What many people fail to realize is that an antivirus isn't enough. Got an antispyware? Still not enough. A firewall? Nope.
The solution to detecting and removing threats to your passwords and just your overall computer safety, is having antiviruses, antispyware programs and a three addtional things that many people are oblivious to, several Anti-Trojan/worms, an active process detector, and althought not necessary, a specific keylogger detector. And you know what? Even more people fail to realize that all this can be obtained FREE, with no THREATS.
Most people have the thought process and reasoning of, "Oh no, there are some viruses that could affect my computer. Better get something like Norton to protect myself. Oh wait, the tip.it forums says I need an antispyware program! Better get one too. Ha, now my computer is safe."
Well the sad truth is, it's NOT safe. And really, a computer never will be 100% safe unless you have ALL the right equipment and have TONS of computer know-how and recognition.
Anti-Viruses:
Most people today use a reputable program such as McAfee or Norton. Although these programs are quite good at catching infections, they're not enough. There is no one program that will detect all viruses out there. Some of the best detection rates of any one program are only about 88%-95%. So what if that 5-12% gets on your computer? It's still just as bad.
What you need to do is layer your defences. When I say that, get more than one program for each type of threat. And the greatest thing is, you can layer all your defenses for zip. Like recommended by the thread posted by the mods, AVG, avast!, and AntiVir are all very good programs, each one having a free version. However, there are programs like Bitdefender and ClamWin out there that have extremely good detection rates. What I would recommend is getting AntiVir and AVG as your main line of defence, BUT download Bitdefender and/or avast! and ClamWin as augmentary scanners. AVG and AntiVir have overall the best detection rates and feature set, but BitDefender uses the virus definitions of the commercial product, so that's got to be something good. avast! doesn't as good of a feature set, but it's detection rates are better than AVG's, so feel free to substitute it in. For the most robust virus solution, have only two good free antivirus program and then get a commercial one, but try for something else other than Norton (it's a resource hog)
Anti-Spyware:
Anti-Spyware programs are pretty much the same as anti-viruses, no one program can detect them all. Yadda Yadda, you get the idea. Now for the free apps. MS Antispyware Defender is probably the best freeware solution to your problems as it has the best detection rates and has some nice features. The main disadvantage is that you need a genuine copy of Windows 2000 or higher. But again, you need a second scanner. Ad-Aware is my favourite as it has some pretty good detection rates and is a reputable company. Another scanner is Safer Networkings Spybot: Search and Destroy. Has terrible detection rates, but good features like detection of spyware as it is downloading itself onto your computer. For a paid solution, Spysweeper is the way to go, but again, you have to back it up.
Firewall:
The standard firewall that comes with XP service pack 2 should suffice, and a firewall is one of the only things you don't need two of, actually, it's recommended that you only get one because of interferences. Sygate and Zonealarm both provide free alternatives if you like. Commerical products are not necessary in this case.
Anti-Trojan:
If a product claims to detect everything, then it's either a lie or it does very poorly in every field. Some programs say that they can catch everything from Ad-ware to trojans, to worms, to viruses, but this limits the software's ability to do well in any one field. That's why you need a separate program dedicated to Trojan and Worm detection and removal. Trojans and Worms are as dangerous as viruses, if not more. ewido and a-squared both are good freeware solutions. (ewido is slightly better) For this, I'm not entirely sure on a commercial substitute.
Keylogger Detector:
Programs like these are dedicated to finding keyloggers and get pretty much all of them, but don't usually give means of removing them. Typing in the detected keylogger into a search engine will eventually give you information on the removal.
KL-Detector is the only one I can think of at all, and it's free for Win 2000+
Scanners:
There are online and offline scanners for viruses, spyware, trojans, and everything in between. Most are made by commercial companies. For an offline scanner for spyware, I suggest the Bazooka scanner. This free app only scans, but does it lightning quick and gives you a link to a comprehensive site on removal.
Active Task Monitors:
You're wondering now, "I've gotten everything, my computer is pretty much impenetrable now!" Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but no, it's not. The last threat? Yourself. When a user downloads anything from the web, there's a chance of it being infected with harmful stuff. With an active task monitor, you can detect malicious programs that are about to be installed onto your computer. For example, let's say you want to download a game through Limewire. This program is infected with the sasser worm. Once you download it and are about to install it, the task monitor will say something along the lines, "HEY USER! This thingy is about to be installed. Are you going to allow it to?" This where the fault of the program is. It can't tell you if a program is good or bad, just that it's going to be installed. Sometimes when people are bent on getting something, they'll say yes to everything, making this program useless, but once someone learns to reconize what's good and bad, they can stop that last bit of nasty stuff that's going to get on their computer. My suggestions: WinPatrol and PrevX(Win 2000 and up)
So there you have it. The major parts of my super comprehensive guide to safer surfing.
NOTE AND WARNING: To get information or download links for the programs I suggested, use a search engine like Google. Also, always check the system requirements for that program(ex. does it need a certain operating system? How much RAM and harddrive space do I need?)
Also, when downloading something you think is good, always check it out by looking it up on a search engine for more information and scanning it with a program for threats.
