How to Better Secure Your Account V1.3 (updated)

[RSBDavid]

Revisions

 

v1 - Guide Release

 

v1.1 - Extra Links added

 

v1.2 - No Hide tag version added

 

v1.3 - Ccleaner section added and removed hide tag version for better loading.

 

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Table of Contents

 

[1]-Introduction

 

[2]-Viruses

 

[3]-Ad-ware and Spy-ware

 

[4]-Using a Shared Computer

 

[5]-Speeding Computer Up

 

[6]-Changing Password and Recovery questions

 

[7]-External Links

 

[8]-Credits

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

 

 

I guarantee almost everyone on these forums has or knows someone who has been "hacked". The truth is, they weren't careful enough with their account. In this guide, you will learn how to secure your account where it will be almost impossible to be "hacked". I will also add a few things on speeding up your computer.

 

 

 

Also, It is almost impossible to be hacked though Jagex's servers so don't blame them.

 

 

 

This is geared for PC users, not MAC or other users (Sorry!)

 

 

 

Viruses

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of Viruses are made daily. This is why keeping your Anti-virus (AV) up to date is of the utmost importance.

 

 

 

Never use two AV at the same time. The softwares will mix up and give false reporting more often.

 

 

What does my AV do?

 

Your AV keeps out viruses such as Trojan and Key logger's, which can steal personal information.

 

 

 

 

What's the difference between a Key logger and a Trojan?

 

Well a key logger is just like its name, it logs keys you press on your keyboard.

 

 

 

A Trojan is just what it seems as well. Like in the Trojan horse story, a Computer Trojan sneaks into your computer and destroys your computer from the system folders, then works it's way across your computer.

 

 

 

 

 

What kind of things can viruses do?

 

 

 

Here are a few things:

 

 

 

- The person who runs a Trojan can see a live feed of your computer screen kind of like schools can.

 

 

 

- The person running the Trojan can dump all the password hashes stored on your computer, brute force them and get your E-mail and pay pal passwords.

 

 

 

- Trojans can take over your computer. Remember Synchroneyes from school? Its sort of like that.

 

 

 

The war against Viruses

 

 

 

Here are a few tips to help you better protect your account from Viruses.

 

 

 

1. Get an Anti-virus Software. (Or improve yours).

 

 

 

There are many to choose from. If you were to ask me which one I would recommend, I would tell you AVG. AVG is free and amazingly helpful. I installed it on my sister's laptop and it cleared 87 Viruses and she hasn't had any in the last three years.

 

 

 

I have had some issues with Norton and Mcafee. Trend Micro is a system hog.

 

 

 

2. Update AV Daily and Run Daily Scans.

 

 

 

When you update your AV software, a database of current and most recent viruses are added so your AV knows what to watch for.

 

 

 

I have my computer set to Turn on at 6:00 AM (EST), update then run AV at 6:10, so I get up at 7:00 its ready to go.

 

 

3. Change Your Password Monthly (I recommend every other week).

 

 

 

You are given a 24-character limit to your password, I suggest you utilize it. You can use random password generators to generate a password like "1Hdk5kdvbb0b9". Most have a length option so you can makes a password between 3 and 40 characters.

 

 

 

Just Google Random Password Generators.

 

 

 

4. Change Recovery Questions Monthly.

 

 

 

You can use up to 40 characters per recovery question answer.

 

 

 

**A note about tip 3 and 4:

 

Since remembering passwords can be hard. I recommend you write it down and put it somewhere safe like under a filing cabinet. Don't e-mail yourself this information. If someone infects your computer, they will most likely get access to your e-mail account as well.

 

Ad-ware and Spy-ware

 

(kudos to Whatis.com)

 

 

 

-Ad ware is is any software application in which advertising banners are displayed

 

-Spy ware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge

 

 

 

Spybot search and destroy is good for getting rid of these.

