oh-dear-lawd

Yeah I kinda forgot it was my day to blog. You see, I’ve been in computer hell the last few weeks. The kid of hell where you KNOW something is wrong but you can’t find it. And it all started with my children’s computer *sigh*You see, they love um….file sharing programs. Without getting into the right or wrong of file sharing, (trust me, as much as I spend at iTunes, their karma is good) let’s just say it’s a VERY BAD IDEA.

*doublesigh* the one thing I can’t seem to convince my kids of is this: NOTHING IS FREE!!!!!! ESPECIALLY on the internet and the cost is usually the security and integrity of your computer :pow: So while this might be a reminder for many of you, here are some basics because it can happen to you ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, even if your children don’t illegally d/l music. Especially if you’re like me and do lots of online banking and shopping.

1. Back up your data. You can get a 4 gig thumb drive for the cost of a tank of gas. Or an external hard drive for the cost of dinner and a movie for your entire family–if your kids eat like mine do. And most of the external HD’s have more space than you could ever fill. THIS ONE holds 500 gigs and is less than 100.00. I love music but 500 gigs is a lot of space.

1. b. If you’re running XP or higher, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and Backup to set up an auto-backup. What could be easier? I mean, really people.

2. SECURE YOUR THUMB DRIVES: Do you have daughters? Did they share hair brushes in school and get lice? Same concept here. You don’t want to spread viruses, malware, spyware, etc from one computer to another and if you’re like me, your (writing) life is on your thumb drive. So inoculate your flash/thumb drives. I like Panda…it’s simple, easy to use and free.

3. Security Updates Aren’t just for Windows. DO YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM SECURITY UPDATES! You don’t have to do the auto-updates that Microsoft tries to foist on you–I don’t because I’ve had some of their updates make computers wonky–but you really need to check for security updates at least weekly–I have mine set to remind but not D/L. Also….update your Java and Adobe–or get rid of Adobe and get Foxit which does the same thing but with fewer security risks. If you do decide to switch to Foxit–don’t forget to uninstall Adobe!

3. b. Don’t just let Java do auto-updates either. You need to uninstall old versions of Java, reboot, then install the new version. Download it–Java has an offline installation option, then install it. Same thing for Adobe…and don’t forget to scour your computer for remnants of old install/program files.

4. Delete your old emails, delete your old sent mail and if you use Outlook, Microsoft has a small program you can download and use to backup your .PST file (that’s the file that holds EVERYTHING in your Outlook). Needless to say, back up to a remote location like a thumb drive or external hard drive. If you have more than one drive on your computer, back up to the extra. (my Hdd is split in two).

5. Get a better browser. And by that I mean, NOT IE–even so, if you insist on using IE, I’d recommend updating. I just bumped IE to 7–I’m holding off in 8 (it’s my thang to be one browser behind LOL). I also started using Opera and I LOVE IT!! It’s so pretty and shiny *ahem* Firefox has some great security add-ons like “No Script” to block website attacks and McAfee site advisor (though they have other site advisor plug-ins as well if you don’t like Mac). I actually found a virus in Firefox once–so again, do your updates.

5. b. If you’re going to use IE, adjust your security settings so that “Download signed and unsigned ActiveX controls” is set to prompt and then disable “Initialize and Script ActiveX controls not marked as safe”.

6. Get a firewall: I like PC Tools Firewall Plus. Zone Alarm annoys me. Comodo seems to be really bloated. I’m also trying out Outpost on my laptop (which I just had to reformat–NOT COOL YA’LL).

7. Make sure you have an anti-virus program installed and updated regularly–also scan regularly. I recommend NOT using McAfee or Norton (they’re both bloated and crappy IMO–esp Norton *gags*). There are some decent free AV programs out there, but don’t be afraid to invest a little money — it’s well worth it. I do like NOD and Kaspersky.

It’s all a bit confusing to be honest. Only run one AV program, but you can have more than one Anti-Spyware program, BUT don’t run more than one real-time AS program LOL (IE don’t run window’s defender and spyware guard. Frankly, I’d go with anything other than Windows Defender but that’s me.

8. Anti-spyware programs–Malware Bytes and Super Anti-Spyware are both good, you can set up regular scans but unlike Spyware Guard they don’t offer realtime protection.

I also like Spyware Terminator which not only offers spyware scanning/removal and realtime protection but HIPS protection as well (that’s host based intrusion protection).

9. HIPS: If you already have an anti-virus program installed but want more protection, you can try a HIPS program (the one included in ST). I”m going to copy from the ThreatFire pages (I”m using TF at work): ThreatFire protects in real-time against viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, rootkits, keyloggers, and buffer overflows. It is designed to be used alongside your current antivirus to protect you between antivirus updates. Because it is behavior-based and not signature-based, ThreatFire protects against both known and unknown, or zero-day, threats. The one thing I really like about this program is that it’s small and light and it doesn’t use a lot of computer resources. ThreatFire is also free for home users.

But again….watch for program conflicts!

And last but not least–because damn this got long–if you ever get stuck, check out Geeks to Go–where a lot of this info comes from–or Bleeping Computer for (Free) help.