Is your computer running especially slow?
Are your search results hijacked?
Are you getting pop ups?

It seems like a never ending battle at times. Malware (malicious software) keeps changing and finding ways to infect your computer. The first thing you’ll need to do is get rid of the malware, the next step is taking the preventative measures to make sure you don’t keep getting hit.

Getting rid of the virus…
Most folks already have a desktop antivirus solution in place. If not, then I recommended a couple free antivirus programs earlier. The important thing is to make sure whatever antivirus software you have is updated and set to scan on-access, also called real-time scanning. Outdated antivirus software is worse than no antivirus because it gives you a false sense of protection. So the first step is to update your antivirus software and run a full scan.

A second opinion…
Often times, the first thing a virus does to your system is disable your installed antivirus, so an online scan would be helpful in those situations. Online scanners are nice because they are always up to date. Also, the different software vendors look for different threats, so if you have McAfee or Symantec installed, you can run the TrendMicro, Eset, or Kaspersky scans to be sure your local antivirus didn’t miss anything.

Here are a few links to different online virus scanners to help you get a second opinion.

TrendMicro Housecall
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Kaspersky Online Scan
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

ESET online scan
http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

Keep in mind that running an online scan can often take a long time, so plan to run the scan overnight, or when you’ll be away from the computer for a number of hours. Also remember that online scanning is a reactive process. Nothing beats the peace-of-mind you get by having updated desktop protection running full-time and keeping you safe.

Staying protected…
In an earlier article I wrote that choosing a desktop protection solution can be as easy as using whatever comes pre-installed on your computer by the manufacturer, whatever is on sale at the local bulk warehouse store, or whatever your friends and family use and recommend. I even posted a few of my recommendations

But be careful and do not install more than one antivirus software because they can conflict with each other, slowing down your computer and possibly leaving you unprotected as they fight over who gets to scan your files.

If you get a pop-up virus warning that isn’t from your installed antivirus software, then you’ve already been infected by a rogue program. Give me a call. I’m here to help.

Hey, it’s me again, happy holidays! Last time I posted a few recommendations for security software. The feedback I received was great, I am glad you found the blog post useful. My goal is to keep providing helpful information for you.

Now is the time of year the virus writers are taking full advantage of all the holiday e-cards being sent. So please use caution when clicking links in email. Take the time to verify that you know and trust the sender, and be sure that the link you are about to click is from a reputable site.

For example, a recent spam email I got was from Halmark-Greeting, notice there was only one “l” in Hallmark. Some junk mail is easy to spot due to typos, either intentional or not, but others are more difficult to spot.

Here’s a tool I use and recommend to help check out web links:
McAfee Site Advisor –

“SiteAdvisor software adds safety ratings to your browser and search engine results.”

So, first you need to download and install the Site Advisor tool from McAfee. Then, anytime you search, (using google, yahoo, bing, etc.), the results will have a Site Advisor icon to indicate whether the link is good, bad, or unknown. It’s really that simple. So instead of clicking a link in an email… just copy/paste it into your favorite search engine and let Site Advisor… um, advise you. 🙂

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know. I’m here to help.
-Erik

Here’s a simple checklist for you:

• Practice safe computing procedures
• Keep all your software updated
• Install anti-virus software on every computer
• Install anti-malware software on every computer
• Install a personal firewall on every computer
• Backup often
• Have a recovery plan in place

Safe Computing Practices

This basically means that you need to be careful, and use common sense. Don’t open unknown attachments, install unknown programs, use P2P file sharing, and things like that. It only takes a few seconds to click on something… and hours and perhaps days to recover from the damage.

Software Updates

In a previous blog I mentioned Secunia as one of the good guys out there helping to keep your software updated. It’s important to update all your software on a regular basis. That includes Windows, Office, Adobe, Java, Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, and anything else you can think of. Malware programmers are always looking for holes into your computer and unpatched software is a prime target. Out of date protection is worse than no protection because it lulls you into a false sense of security.

Anti-virus

There are lots of good anti-virus programs, so choose one that you like and stick with that. Here are a couple links to some free anti-virus programs that I’ve used and recommended. Just remember to only install one anti-virus. Having multiples can cause conflicts and render both useless leaving you exposed.

Avira Antivir Personal

MS Security Essentials

Anti-Malware

This one is easy for me to recommend. I’ve used it and it’s tried and tested to be one of the best.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Firewall

At a minimum you should be running the built in Windows Firewall. But it’s recommended that you install a personal firewall as well. The Windows firewall blocks incoming ports preventing the bad guys from getting into your computer. A personal firewall also blocks outgoing ports which helps to prevent malware from “phoning home” and downloading more malware onto your computer. Here are a couple links for personal firewalls.

Online Armor

Outpost Firewall

Backup

There are many different backup solutions available today: from manually burning CDs/DVDs of your photos, to using software to copy important files to external USB storage, and even using scheduled backups to online storage. The important thing is to backup early and backup often. You never know when disaster may strike so always keep a copy of your important files.

Recovery

Recovery is as simple as reversing your backup plan, or at least it should be. Again, you can only recover what you’ve already backed up. If you’ve used backup software to save your files to external media, CDs/DVDs/USB storage, etc, then make sure to store a copy of that software along with your media.

I hope that this checklist helps to outline the steps to staying protected on the internet. The only truly safe and secure computer is one that is not connected to the internet and unplugged from the wall. Of course it may be safe but it’s not very useful. 🙂

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me.
Be safe out there,
Erik

I don't like SPAM!