 

 

Using a Shared Computer

 

 

 

 

 

Using a shared computer, whether at home, school, or a public place, is a bad idea. You never know what others' do on that computer. You don't know those users' habits.

 

 

 

My in real life friend is horrible about computer security. His AV software is 4 years past subscription plus it hasn't been updated. He has lost probably 300 dollars between Gaming accounts and buying a new Windows OS.

 

 

 

Speeding Computer Up

 

Here are a few things that can slow down your computer:

 

 

 

-Adware and Spyware

 

(see above)

 

 

 

-Full or nearly full hard drive

 

 

 

Go through and get rid of junk you dont use. If it has been 6 months or more since the file was last use and it is not a system related file, then delete it.

 

 

 

-Extra and temporary files as well as registry issues.

 

 

 

Download Ccleaner and use this to clean your computer up. (Cleared 4 gigs of extra crap when I first used it )

 

 

 

Guide to Ccleaner

 

 

 

This is the basic interface of cleaner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two main tabs, Windows and Applications.

 

Windows is more of the system related stuff and Applications has to do with your programs.

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a registry cleaner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It fixes issues in your registry.

 

 

 

You can also remove programs and change the start-up programs to help increase boot-up speed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To use all you do is tick the check boxes of the areas you wish to clean. It will prompt you on some items

 

 

 

Under the options tab in the settings area, you can adjust the cleaning power.

 

 

I use the 3 pass method.

 

 

 

You can do other thins such as setting it to run on computer start-up.

 

____________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Not enough RAM.

 

You can purchase RAM cards anywhere from 256MB to 4GB a card

 

 

Tweaking Virtual Memory

 

 

Disclaimer: Be careful when tweaking computer. You may cause harmful side effects

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, Virtual Memory acts like RAM. It uses hard drive space instead of hardware. I still recommend the hardware though.

 

 

 

Open up 'My Computer'

 

 

 

Right Click then click 'properties'.

 

 

 

You should see this

 

 

 

 

Now click the 'Advanced' tab

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the 'settings' button under Performance section.

 

 

 

You should see this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click 'change' under the Virtual Memory section.

 

 

 

This should appear:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the custom radio button box and change the VM to what ever you want

 

I am only limited to 4096MB (4GB) but some people can set it higher or lower.

 

When you exit, it will ask you to restart your computer, which you should do.

 

 

 

Now, when you press "Ctrl + Alt+ Delete' you will notice that your Commit Charge is much Higher than before.

 

 

 

Changing Password and Recovery questions

 

Recovery Questions:

 

 

 

Navigate to the Runescape homepage.

 

You will see a bar with things such as "Home" and "Play now".

 

Hover your mouse over Account and choose "Account Management"

 

 

Under Account Security, select "Set Questions"

 

After you log in, you will see this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter your desired answers ( up to 40 characters) and you are done!

 

 

 

Password:

 

Navigate to the Runescape homepage.

 

You will see a bar with things such as "Home" and "Play now".

 

Hover your mouse over Account and choose "Account Management"

 

You will see this next

 

 

 

 

Under Account Management, Select "Change Password"

 

 

After you log in you will see this:

 

 

 

 

Enter your desired password (up to 20 characters) and you are done!

 

 

 

External Links

 

 

 

Here are a few links. None of these are rickrolls or porn links.

 

 

 

Trend Micro website

 

Spybot Search and destroy

 

Ccleaner

 

Mcafee

 

Norton

 

 

 

Credits

 

 

 

Lionheart_0 - For checking it over before release

 

Whatis.com for helping me explain ad and spy ware.

 

Dreamstime.com - For the virus picture above

 

Tip.it - For being a 1337 Host

 

Bballer - for collecting and putting the information together

 

texasmd91 - For suggesting a guide without the hide tags.[/hide]

 

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Please post errors and suggestions if you read.

[Atroxide]

grrrr, I am tired of these [hide] tags.

 

 

 

Why would any one click on your topic if they didn't want to see your guide.... [hide] is only helpful for big images and things that people might not want to see.