My Safer Surfing Guide *KEYLOGGER INFO INCLUDED!*
in Tech and Computers
Posted
What many people fail to realize is that an antivirus isn't enough. Got an antispyware? Still not enough. A firewall? Nope.
The solution to detecting and removing threats to your passwords and just your overall computer safety, is having antiviruses, antispyware programs and a three addtional things that many people are oblivious to, several Anti-Trojan/worms, an active process detector, and althought not necessary, a specific keylogger detector. And you know what? Even more people fail to realize that all this can be obtained FREE, with no THREATS.
Most people have the thought process and reasoning of, "Oh no, there are some viruses that could affect my computer. Better get something like Norton to protect myself. Oh wait, the tip.it forums says I need an antispyware program! Better get one too. Ha, now my computer is safe."
Well the sad truth is, it's NOT safe. And really, a computer never will be 100% safe unless you have ALL the right equipment and have TONS of computer know-how and recognition.
Anti-Viruses:
Most people today use a reputable program such as McAfee or Norton. Although these programs are quite good at catching infections, they're not enough. There is no one program that will detect all viruses out there. Some of the best detection rates of any one program are only about 88%-95%. So what if that 5-12% gets on your computer? It's still just as bad.
What you need to do is layer your defences. When I say that, get more than one program for each type of threat. And the greatest thing is, you can layer all your defenses for zip. Like recommended by the thread posted by the mods, AVG, avast!, and AntiVir are all very good programs, each one having a free version. However, there are programs like Bitdefender and ClamWin out there that have extremely good detection rates. What I would recommend is getting AntiVir and AVG as your main line of defence, BUT download Bitdefender and/or avast! and ClamWin as augmentary scanners. AVG and AntiVir have overall the best detection rates and feature set, but BitDefender uses the virus definitions of the commercial product, so that's got to be something good. avast! doesn't as good of a feature set, but it's detection rates are better than AVG's, so feel free to substitute it in. For the most robust virus solution, have only two good free antivirus program and then get a commercial one, but try for something else other than Norton (it's a resource hog)
Anti-Spyware:
Anti-Spyware programs are pretty much the same as anti-viruses, no one program can detect them all. Yadda Yadda, you get the idea. Now for the free apps. MS Antispyware Defender is probably the best freeware solution to your problems as it has the best detection rates and has some nice features. The main disadvantage is that you need a genuine copy of Windows 2000 or higher. But again, you need a second scanner. Ad-Aware is my favourite as it has some pretty good detection rates and is a reputable company. Another scanner is Safer Networkings Spybot: Search and Destroy. Has terrible detection rates, but good features like detection of spyware as it is downloading itself onto your computer. For a paid solution, Spysweeper is the way to go, but again, you have to back it up.
Firewall:
The standard firewall that comes with XP service pack 2 should suffice, and a firewall is one of the only things you don't need two of, actually, it's recommended that you only get one because of interferences. Sygate and Zonealarm both provide free alternatives if you like. Commerical products are not necessary in this case.
Anti-Trojan:
If a product claims to detect everything, then it's either a lie or it does very poorly in every field. Some programs say that they can catch everything from Ad-ware to trojans, to worms, to viruses, but this limits the software's ability to do well in any one field. That's why you need a separate program dedicated to Trojan and Worm detection and removal. Trojans and Worms are as dangerous as viruses, if not more. ewido and a-squared both are good freeware solutions. (ewido is slightly better) For this, I'm not entirely sure on a commercial substitute.
Keylogger Detector:
Programs like these are dedicated to finding keyloggers and get pretty much all of them, but don't usually give means of removing them. Typing in the detected keylogger into a search engine will eventually give you information on the removal.
KL-Detector is the only one I can think of at all, and it's free for Win 2000+
Scanners:
There are online and offline scanners for viruses, spyware, trojans, and everything in between. Most are made by commercial companies. For an offline scanner for spyware, I suggest the Bazooka scanner. This free app only scans, but does it lightning quick and gives you a link to a comprehensive site on removal.
Active Task Monitors:
You're wondering now, "I've gotten everything, my computer is pretty much impenetrable now!" Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but no, it's not. The last threat? Yourself. When a user downloads anything from the web, there's a chance of it being infected with harmful stuff. With an active task monitor, you can detect malicious programs that are about to be installed onto your computer. For example, let's say you want to download a game through Limewire. This program is infected with the sasser worm. Once you download it and are about to install it, the task monitor will say something along the lines, "HEY USER! This thingy is about to be installed. Are you going to allow it to?" This where the fault of the program is. It can't tell you if a program is good or bad, just that it's going to be installed. Sometimes when people are bent on getting something, they'll say yes to everything, making this program useless, but once someone learns to reconize what's good and bad, they can stop that last bit of nasty stuff that's going to get on their computer. My suggestions: WinPatrol and PrevX(Win 2000 and up)
So there you have it. The major parts of my super comprehensive guide to safer surfing.
NOTE AND WARNING: To get information or download links for the programs I suggested, use a search engine like Google. Also, always check the system requirements for that program(ex. does it need a certain operating system? How much RAM and harddrive space do I need?)
Also, when downloading something you think is good, always check it out by looking it up on a search engine for more information and scanning it with a program for threats.