Check your PCs for viruses!

[whabang]

I agree with MikeyMike; far to many people put to much trust in their SW, when they should keep their systems patched.

Another good thing is to shut down your computers when they are not used; there are no excuse for having them on-line withoug purpose.

Don't use a static IP unless you need to.

Don't use ZoneAlarm at all (it causes low-IDs in eMule anyway).

Regularily go through your computer, looking for anything suspicious.

[mikeymike]

whabang wrote:
Don't use a static IP unless you need to.

I disagree.  The usefulness of having a static IP outweighs the fringe "security through obscurity" benefit of having a dynamically-assigned IP address.  At the end of the day, if someone is looking for a machine to hack into, they'll just scan an entire IP range for machines with vulnerable services running.  If your machine was successfully hacked into, typically a program is left running on your machine which will advertise your hacked machine's existence on the Internet, mostly in the form of connecting to an IRC server and waiting for instructions.

Don't use ZoneAlarm at all (it causes low-IDs in eMule anyway).

I totally agree with this, but most Windows-based firewalls are about as useful as a monkey with five asses.

I've written an article about software firewalls here:
http://www.mikeymike.org.uk/mikes/040829.html

Regularily go through your computer, looking for anything suspicious.

This requires a bit more knowledge, though it is worth knowing.  Get acquainted with what processes are normally running on your computer, you can use Task Manager (right-click on the taskbar, there's an option for it there) to see the process list.  You can search for executable names in google, and if they come up as spyware/viruses, you know you've got a problem.  Otherwise, if you see a process you can't account for, investigate it more thoroughly.

When checking customers' machines, I generally run a scan with Ad-Aware on their machines, and for new customers, there hasn't been one yet whose machine didn't light up like a spyware christmas tree (admittedly Ad-Aware has one false-positive I'm aware of, but it also considers most cookies as spyware, which is a bit of an over-reaction).

I don't run a virus scanner for on-access scanning.  I avoid dodgy attachments, it helps that my friends are competent computer users though.  I otherwise run a spyware scan and virus scan probably about once or twice a month.  On the rare occasion I need to install unknown new software, I manually virus/spy scan the installer, then virus/spy scan my system after the installation.

But if you use a decent browser and mail client, (eg. not one by MS), you cut down the amount of risk you're taking by at least half.  The rest is down to what ought to be common sense then.

Otherwise, keeping software patched is a good idea.  And don't forget, companies do not email software updates to customers!

[whabang]

I disagree. The usefulness of having a static IP outweighs the fringe "security through obscurity" benefit of having a dynamically-assigned IP address.

Well. If you find a Static IP useful, then do so. If you don't see any reason for having a static IP, other than "It's cool", then I suggest sticking to dynamic IPs.

I've enjoyed the benefits of dynamic IPs a few times when I've cheated too much on-line! :lol:

[Brian]

Here's what I use. First line of defence... a simple router... then ZAp and F-Secure (updated daily). For mails I use MailWasherPro to scan all mails and read them without HTML etc support before passing on the mails that are left to OE... attachments are evil and aren't blody likley to get in without me knowing exactly what it is first.

Safety is relative... to be compleatly safe the computer should be unplugged and in storage but that's no fun... I've done what I find resonalbe and I find myself resonable safe.

[_caddy_]

i'd reccomend webroot's spy sweeper, rather than spybot or adaware - it finds more, trust me, i've done it a thousand times in the last few weeks, - i've been working in a comp shop, and about 90% of the work is due to virus / spyware, and people not being internet safe, basically, i'd also recomend norton over mcafee, (this is personal taste).

i wouldnt use zonealarm - id also choose sygate, but i have a hardware firewall, which id reccomend to anyone anyway - over software firewalls anyway

also if you have a HOSTS file with blocking these are useful,

and for those who use msnmessenger block RAD.MSN.COM - it'll block the random ads at the bottom
and therefore no stupid adverts and silly spyware will attack you from there

also get firefox, its great