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Thread: Windows Security.

  1. #1
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    Windows Security.

    Windows Security.

    It's full of holes, and we know it. How can you prevent these holes exploiting your system?

    http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ - Keep your PC up-to-date with the latest Security Patches, drivers and updates from Microsoft. This is the first line in your defence.

    Anti Virus

    An anti-virus solution is highly recommended. Whether you buy, download freely, or scan online, the amount of viruses proliferating round the internet these days makes it a must.

    To buy:-

    www.symantec.com - Norton AntiVirus 2004

    www.mcafee.com - Mcafee VirusScan

    www.grisoft.com - AVG Professional Single Edition

    www.pandasoftware.com - Panda AV Titanium

    www.trendmicro.com - PC-Cillan 2003

    Free to download:-

    www.grisoft.com/ - AVG free version

    www.free-av.com/ - AntiVir Personal Edition

    www.bitdefender.com - [/b]BitDefender Free Edition v7[/b]

    Free online virus scan:-

    www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/

    http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

    www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php

    www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

    www.kaspersky.com/remoteviruschk.html

    Whilst by no means a comprehensive list , you should be able to find a solution to your Anti Virus needs here. Remember, whatever method you use, keep it up-to-date!


    Spyware

    Spyware is Internet jargon for Advertising Supported software (Adware). www.spychecker.com/spyware.html is a good guide if you've just said "wtf is spyware?"!

    How do you find it?

    www.lavasoftusa.com - Ad Aware is one of two spyware programs that come recommended.

    The other is

    www.safer-networking.org/ - Spybot - Search and Destroy.

    Both these programs search your drives for any trace of known spyware programs and more. Like anti-virus software, they need to be regularly updated.

    BHO Demon scans your Registry for BHOs, and presents any it finds in a list. By highlighting a BHO in this list, and clicking the "Details" button, you can see information about this BHO, and even disable it if you wish.
    What is a BHO? A Browser Helper Object. Some are good, some are nasty. You keep the ones you want.........


    Trojans

    What is a Trojan? Trojans are programs which will mostly be sent via email, instant-messengers or filesharing-tools. If you run a trojan file it will install itself on your computer to get run every time you boot up your machine. Trojans opens a port (channel) on your system which can be used by an attacker to connect to your computer. Trojans can enable almost everything for an attacker to do harmful things like viewing/modifying/deleting data, watching you when you are working or surfing the web, etc. Depending on the trojan there can be thousands of functions built in which can be remotely used by any attacker to spy you.

    A good Firewall will combat most trojan activity, but it's still something you don't want on your machine. There are specific trojan removal tools written by the major AV providers, eg http://securityresponse.symantec.com , each of which will deal with a specific trojan. You'll first notice a trojan when your AV spots one, or your firewall asks for permission for it to access the internet.


    Firewalls

    Another vital security feature is the ability to control what comes into, and goes out of your machine. If you are running a router, it will probably be running a hardware firewall, which you need to configure according to the manufacturers instructions.

    Hardware firewalls are far more effective than software firewalls, and they don't suck system resources. Most routers have firewalls built in. If you don't have a router, but you have an old computer (486 or better) and a couple NIC's, you can build your own firewall/router/proxy server using Smoothwall or Clarkconnect. Some prefer Smoothwall (very sleek and simple to install and maintain), but Clarkconnect offers more features, such as a web server, file server, print server, and other options.

    Software Firewalls are programs that monitor the traffic flowing in and out of your PC. The different firewalls offer different features, nad you should do your homework before deciding whether to buy a fully-featured version, or take advantage of a free, less-featured version.

    So what is there out there?

    www.zonelabs.com - Zone Labs offers both free and paid-for Firewalls. Probably the most popular software firewall around these days.

    http://smb.sygate.com/ - Sygate, again, offer both free, and paid-for firewalls

    www.symantec.com - Norton Personal Firewall 2004 is the latest to-buy offering from Symantec

    www.mcafee.com - Personal Firewall Plus is Mcafees to-buy firewall

    There are many more software firewalls out there, and listing them all is far beyond the scope of this Tutorial, so for now this is the end, but i'm currently working on a Part 2 for this Tutorial.

    Any and all comments and Suggestion on this Subject are more then welcome.

    {KS}

  2. #2
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    KS,

    My properly patched windows, whether it's my hdd with xp and slack or the second with win98se and suse are just as secure as either of the properly patched *nix's that they are adjacent to. I don't think it's accurate to just blindly make the statement:

    It's full of holes, and we know it.
    Since I don't know it, I would be really interested in any new hole(s) that you are aware of so that I can make the adjustments. I don't post this to dis what you're saying, but rather to check to see if have missed something.

    Addtionally, thank you for providing all the links.

    cheers
    Connection refused, try again later.

  3. #3
    Agreed, as any OS in the proper Admin hands can be just as secure as any other OS in the market.

    Nice tutorial none the less.

  4. #4
    AO's MMA Fanatic! Computernerd22's Avatar
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    Nice tutorial. I would also like to add to secure your Windows box I recommend downloading the microsoft baseline security analyzer v 1.2 you can download it @ http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...on123121120120

    Very useful for securing your Windows box. BTW {KS} wheres the encryption? When you have a connection with SSL 3.0 RC4 with 128 bit encryption; RSA with 1024 bit exchange. It's pretty secure. My personal opionion Encryption is key. Hope this helps, Computernerd22

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  6. #6
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    OK... I moved this one from the Tutorials Forum, since it indeed is not really a tutorial. I can see why he posted it in the Tutorials Forum though, and I don't see any reason to neg him for that (like a lot of people seem to have done). It's a decent list of links, tutorial or not...

  7. #7
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    I gotta agree, an OS is only as secure as it's network admin make's it to be. A linux admin can leave his box totally unpatched and have many services running with easy to crack password's and that would make that Linux OS insecure. It's all a matter of how good you secure and harden that box, OS doesn't really mean much. One OS might have more holes and vulnerabilities then another, but with proper administration and keeping up with update's, you'll be alright .
    Space For Rent.. =]

  8. #8
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    I'm sorry for putting this is the wrong Section.
    Anyhow i'd like to thank you all for both positive and negative responses.
    The part 2 to this would be more of a Tutorial then what this one would could of been.
    Once again sorry if i offended anyone by putting this in the wrong area, and thanks to Negative for correcting this mistake.

    {KS}
    [blur][glowpurple]Long time Fan, Long time Lurker[/glowpurple][/blur]

  9. #9
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    Thanks for the links....

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