Scary (spam, viruses..etc)

[aam1234]

Read this article (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=711&e=12&u=/usatoday/unprotectedpcscanbehijackedinminutes) in yahoo. If you don't have a firewall you better get one soon.

[Ikinaa]

Interesting...

Anyone's suggesting a good, free, easy to configure, difficult to hack firewall for Windows XP?

[Scottes]

In the past I used to use Tiny Personal Firewall or Zone Alarm. I think they both might have been purchased and I'm no longer positive that they're still free. But those two were about the best, so it's worth a Google or two. I seem to remember that at least one of them still had a free version.

[JohnEBongo]

I have had XP Pro for about 2 months and I use the free version of Zone Alarm. I have had no problems whatsoever.

[ChrisN]

XP comes with its own built in firewall. If you understand firewall rules basics, I hear that it is rather good. Service Pack 2 enables it automagically.

Additionally, for the newbies to firewalls, I would seriously consider ZoneAlarm as it is really a basic interface.


This is nothing new though, this article is just another way to increase awareness of a problem that has existed ever since the advent of broadband and earlier.
If you want to have some fun reading, google "HoneyPot project" or "honeynet". These guys setup machines with the sole purpose of seeing who is doing what and with what tools.

Security through obscurity is bogus and people really need to start proactively protecting themselves. I honestly believe that a basic "protection" course should be standard to all new users to the internet or first time computer buyers.

[Scottes]

If you want to have some fun reading, google "HoneyPot project" or "honeynet". These guys setup machines with the sole purpose of seeing who is doing what and with what tools.

Yeah, the Honeynet stuff is pretty cool. Have you ever looked at the Labrea Tarpit system?

[Jesper]

Yes, a virus scanner and Internet security software is simply a MUST have with all those viruses, spyware and hackers. Here are some useful links.

Do an online check to see if your computer is secure:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym

Ad-Aware, a popular program that scans your computer for all kinds of malicious spyware programs:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Spybot Search & Destroy, also a good tool to scan your computer for spyware and other annoying programs:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

PLEASE use anti-virus and firewall software! If you don't and you get a virus and/or spyware on your computer, you're not the only one who gets annoyed by this - your computer is also spamming and annoying the rest of the world (especially your friends that you have in you Outlook address book).

Buy a package like Norton Anti-Virus, the $50 or so that it costs well worth it to protect your data. Imagine the nightmare of loosing thousands of digital photos because of a virus...... :shock:

[Tom W]

In the past I used to use Tiny Personal Firewall or Zone Alarm. I think they both might have been purchased and I'm no longer positive that they're still free. But those two were about the best, so it's worth a Google or two. I seem to remember that at least one of them still had a free version.

I use a slightly older version of Tiny Personal Firewall - its a very small program that works for both incoming and outgoing data flows. The Windows firewall (the new version with SP-II) is effective only on incoming flow so I chose to keep Tiny instead.

FYI, the version I have is 2.0.15. Its not current, but if you can find it somewhere, its free. I don't like any software that accesses the internet without my knowledge so monitoring outgoing transmissions is important to me. Some of the newer firewalls allow specific programs uninhibited access to the internet. Tiny sure stopped McAfee Antivirus from calling home repeatedly on its own (and helped me decide to get rid of McAfee).

[Andy_T]

Just on a sidenote ... when I opened the Yahoo page to read the article, Spybot informed me that it had blocked the download of the 'Avenue A, Inc.' spyware :shock:

So Spybot S&D might not be a bad idea, either...

Best regards,
Andy

[Moppie]

Just on a sidenote ... when I opened the Yahoo page to read the article, Spybot informed me that it had blocked the download of the 'Avenue A, Inc.' spyware :shock:



I got double click!

Its amazing the amount of sites loaded with someform of spyware.
I used to have faith in Yahoo, not anymore.


Norton has a good firewall that I use, its proved useful in tracking down someone who was trying to hack into my comp, as it traces the I.P with an exact time.
Of course the only worry I have is that the more popular software is, the more time people will spend trying to find away to beat it.

[LouDawg]

As far as firewalls go, the best kind is a hardware firewall such as those built into Linksys or similar routers. NAT does a pretty good job, these days I don't run any software firewalls because my IP is completely stealth'd. Spyware is another avenue however...