Protecting
your computer
Viruses,
Spam & Security (+Alerts)
Better
yet, just give up - Windows PCs are dead - run Linux or Apple
Tip
of the moment: Make sure that you have ZoneAlarm installed and working in ALL of your machines.
Over
the last couple of days (2018-01-03), there has been a lot of
discussion about a pair of security vulnerabilities nicknamed Spectre and Meltdown. These affect all modern Intel processors, and (in the case of Spectre) many AMD processors and some ARM cores.
Spectre allows an attacker to bypass software checks to read data from
arbitrary locations in the current address space; Meltdown allows an
attacker to read arbitrary data from the operating system kernel’s
address space (which should normally be inaccessible to user programs).
The Raspberry Pi family is immune to this.
'WannaCry' fixes (urgent 2017-05-13):
Manually installable patch for XP and other non-supported OSes can be found at this Microsoft page
Manually installable patch for Windows 7 and later can be found at this Microsoft page
You can be sure more is coming, so stay alert to media and SANS
Note: this exploits SMB1 server (optional) connection
code. In our Win7 Professional installs none of the SMB1, SMB2 or SMB3
options were even present. To be safe, run these patches anyway.
DON'T
EVER leave your e-mail client
running all the time!
If
you run Windows (or Wine on Linux), do yourself a
BIG
favour and use PopTray (use for
Wine/Linux) or PopTrayU
(use for Windows).
For the most reliable (and supportable) version of PopTrayU go to this download page
and download v5.0.15.
This allows you to keep your
e-mail client closed and will also block unwanted spam (by installing
the example Rules.ini file given here):
Install PopTray or PopTrayU-
then download our latest PopTray(U) Rules.ini file.
File last
updated: Thursday, 06-Sep-2018 03:37:57 PDT Size:1.0MB
The Rules file is
frequently tested and then updated. Re-visit here frequently and
download to be rid of
the 'spam of the day'.
Setting up PopTray(U) and Thunderbird
[you can also use BlackList.ptdat & WhiteList.ptdat files on specific e-mail addresses].
|
Saving Bookmarks,
Passwords, Form
entries? Avoid services such as LastPass
Ask yourself: Can I trust them? How long will they be around?
The top
10,000 passwords used - avoid them like the Plague.
|
Why you shouldn't use a
"Cloud" - plus they are
built on wobbly foundations
Current Internet performance Global Internet
Traffic Report
Global
graphical Traceroute
Real-Time
Web Traffic SANS "Ouch"
Newsletter Spam
Statistics threatpost
Stop
Badware Alerts and Reports
Security
THE
DNS vulnerabilty - check
your ISP's DNS updates - an overview
of the worldwide patching
From here on down, ignore the rest of this
page if you run Linux or *NIX
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes for
your Security & “Well Being”:
Our
recommended – essential
– programs carry a 5 tick rating
PROTECT
YOURSELF
Install
an
anti-virus program. NOW.
Keep
all
security tools up to
date EVERY DAY
Make
sure you
or your machine
spend at least 15 minutes per day looking after your security
Get
the latest
patches and updates for your operating
system
(not a great idea after August 2013!!)
NEVER
automatically
open e-mail
attachments
Always
download free software or purchased software from trusted,
reputable sources.
Make
backups
of important files
on a regular basis – don't entrust them to a "Cloud" service.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. Why is this
page a bit disorganized?
A.
Viruses, spam and
Security have become so inter-connected that to consider each in
isolation is
almost impossible. Writing a page which covers this subject is a vast
job!
Q. Does that mean
I should install everything on this page?
A.
To be absolutely
sure, yes. Of course, don’t install two anti-virus programs
or two firewalls.
Q. Should I be
constantly on the alert for the latest threats?
A.
Within reason,
yes. Without spending all your time doing it.
Q. What
prevention measures are in place on your server?
A.
The first thing
an incoming e-mail hits is an absolute brickwall which refuses e-mail
from some
addresses and domains. This blocks very well known spammers. On a daily
basis,
this list is updated on the basis of real received spam. Next, the
e-mail passes
through SpamAssassin.
This is the
highest rated server spam blocker in the industry. Finally, our
latest feature,
special files in
the web site areas prevent spam-bots from harvesting e-mail addresses
automatically from your webpage. Webmasters must not remove
these files, or
this protection will be lost.
Q. How often
should I update my programs?
A.
Whenever and as soon
as you can
Q. Why
do I get so much spam?
A.
With all of these
measures in place, you should see a reduction in spam, especially with
our new
spam-bot blocker. However, spam is growing at at least 10% per month,
so our
latest measures, whatever they are, may seem to do no good.
Why
so much spam, or
why does some of your e-mail “go missing” went sent
to others?
The
longer your e-mail address is in service, the more you will receive.
Period.
How
to attract spam:
Visit
“bargain”
sites and sign up for e-mail alerts.
Simply
register with
many web sites.
Allow
pop-ups &
cookies (at the very least it’ll tempt you to
“break the rules”).
