Keeping your computer clean.

180 views | Friday, March 7th, 2008 @ 10:13 pm | Tech/Nerdy

So I’ve always thought that people automatically knew what I thought was common sense regarding viruses, spy-ware and other nasties that lurk on the internets. Not so long ago a group of my friends online all contracted the same virus because they all fell for the exact same thing. I thought at that time it would be wise to place a little informational post on their forums about what not to do when computing and some safer practices that would be good.

First off I want to take the time to get some definitions out their for everyone who is completely oblivious. I am not going to take the time to wikipedia these things, you can do that yourself. I am going to give you my interpretation of each.

Virus: Anything you may install can contain a virus.. a virus would have to be something you install that changes something on your computer without your permission or does something you don’t want it to, or may not even know it is doing it.

Key-logger: This one is rare now, but it records everything you type and saves and sends to someone who infected your computer. This can get even more deadly because key-loggers also might come with back-doors.

Backdoor: Allows a individual to gain access to your computer through a insecurity in your computer. This can range from simply looking at your files to something as complex as being able to see your entire screen and controlling your computer.

Trojan: Similar to the Trojan horse, it may appear to be something else until you least expect it. Sometimes software can contain a virus inside and those two items together would create a Trojan.

Spy-ware: Annoying pop-up ads, software that collects data about what you do online, things that pop up on your screen reminding you to buy their product, anything that’s generally annoying and trying to sell you something.

Malware: Free software often contains malware. In order for the guy who made the neat flip-booking software you wanted to make money, he contracts a company like yahoo (sorry yahoo I’m picking on you). Yahoo then pays him for every person who installs his software in exchange for having his installer also include the yahoo toolbar onto your computer. How many of you have an ask.com toolbar or a yahoo.com toolbar? That stuff is annoying.

“Hacker”: Technically a hacker is someone who works for a company to find back-doors and vulnerabilities.. but since the mainstream got a hold of this word, it has become something all together negative. A hacker (cracker) is someone who is wanting to get into your computer to harvest information or steal your vital information. This can be email logins, other website logins, cookies that contain personal information, etc.

Spam: You should all know what this is.. its in your email account all the time. Annoying ads can be considered spam as well.

Phishing: This is when a website is hosted online that looks like another website. I see tons of people fall for this one. They go to their Myspace, get a message saying they can “track who visits their profile” and they go to the link. The link looks exactly like Myspace, but requires them to login again. The user puts in their myspace information because, hey, it looks like myspace doesnt it? A few days later, their myspace account is sending comments to everyone on their buddy list to go to that same website and fall for the exact same trick. This then multiplies just like a virus and everyone’s doing it.

So now the question is, how do I prevent this stuff from happening to me?!

Well I recently reformatted windows (not related), and had to start doing the exact same things over again to proect myself from the evils of the Internet.

First step after installing the operating system and drivers was to get myself an anti-virus. Yes this is an important one. I am cheap, and im sure many of you are as well and I used a free antivirus. If you are in the same boat, I would have to recommend avg free edition, which can be found at http://free.grisoft.com. This anti-virus checks everything that you are doing, and has a shedualer for daily full scans. You may have to set the scheduled time a bit differently because your computer may not be on, or you may be on it and may not want it using your computers resources.

Second step would be to block potential sites that people already know about that are bad for you. I would also highly recommend this product. Spybot Search and Destroy which can be found at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html. This product can search for spy-ware, malware, and some Trojans as well as block websites that may contain viruses and spy-ware automatically from your computer. Run this one manually at least once every two weeks if you dont know what your doing on the internet. Once a month for the more nerdy crowd. If you cant remember to do this, schedual it to run.

Third, delete your cookies, history, and temporary Internet files often. If there is no information on your computer to steal, the more safe you are from attacks.

Fourth, change your passwords. Seriously, if you use the same password for your email as your bank account, your really in for some trouble. Keep a few passwords in your brain and never use the same password for major things, not even the same password with a different number behind it. Someone could get one password of yours, and then use that same password to log into anything you own, bad idea. Here’s a perfect example: You fall for the Myspace scam, your password is the same for your email. They open your email, and they see you have an account at Paypal, because you got a Paypal message in their. Maybe you were smart enough to make your Paypal password different, but 10 seconds later, the attacker requests your Paypal password, reads the email, and logs into your Paypal account. he sends himself money and you cant do much about it. Sure their is paypal insurance, but how much are you technically covered for? How much of a hassle would it be to get your information back?

Fifth: Don’t trust your buddies. Sure they just sent you a message over AIM to download this cool screen-saver. Maybe its the virus talking through his aim account, or possibly the person who stole his aim account. If anyone even your friends ask you for a password to something, make sure its really them before you give it to them.

Other things to be aware of:

For those of you who steal files online. A song is about 4 meg, not 3 kb. If you still are using peer to peer and see things in the kilobyte range, dont download them… 100% sure its spam, virus, or a trojan.
Dont download screen-savers from random sites. A screen-saver can impersonate a executable file very easily.
Dont install an active-x application unless you trust that website. If its a site you have never been to before dont trust it. Safe active-x applications are from big companies like Microsoft, adobe, etc. Be careful with these too even, because they might be able to pretend to be Microsoft just by calling their application a microsoft one… make sure its downloading from .microsoft.com
Dont get anything from a site with a weird looking domain. 2938473.cx doesnt look like a reputable website, so why would you download or install anything from them?
Dont fall for look alike sites. An easy example would be www.myspace.com.hackerswebsite.cx/stuff. This may look like a real myspace.com site but if you take a closer look and you will see the actual domain is hackerswebsite.cx the last part of a domain before a forward slash (/) is the real domain.
Dont go to ip address websites. Sometimes the attacker wont even bother to set up a website. Instead they will use a ip address. Never go to http://555.55.555.555 Numbers = Not reputable.

Conclusion:

With a bit of care, you should be able to keep clear of any attacts to your computer and be relatively spy-ware free. By blocking unwanted entities on the net your reducing your chances by a great deal. When installing software already read instead of just clicking next over and over again, more often than not you will see a “supported yahoo toolbar” or something very similar. Watching domains when you are entering sensitive information is also a good way to keep yourself out of trouble.

Be carefull be cautious and you will greatly improve your surfing ability as well as keep your computer running fast.