operating system and if you’re still using these two OSs, you are on your own for ensuring they are up-todate and have the security patches to keep them from being vulnerable. Beyond the 98/98SE versions of MS Windows™, security patches are still coming out on an almost-daily basis. The latest operating system by Microsoft™, Windows™ XP Home Edition or Professional has a software firewall program built into the OS (with the implementation of SP2, or Service Pack 2) that is comparable with most 3rd-party software firewall programs such as Norton Internet Firewall or ZoneAlarm Pro. By default, the Windows™ Firewall is turned on. Turning this feature off is not recommended and unnecessary. Each time you need access to the Internet to run an application, the Firewall will ask if you want to allow it to access the Internet. Answering YES to this question places this application on the Firewall Exception List thus granting it access in the future without user intervention. Ports can be turned on and off and IP Addresses/URLs can be blocked as well. Other things you should or shouldn’t do to protect your PCs and the data they contain are: -
Not opening e-mail attachments from those you don’t know -
Disabling Hidden File Extensions on your system -
Not running macros or other executable programs if you don’t know where they came from -
Disconnecting from the Internet when not using your PC -
Ensure all applications are patched with vendor patches & router firmware is up-to-date -
Disabling ActiveX, Java Controls and JavaScripting in your Internet Browser -
Backup your data regularly -
Create a boot disk or StartUp Disk -
Run Microsoft™ Baseline Security Advisor regularly Most of the items listed above we have already discussed. However, some we have not. One in particular is ensuring that you NEVER open an email attachment from someone you don’t know, one you’re not expecting, or one you haven’t scanned with an antivirus program. This can’t be stressed enough. Not opening the attachment ensures that you won’t be tricked or that a virus will not be launched in the process. One thing you can do as well if you are uncertain as to whether you should open the attachment is to right-click on the attachment and save it to a location somewhere in My Documents or other folder on your hard drive. Then, Norton Antivirus and McAfee will allow you to right-click on the file an scan the file prior to opening it. If they find no virus threats, then it’s probably safe to open. Disabling ActiveX and Java Controls as well as JavaScripting can keep you safer as there are many viruses in the wild that utilize these programming controls and plugins. These controls can be disabled via the Control Panel or via Internet Options | Advanced tab. Just uncheck the boxes next to them, save the settings and restart your PC. Backing up your critical data to a network share or on removable data storage such as Zip Disk, external Hard drive, or floppy drive is another good way of protecting your data in the event of a security breach. You should create a system Startup disk or boot disk for MS Windows™ so that you are able to get to your data in the event of a system crash or intruder attack that renders your OS incapable of loading. Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer: Last, but definitely not least, there is a little-known utility that you can use to run on your PC or LAN that will identify any Security issues that you may have and may not even be aware of. It’s called the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. This utility will scan your PC, LAN, network shares, applications and more and generate a report in HTML format letting you know what the status of your Security is. There are hyperlinks to more information such as “What MBSA scanned,” “What It Discovered,” “What You Need To Do To Correct the Vulnerability,” and much more. Please give these products a try. They will provide you maximum protection from Internet intrusions and viruses. Visit the manufacturer's website for more details.    
Copyright 2006, CAC Network Security Website, All Rights Reserved | This page was last modified on Friday, November 03, 2006 15:38 GMT-05:00 |
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