Leave
your e-mail
address wide open on your website for spam-bots to collect.
Catch
a virus.
Have
somebody you know
catch a virus and flood the internet with your e-mail address from
their
address
book.
How
to “lose” e-mail
sent to others: (trigger spam filters)
Use
an empty Subject
line.
Use
an empty From:
line.
Use
subjects such as
“Check this out”, “Re:”
Attach
.exe, .pif,
.scr, .zip and other file types.
Use
a bulk e-mail
service (they break nearly all of these “rules”) - Gmail,
Yahoo, Outlook, etc.
Use
lots of HTML
tags.
Use
phrases such as
“click here” or “to unsubscribe”
Use
proprietary e-mail client phrases, such as "Emailing"
Use bad
spelling and grammar
What’s
an
“acceptable” amount of spam?
Anybody who “plays
by the rules” will still receive spam, probably at the rate
of 2-3 per day i.e.
if you log on on Monday morning you should almost expect there to be
8-10 spam e-mails awaiting you after a weekend off.
Q.
Aren’t you a bit anti-Microsoft & other big companies?
A.
Well, yes, but
for good reasons. Ours and our customers findings have been that many
of the
open-source or free versions of anti-virus, firewall, e-mail clients
&
browsers are superior in speed and performance than
“mainstream” applications.
Example: a machine infected with 18 viruses failed to have them
detected by
up-to-date versions of McAfee and Norton. AVG detected them and removed
them on
the first pass.
Frankly,
we all know
the faux-pas’ made in security by many of these companies.
Not that open-source
is perfect; but the time from finding a problem to fixing it is often
much less
than in the big corporations.
Now,
let’s get on with fixing things!
OK,
let’s do your
Virus, Spam & Security Fixes now in one go
(Windows only)
START
HERE
Download
and install a firewall. Zone Alarm (don’t
ever go on the
internet without it!) (DON'T USE Comodo)
We have removed two ticks. ZA isn't as good as it used to be.
In fact, Windows Firewall/Defender now seems
to do quite a good job.
It seems to remove a lot of overhead.
|
Avira
To update this you can use "C:\Program
Files\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\update.exe" /DM="0" /NOMESSAGEBOX
/receivetimeout=120 in a Scheduled task in Windows.
(running this in
scan mode will take
about 60 mins on a typical system) or AVG
Microsoft Defender does a reasonable job.
|
Download
and install Wireshark
(optional - almost certainly too complex for 99% of users)
Download and
install
Noscript Windows
Scripting Host Stopper
Windows
Update
UnPnP
Mozilla
Firefox
Secure Browser with industry standard plug-ins
Mozilla
Thunderbird
Secure e-mail with industry standard plug-ins
Not
only is
Mozilla secure, but you can add calendar
functions and PGP, GPG Enigmail encryption to your messages and
attachments,
with Bayesian filtering
built-in
Remove
Outlook, Outlook
Express, Windows Live, Windows Mail and stop using Internet Explorer, Edge or Chrome. Use Vivaldi.
Spybot
remover –
SpyBotS&D To automatically update
this you can use "C:\Program
Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\SpybotSD.exe" /taskbarhide
/autoupdate /autoclose in a
Scheduled Task in Windows (running in
scan mode will take about 45 mins on a typical system) [don't
enable TeaTimer].
On Win7 and
8 you can use SpybotS&D v2 which has a completely different
approach.
Also
Anti-Malware To automatically update this
you can use "C:\Program
Files (x86)\Malwarebytes
Anti-Malware\mbam.exe" /update in a Scheduled Task in
Windows (running in
scan mode will take about 45 mins on a typical system)
REMINDER: I hope you followed the advice to install PopTray at the start of
this page and to NEVER keep your e-mail client open.
File last
updated: Thursday, 06-Sep-2018 03:37:57 PDT Size:1.0M
B
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Test
your Security
ShieldsUp
How
can I see
if my machine is sending out spam behind my back?
You can look at Internet activity on your PC. A simple visual proof is
to install NetMeter.
If you see attempts to send out data every few seconds then you might
have a problem.
However, don't be fooled, sometimes you'll see frames every 10s or so.
This can be Microsoft networking trying to reach another machine.
Likewise, you may see the effects of SSID broadcasts from a WiFi system.
To test further, you can download the rather complex
Wireshark
which will give all
the details of what is going on. When you do this, make sure that your
browser, e-mail client and any other programs that talk to the internet
are not running. There may be background jobs such as Real, Apple,
Garmin and Google updates which you aren't aware of.
Useful
links - Wilders
Anti-Virus
Software
(JUST FOR YOUR
INFORMATION)
AVG anti-virus (free).
Avast (free)
– very complex user
interface
F-Secure
Kaspersky
ClamWin
(free)
Trend Micro anti-virus
McAfee
anti-virus
Norton
anti-virus
Specific removal tools
(just in case your anti-virus tool misses it!) and another
one too
Anti-Spam
(JUST FOR YOUR
INFORMATION)
PopFile
Bayesian
filtering for POP servers
menu
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