One of the questions I get asked fairly often is “Why am I getting so much junk email?” The answer is simple… money.
Well, it’s more complicated than that, but ultimately that’s what it comes down to.

Money? Yes, money.
Estimates say that in 2005 there were *only* 30 billion spam emails sent… in 2007 the number jumped to over 90 billion. (source: wikipedia) The amount tripled in just 2 years and it seems like we are getting even more unsolicited commercial email (UCE) in our mailboxes every year. Why? Because it’s almost free to send email and it works. People still respond to these messages. The bad guys make money from folks ordering prescription pharmaceuticals, viewing pornography, buying replica designer watches, downloading software, and even turning your computer into a spam email sender. The return on investment in huge because it is basically postage due advertising where the cost is paid by the recipient. And it only takes a tiny fraction of people buying this junk to keep the incentive for the spammers.

So what can you do about it?

1) Don’t respond – Take away the financial motivation for the businesses who send junk mail. Most of us don’t respond, but it’ll only stop if everybody stops buying from companies who use unsolicited email for their marketing. Don’t fall for the trick of “unsubscribe from these emails” either. Any response to junk mail just serves to verify your email is legitimate. A verified address is more valuable to spammers because they can now sell your email address to another spammer.

2) Turn off auto-preview – Many email clients automatically open up email as a  “benefit” to users. Actually, it benefits the junk mail senders, virus writers and malware creators more than it benefits users. Auto-preview does a few things that help keep spam alive. Auto-preview might download images from the web which is another method spammers use to “verify” your email address.  Auto-preview may allow security threats to automatically launch multimedia files, harmful executables, infected PDF’s, etc.

3) Keep your system updated. – Out-of-date security is worse than no security. Software vendors have made a concerted effort to regularly update their software to ward off new and emerging security threats. But if you don’t keep your software updated, then the bad guys can exploit known flaws and install malware on your machine. So how does keeping your computer secure stop spam? Malicious software known as “trojan horses” are designed to allow a hacker remote access to your computer so he can turn your computer into a spambot. An army of these bot machines are rented out to spammers at the rate of $700/hr allowing them to send email from multiple machines at alarming rates.

4) Use layered protection – As with all security, a layered approach works best. Most email providers will offer spam protection for their users. Then add another layer on your desktop to catch anything that might slip through the first layer. Typical desktop protection costs between $30-40/year. Below are a few of the top rated desktop solutions. McAfee and Norton also offer protection within their security suites.

MailFrontier Desktop – http://www.mailfrontier.com/products_matador.html

SonicWall Anti-spam Desktop – http://www.sonicwall.com/us/products/anti-spam-desktop.html

Cloudmark Desktop – http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/

5) Don’t give out your email address to just anyone – It may be too late for this last bit of advice. I urge people to treat an email address like a credit card: only give it out to folks with whom your are doing business or whom you inherently trust. If you receive more junk mail than legitimate mail it may be time for a new email address. There are lots of freely available web-based emails out there, Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, to name a few.  Sign up, send your friends and family the new email address, and start using that as your primary email.

GMail – http://mail.google.com/

Yahoo – http://mail.yahoo.com/

MSN – http://www.msn.com/

If you have any questions or comments let me know. I’m here to help.

-Erik

Gibson Research Corporation – GRC.com

Have you tested your shields lately?

The folks at GRC have created a web-based scanner that will tell you exactly how secure (or insecure) your connection to the internet is (or isn’t). Click on over and you’ll find ShieldsUP listed under Services at GRC.com

Here’s what they have to say about their scan…

This Internet Common Ports Probe attempts to establish standard TCP Internet connections with a collection of standard, well-known, and often vulnerable or troublesome Internet ports on YOUR computer. Since this is being done from our server, successful connections demonstrate which of your ports are “open” or visible and soliciting connections from passing Internet port scanners.

via GRC | ShieldsUP! — Common Ports Probe .

The ShieldsUP scan is one of the tools I use and recommend, (along with lots of other offerings from GRC.com more on those later). It takes a minute or so to run the port probe, but the satisfaction that your internet connection is secure is well worth the wait. And if your connection is insecure you will get detailed information on the open ports, what the risks are, and what you can do about it.

Head on over and run the scan. If you don’t get a “True Stealth” rating let me know and I’ll see if I can help. Here’s the results of my most recent scan…

Your system has achieved a perfect “TruStealth” rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to “counter-probe the prober”, thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice.

As you can see, the results are written in a clear and friendly style. Gibson Research Corporation is another one of the good guys out there helping to tame the wild and woolly internet for folks like you and me. Now go check your shields.

Tech Tip – Vulnerability Scanning – Secunia.com

Most Windows users know about Windows Update and probably have it set to check automatically for critical updates to Windows. But what about the rest of your software?

That’s where Secunia comes in to play. I first learned about Secunia from one of the network security conferences I regularly attend and found them to be one of the good guys.

Here’s what they have to say about their software inspectors…

Scan, detect, and update vulnerable programs. The Secunia Software Inspectors are the first internal vulnerability scanners that focus solely on detection and assessment of missing security patches and end-of-life programs – the result is an unprecedented level of scan accuracy. Scanning for missing security patches and vulnerabilities have never been easier or more precise.The Software Inspectors are perfect supplements to Windows Update as they inform about missing patches for thousands of third party programs. Secunia offers three Software Inspectors, each with a specific user focus.

I personally use the free PSI (personal desktop) product on my home computers and run the online scanner as part of my diagnostics when servicing clients. Give it a try and see what you think.

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/