 

 

 

Considering some 1 is wanting to read your guide, they are wanting to read the introduction, why waste the person's time un-hiding everything when you can just not hide it to begin with :wall:

 

 

 

 

 

Every one here treats [hide] is categories when it is not... I wish tip.it would release a [category] tag would just put a css'd fieldset around the content.

 

 

 

 

 

On-Topic, it was an ok guide.

[RSBDavid]

grrrr, I am tired of these [hide] tags.

 

 

 

Why would any one click on your topic if they didn't want to see your guide.... [hide] is only helpful for big images and things that people might not want to see.

 

 

 

Considering some 1 is wanting to read your guide, they are wanting to read the introduction, why waste the person's time un-hiding everything when you can just not hide it to begin with :wall:

 

 

 

 

 

Every one here treats [hide] is categories when it is not... I wish tip.it would release a [category] tag would just put a css'd fieldset around the content.

 

 

 

 

 

On-Topic, it was an ok guide.

 

 

 

Hide tags organize it better. I hate seeing guides that are continuous text. It is also 1 of many formats I choose. It looks better with hide tags. If it upsets you, I can pm you an unhidden version.

 

 

 

Edit : Made a version without the hide tags :D ..

 

 

 

~~bballer

[Guest]

GJ. Nice guide... Do you know how to speed up dial up?

[Salad]

Hey I got one question about ccleaner,

 

 

 

what kind of stuff does it remove?

 

 

 

Otherwise nice guide

[RSBDavid]

Hey I got one question about ccleaner,

 

what kind of stuff does it remove?

 

 

 

 

 

Temporary Internet Files

 

Browser History for Firefox and IE

 

Cookies

 

Typed URLS

 

Auto complete Form History

 

Recent Documents

 

The items in the start menu

 

Items in the recycle bin

 

Clipboard Items

 

Temporary Files

 

....and many more

 

 

 

You can pick and choose which items you want.

 

 

 

 

GJ. Nice guide... Do you know how to speed up dial up?

 

I recommend you keep your computer's hard drive as clean as possible, dust the inside of your computer near the modem area, and don't browse more then two things at a time. I use AOL as my ISP. You can get some speed boosting products for a few bucks more a month from some ISP's.

 

 

 

There are a few risky tweaks you can do, but I won't tell you :-#

 

 

 

The best suggestion I can give you is to upgrade to DSL, Broadband, Fiber optics, or T1.

 

[compfreak847]

Not bad, I was expecting a error-ridden article that I could pick apart and laugh about (I'm cruel). Still, if you take care of viruses\spyware, and be careful about sharing your computer and where you enter your pass, changing your password and recovery options is not needed. If you want good antispyware protection you need more then just Spybot S&D; I recommend Spyware Doctor for real time protection (System hog) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware for another scanner. Both of those have free versions. AVG is most easily downloaded from free.grisoft.com (Provide links). If you are careful about your downloads, the truth is you don't need any of this, really; I've run antivirus\antispyware programs faithfully for many, many years, and never had a single case turn up. I don't even run them any more, beyond a very periodic scan that catches nothing but a couple of tracking cookies. However, for systems where users are not so tech savy and discriminate about their downloads, I've seen hundreds of spyware programs pile up and drag the system to a halt. I still install them on my customer's PCs (Computer consultant, I know what I'm doing :), just because I can't be sure of how careful they are, but for myself I don't bother. Pretty good guide for newbies, though! And congratz on not being riddled with inaccuracies and myths like most computer related guides on this forums are... (Although its a Runescape forum, not a computer forum ;) )

[yondergod22]

or if your good with computers, or know how to use forums (which im sure you do if you are reading this) you could just use linux. It is completely virus free, and all the programs are free(and a lot of the time better)

 

 

 

but this is a good guide for windows users who don't want to try a better OS.

