Protecting your PC (for free)

It’s a wild, wild, web out there ….. and it’s often stated that a PC, without protection, will get attacked by hackers and viruses etc within minutes of being connected to the internet.

So, what exactly is out there to attack you?

Well, there are basically three types of attacks:

1. Hackers – folk who will try and remotely connect to your PC (without you knowing) and break in using some existing bug that they can utilise to give them a back door – or some benign service or protocol that can be fooled into communicating with them.

2. Viruses/Trojans – these are malicious programmes that you unwittingly download and install and which then run on your PC causing some sort of damage – typically, in the case of Trojans, monitoring your key strokes (like your credit card number) and reporting those back somewhere or using your PC (without your knowledge) to send spam email to others.

3. Adware and Spyware – malicious programmes that display advertising, or screw up google searches to always point you at the advertisers product – or even simple files that log your movement around the web so advertisers can track your interests etc.

So, how can you protect yourself – without spending any money on products?

Well, you need three things:

1. A firewall: this is software that monitors the network traffic going in and out of your computer and can block traffic that it is suspicious of or that is known to be up to no good. [It is likely that you have a simple version of this running in your broadband router, depending on the model, and some folk have broadband from an Internet Service Provider who provide a firewall service - such as Plusnet and BT etc. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) also has a built in Firewall that you can turn on.]

The Key thing is to find a free Firewall product that actually works the best – preferably better than all the other free AND commercial products.

2. Antivirus Software: This is software that continuously runs on your PC – ideally checking all traffic coming into it from the internet (such as emails etc) AND all files and any application that you run (in case they are infected). The best software also constantly updates itself – both the actual programme and the information it has about current viruses (known as the “virus definitions”) – because new viruses are being invented every day. See the F-Secure weblog to discover what viruses have been invented today!

3. Adaware/Spyware software that you can periodically run to check that you haven’t been infected by the aforementioned adaware.

You can find articles and download links on the best products to deal with all these nasties on my front page.

Finally, a quick note on “rootkits”: Simply, this is a method by which hackers can hide viruses within the operating system so that Antivirus products don’t see them. Again, you will see a note about one such detection product on the front page.