[QuietIce]

This is an article written recently by Ed Bott, who has been writing about MS & Co for years, and even he has "seen the light" when it comes to security even though he prefaces this article with the following:

It’s no secret that I dislike the security software industry.

And I can attest to that since I've been reading his articles for well over a year now.

In this article he outlines a nice 7-point guide to security and though it's not all inclusive I thought many people, especially Old Fogies like me and people new to running their own systems, might be interested.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/do-yo...85?tag=nl.e539

[beenthere]

Worthy article and good recommendations especially for users of Microsucks products which are always under attack because they are so easy to penetrate, i.e. insecure.

Even if you don't care about your PC which may be just a toy for online games, etc. your PC can be an unwilling BOT to attach others and websites, so it's worth a little effort to help everyone including yourself.

[QuietIce]

Originally Posted by beenthere

Worthy article and good recommendations especially for users of Microsucks products which are always under attack because they are so easy to penetrate, i.e. insecure.

As we're finding out from recent Linux hacks, MS products are targeted because of their widespread use making a more juicy target for hackers. Were Linux or Mac as big a target I'm sure they would be hit just as often as MS is now. If you were a hacker would you spend your time writing programs to attack 10% of the computers in the world or would you write programs to attack 70%?

On top of that, as the article points out, it's not just the OS that's under attack anymore. Simple plug-ins like Java and Flash that all browsers use, including Firefox and Chrome, are also vulnerable making every platform a potential target regardless of the OS.

Originally Posted by beenthere

Even if you don't care about your PC which may be just a toy for online games, etc. your PC can be an unwilling BOT to attach others and websites, so it's worth a little effort to help everyone including yourself.

[SteveLord]

Just the free stuff from Microsoft. Otherwise, better and constantly updated user awareness training is what is really needed.

[Audioaficionado]

I just run MS Home Security Essentials on my PCs, but I do run bot checks with SpyBot S&D on boot mode to catch some hidden stuff and I run behind a NAT router.

For clients and friends who don't have a clue, I just tell 'em not to click on the pretty buttons and don't look at email you don't know anything about. I just set up Home Security Essentials to "set it and forget it" mode so at least they have some form of active/updating AV software running in the background for protection.