 

P.S. windows is for losers j/k, but linux is way better

[RSBDavid]

Not bad, I was expecting a error-ridden article that I could pick apart and laugh about (I'm cruel). Still, if you take care of viruses\spyware, and be careful about sharing your computer and where you enter your pass, changing your password and recovery options is not needed. If you want good antispyware protection you need more then just Spybot S&D; I recommend Spyware Doctor for real time protection (System hog) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware for another scanner. Both of those have free versions. AVG is most easily downloaded from free.grisoft.com (Provide links). If you are careful about your downloads, the truth is you don't need any of this, really; I've run antivirus\antispyware programs faithfully for many, many years, and never had a single case turn up. I don't even run them any more, beyond a very periodic scan that catches nothing but a couple of tracking cookies. However, for systems where users are not so tech savy and discriminate about their downloads, I've seen hundreds of spyware programs pile up and drag the system to a halt. I still install them on my customer's PCs (Computer consultant, I know what I'm doing :), just because I can't be sure of how careful they are, but for myself I don't bother. Pretty good guide for newbies, though! And congratz on not being riddled with inaccuracies and myths like most computer related guides on this forums are... (Although its a Runescape forum, not a computer forum ;) )

 

 

 

Thanks, I work in the computer business now too. I build custom systems. I wonder if this would be better suited in the Tech part of the forums now that you mention it.

 

 

 

or if your good with computers, or know how to use forums (which im sure you do if you are reading this) you could just use linux. It is completely virus free, and all the programs are free(and a lot of the time better)

 

 

 

but this is a good guide for windows users who don't want to try a better OS.

 

P.S. windows is for losers j/k, but linux is way better

 

 

 

I am more of a Mac fan myself =p. I Heard if you use something like Windows Virtual Machine, you can play on it and if you get a virus on it, it won't effect your regular system.

 

 

 

I've fooled around with DSL (Damn small Linux) but is it anything like the actual thing?

[urbestfreind]

Alright, decent guide, but there are a few things that I'm going to suggest.

 

 

 

Firstly, you haven't mentioned a firewall. This is a valuable and essential part of your defense against malware. Windows Firewall isn't exactly top-of-the-line (more around the lower-middle region imo). I would recommend that you put in there people downloading something like Comodo (free and pretty easy to use) or Zone Alarm (which is pretty good, but can be a pain to configure, and also costs 30 bucks).

 

 

 

Also, AVG is pretty good, but it tends to give many more false-positives than other free software. It would be good to list other alternatives. For free ones, I would definitely recommend Avast! or maybe Avira (but I haven't used Avira, so I can't say, all I know is I've read some good things, no bad, and it's free). For pay, definately NOD32 (but it would be good to note that it can be hard to use because of it's interface, but it's pretty much the best software I've come across so far).

 

 

 

Also, spybot is pretty good (especially is Immunize feature), but have a note for people to be careful what it deletes. It's screwed up internet on me once, and I've had a game disabled because it marked something as bad when it wasn't (simple mistake, which happens occasionally).

 

 

 

Also, I would definately put in Ad-Aware. It's a supplement to the protection SpyBot can offer, and it catches different things.

 

 

 

You may want to mention how you got your computer to turn on and scan at certain times (windows scheduled tasks I presume?) so other people can do it to. I could write a small guide if you want.

 

 

 

As for password security, random password generators may help, but writing them down is dangerous. If anything, write them down and put it in a safe deposit box (the chance of someone breaking in and getting your password there is around 0%). Here's a good article about password strength.

 

 

 

Might I also recommend another browser? FireFox and Opera are both more standards-compliant than IE, and safer to use. Plus, Firefox is very customizable, from added security to how the browser looks, and nearly everything in between, thanks to a lot of add-ons.

 

 

 

Oh peanuts, one other thing I just remembered - try to do most of your work on a guest account or limited user account. Many viruses can be stopped by this because they need access to parts of files on the computer that are limited to admin-only access, including most parts of the registry.

