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Not necessarily a virus thing Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Wed, 7 Nov 2007 05:43:38
In Reply to: Macs have virus probles too. Best, C n/m, Chaz, Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:13:25 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Most viruses and trojan horses show up in emails, rouge web-pages, etc., which you can access with broadband or dial-up. Yes, you're better off with a Mac, because there are fewer viruses, Trojan horses, etc., out there for it. But they do exist.
An issue with broadband is that probing attacks can take over the computer, and that can impact any computer. So you need protection against lots of different threats.
In terms of broadband, the first line of defense is a good firewall. That's where a Mac is nice - OS X has a pretty good firewall built right in. I know XP and Vista also have built-in firewalls, but probably not as good. One thing is critical for any firewall on any machine - Make sure the settings give you as much protection as possible! One issue with the Windows machines is that the firewalls come with less than highest protection as a default. Go in and shut down every access you can. On my Macs, I've got the firewall buttoned up tight. To upload to my webpage, I have to manually enable that one port for FTP, and then disable it as soon as I'm done.
Basically, the best lock is useless if you leave it unlocked, or leave the key under the mat.
The same with wireless. Just about anybody can hack into 802.11. They can intercept your data, and/or use your internet access for illegal activities. A few steps there - DON'T USE DEFAULT PASSWORDS! And make up a password that nobody will guess - letters, numbers, upper and lower case. You don't need to remember it - you'll never type it in again unless the machine crashes or you add another machine. Just write it down somewhere. "X36ad9459g93D" is much harder to guess than "password" You can also make your wireless router's name invisible - it doesn't broadcast its name. And you can quite often change a router's name from the default.
As an example, in my neighborhood lots of folks have ATT wireless, and they gave out 2WIRE routers. All 2WIRE routers have similar default names - just three digits are different. But you can change the entire name. I can easily scan my neighborhood from my livingroom, and when I see "2WIRE123" I know my neighbor is on ATT. But not only do I hide my server name, it's been changed.
Does this prevent hacking? No, 802.11 isn't secure. Just like stealing a car, someone can do it if they want to badly enough, and are skilled enough. But those folks will steal the car with the keys in the ignition first.
So - set firewalls to maximum; modify them for services only when necessary, and set them back to max.
Change all default passwords and names, and use non words - just let your cat walk on the keyboard for a bit. You don't need to memorize it - write it down and leave it with your other router info.
Get a good virus scanner and keep it up to date. Viruses have nothing to do (really) with broadband, other than it's easier to hide if they've made your computer a zombie. With dial-up, it'll be obvious when your computer won't download your email because it is too busy spamming. Easier to hide when you have megabits of bandwidth to spare.
posted by 192.249....
, Wed, 7 Nov 2007 05:43:38 <-- Viewing This Message
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