How do you keep your PC secure?

[Former Member]

So, what's your trojan wall?

Last week, I had fallen victim to two malware attacks that resulted in my having to reformat my PC twice. Since I took my PC's security for granted, I never really devised a way to safeguard it resulting in my losing valuable time. At the moment I'm researching on the best anti-virus and other software to not let this happen again.

How do you keep your PC safe from these kinds of attacks? What are your preventive and recovery measures?

Anti-Virus: AVAST or NOD32

Anti-Spyware: Ad-Aware

Browsers: IE 7, FireFox 3, Chrome

Partitioned drive into 2. One for program files - and for data files. Planning on external hard-drive for backup image of data files Backup important data to DVD once every 2 months.

And I have no "System Restore Point" strategy.

Help! 😛

[Former Member]

Hmm. I've done some research and the virus that infected my home work PC belongs to the VIRUT family of viruses. If you're not alarmed -- just an overview, it infects all data files that are running on your PC. It doesn't stop infecting your OS executables but it also infects .doc, .pdf, .ppt, etc. And to a point where the only option is to nuke your PC.

It's a fairly new kind of virus - and there's no proper 'fix' to this as of yet. So my fellow comrades, if you have the time, backup your important documents/data to a non-writeable format like a DVD or an external HD that's secure and clean. (If you haven't already)

[matt]

scary: [Unfortunately, the cleaning of this virus is very difficult or almost impossible. |http://www.avast.com/eng/win32-virut.html]

[Former Member]

Indeed. And from what I have read, it can reside in servers as well - and reportedly public websites harbor the virus now. I have already informed my friend who owns an IT firm who develops web technologies for business as it can reside on their server and infect ALL of their work files.

Though I don't know to what extent this virus can harm systems - and to think I'm a portal consultant at that - I'm left to wondering could this infect all the html, htmlb, jsp.. and that would be a disaster. I just hope the security team can put up a good preventive measure.

And at the moment, all major enterprise-level anti-virus can't repair/fix this virus. So, at the moment -- it's all about preventive maintenance.. and risk aversion with heavy backup of files.

Regards,

Jan

[matt]

>

> How do you keep your PC secure?

Plenty of love, affection and affirmation. But it's even more important for your PC to know that those who are responsible for it love each other.

...or is that kids?

[stephenjohannes]

I follow the directions in the song "virus alert", great song if you need directions on what to do if your pc is infected.

- unplug the power and bury it in the ground!

Take care,

Stephen

[Former Member]

I actually hugged my PC to sleep.. didn't really help that much.

[former_member184657]

no no no... you got it all wrong. Hugging your PC to sleep doesnt work. You gotta cuddle...

A cuddle shows you really care. Trust me

pk

[former_member205352]

Anti-Virus: Mccafe (updated version)

Anti-Spyware: Mccafe takes care of this to be extra sure you can use windows defender or spyware doctor.

Browsers: FireFox 3.0.7

Mccafe has a addon to firefox called "site advisor", its very good.Atleast you know which sites are dangerous.

Enable automatic updates to all.

[Former Member]

Google chrome has that advisor tool as well for unsecure websites. But I'm not thoroughly sure about chrome's stability and security.. moreover, one interesting thing is during the recent malware attack - it infected all of my browsers with this chupa.pl virus. Inserting snippets of html codes to every site it visits (as stored in cache). What happened is Firefox kept on running, and so did IE. But Chrome just crashed totally -- so technically, it was the most secure one then. 😛

[markus_doehr2]

I'd use Chrome with care.

Google is a data squid, every Chrome installation gets a unique number and the browser may (or may not) send information to Google:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Heads-Up-Chromes-Omnibox-May-Record-What-You-Type-64387.html?wlc=...

Did you try to use service marketplace or a portal (BI-Java) with Chrome?

I'd then use more Iron (http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php) which is based on Chrome (same rendering engine) but without all that data collection stuff.

I trust then more Firefox which is developed by hundreds of people and where the code is reviewed.

Markus

[former_member205352]

Not sure about chrome, I use only Firefox and IE.Now I think need to try chrome.

I once used the beta version of chrome which was very slow compared to firefox.

I think your antivirus and not updating it might be the issue.

Mccafe works cool.

Mccafe shreds most of the virus,and also asks you if something is trying to make a registry change or trying to access internet.

Kinda safe, but can't tell as viruses are designed before anti-virus

[Former Member]

I'm not really surprsised Google would do data hounding. First, I was 'sold' to it's slick 'new' features - it was cool at that and some did say it's faster than FireFox. And supposedly more resource friendly. But you've made a good point again, will stick to FF now until Chrome gets out of it's Beta state and have me convinced it's really better than the rest.

Actually, yes. Haha. I've tried accessing service market place and bi-portal on chrome. I encoutered issues accessing the reports - actually IE 6, surprisingly, didn't fair better on that as well (was eventually resolved anyways). Report generation (refresh) looped infinitely. And with FireFox there's no problem at all.

Okay, I'm sold on using FF.

Edited by: JMJ on Mar 19, 2009 9:52 AM

[Former Member]

McAfee, I've read some reviews and it shows that it hogs resources. At least based on this [review |http://www.pcantivirusreviews.com/reviews/vipre_antivirus.html]of Vipre -- of which I'm looking into as well.

But if you look at the functionalities, it does look good as per overall rating never mind the resources it use.

thanks!

[klaki]

Regardless how save you feel, don't forget to have a backup of your business or other valuable documents/data!

I still prefer the 'good old' Grandfather-Father-Son method!

Just my 2 Cents

Klaus

[Former Member]

Very true.

I'm already planning on a paranoid-level of backing up my business documents/data. Looking into improving it though. An external terrabyte hard-disk would come in handy.

[markus_doehr2]

> How do you keep your PC safe from these kinds of attacks? What are your preventive and recovery measures?

- First and most important thing: do not work as administrator or with an account with administration privileges, create a user that has no permissions to write to WINDOWS and WINDOWS\system32 directory. If software does not work, blame the developers of that software. User software should never need to write to system32.

- use Firefox or other browser instead, avoid IE when possible

- do not use Outlook Express

- disable execution of ActiveX plugins in IE if you use it

- use a different OS (I know, may in SAP area impossible)

Markus

[Former Member]

Awesome, Markus. Never thought of #1 until now. Haha. Having been troubleshooting, implementing, and configuring portals for a while - never thought of implementing user levels on my own PC. haha. how sad.

IE 7 said that they've improved security there. Hmm. Does FireFox have the anti-malware tools IE 7.0 has? Or it's just not as vulnerable as IE?

Thanks a lot, Markus.

[markus_doehr2]

> Awesome, Markus. Never thought of #1 until now. Haha. Having been troubleshooting, implementing, and configuring portals for a while - never thought of implementing user levels on my own PC. haha. how sad.

You can secure a machine, however, it requires some work and will be a bit "inconvenient". A user should never be able to install software, no SAPGUI, no Java, nothing. If this needs to be done it should be done as administrator.

E. g. try "start - execute - gpedit.msc"

Administrative Templates

--> Windows Components

--> Internet Explorer

--> Security Features

There is a LOT that you can configure, allow and deny. In an active Directory Domain you can configure this centrally for all PCs. Browsers can so be locked down to be just that - a browser.

> IE 7 said that they've improved security there. Hmm. Does FireFox have the anti-malware tools IE 7.0 has? Or it's just not as vulnerable as IE?

The fist question I would ask is: On which sites are you browsing? Firefox has the "advantage" that it will tell you, if something is installed - or if it's tried. IE may just silently install it...

"By default" nothing is secure and I've seen a lot of PCs being infected not by browser but by all kinds of other software being downloaded from untrusted sources on the net (P2P, torrent, emule etc.) and being executed as "keygen.exe", "unpack_newest_chart_hits_collection.exe" or "best_program_to_create_invitation_cars.exe" I'm not blaming people, it's just what I've seen.

I personally would try to avoid software being installed in the first place - instead of trying to keep up-to-date with anti-<whatever> tools

Just my 2 cents.

Markus

[Former Member]

After losing a lot of important documents that earns me money, I wouldn't mind the incovinience. Hehe.

Probably through those protocol. And I had problems with USB storage devices containing viruses as well that attaches themselves to files and then to the registry.

Very good points raised, Markus. Thanks so much.

[markus_doehr2]

> After losing a lot of important documents that earns me money, I wouldn't mind the incovinience. Hehe.

I believe you...

> Probably through those protocol. And I had problems with USB storage devices containing viruses as well that attaches themselves to files and then to the registry.

You can disable automatic running of USB stick programs or DVDs (if there is an autorun.inf files on the media):

use gpedit.msc

Computer Configuration

-> Administrative Templates

-> System

--> Turn off Autoplay (enable it)

This will prevent that a program is started on an USB stick or external device when you plug it in. You wll have the "inconvenience" to fire up an explorer and browser to that directory manually.

Markus

[Former Member]

Very much appreciated, Markus.

Right now, I've to figure of a way for the best backup methodology to implement. I think my multiple, periodic backup's enough for now.

[matt]

I've a pc and a laptop, both use firefox, both connect to t'internet via wireless router, with built-in (and configured) firewall. PC has mcafee (that'll go end of this subscription), outpost firewall. Laptop has avg and comodo firewall. In 14 years of connection to the net I've only ever had one malware attacks - one when I was rebuilding the PC, and inadvertently connected it to the net without starting the firewall. I update everything regularly.

[Former Member]

> - First and most important thing: do not work as administrator or with an account with administration privileges, create a user that has no permissions to write to WINDOWS and WINDOWS\system32 directory. If software does not work, blame the developers of that software.

There was an article recently about a survey which concluded that this solves 92% of the security problems.

I think the same holds true for basis folks with SAP_ALL...