 

 

 

Other than the above, you've written a pretty decent guide, it's easy enough to understand, but it covers some nescessary materials that will help keep people safe. Of course you can use anything I've mentioned here (I really recommend putting in something about firewalls, if nothing else), and I've included links to the download for programs and an article or two, so you don't have to go source-hunting, should you decide to.

[Sinkhan]

My Likes: GRAMMAR FTW!

 

Good effort, nice pictures, well-structured.

 

 

 

My Comments and Gripes:

 

 

 

Viruses Anti-Viral Software: Contrary to your guide, viruses, trojans, keyloggers, worms, and the like are all separate forms of malware.

 

 

 

Viruses Malicious software that once executed performs its damage and most of the time replicates itself. Polymorphic viruses mutate and their code constantly changes to avoid detection. Viruses can perform anything a program can do: it can do something as harmless to your computer as open a text file repeatedly saying "ur a noob" (Although it might not be so harmless to your ego :roll: ), to destroying your data and even causing irreversible damage, rendering your hard drive completely useless.

 

 

 

Trojans Like the famed guise in history, a Trojan Horse will make itself to look like a friendly-program, such as a harmless game or a Runescape password hacker (Serves you right for all of you who've tried). Some of them will even play on the fear of viruses and malware of some people and advertise itself as an anti-malware program of sorts (These programs in particular are known as rogueware). Once the poor user unknowingly installs the program, it delivers its payload of malicious code, which can be likened to a virus. Trojans are famed to give remote access to the originator of the trojan, destroy data (like a virus could), disable security software amongst other things.

 

 

 

Keyloggers This group is really quite small and usually is incorrectly passed off under trojan or virus. These programs do as their name states: Log keys. Anything you type is recorded and forwarded back to a host. A keylogger is a common payload of a trojan. They can also be programmed to take screenshots at certain actions (Typing of a website and pressing enter, arrival at a site, etc). They are quite dangerous.

 

 

 

Worms These are one of the most invasive and rampant examples of malware out there. Like a virus, they can do terrible damage. However unlike viruses, they do not need to be executed by the user and instead propagate themselves by simply spreading to all users of a connected network. Remember the MyDoom worm? At its height, one-fifth of all e-mail messages sent across the entire Internet was a product of this worm. Worms typically infect PCs and then perform DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, where the infected PCs visit a site or server to overload its bandwidth, usually causing it to crash.

 

 

 

You mentioned that trojans can steal passwords and brute force them. It would take an enormous amount of time to brute force a password. A 10 character password would take a computer decades, if not centuries to crack.

 

 

 

While urbestfriend mentioned that he couldn't vouch for Avira, I can largely testify for the sheer awesomenessity of Avira's AntiVir. AVG is total garbage in comparison with AntiVir. AVG was one of the pioneering free anti-virus giants, but has since fallen back in its level of effectiveness. You say that your sister's computer hasn't had a virus in 3 years, but that might not be necessarily true. In reality, AVG has only told you that you haven't had viruses for the last 3 years. Anti-viral software can only report what it can detect. AV-Comparatives does in-depth testing of various popular anti-viral products. If you visit the site, click comparatives and select the most recent On-demand and Pro-Active/Retrospective tests (Their site says I can't directly link to the charts), you will see that AntiVir performs better than pretty much every other competitor, especially in the Pro-Active tests. Check out their full report for more details.

 

 

 

AntiVir is free, has fast, efficient, and effective detection rates, and is totally awesome.

 

 

 

AntiVir FTW!

 

 

 

Rootkits are also something else that should be mentioned. Rootkits, once buried on your computer, become totally stealthed and can even hide other programs. In conjunction with a backdoor trojan (A trojan that allows new threats to enter your system), your computer could be very easily compromised. The rootkit would hide itself and the trojan while the trojan invites other baddies onto your computer.

 

 

 

Luckily, anti-virus vendors, like AntiVir, are integrating scripts and methods to find and remove these clandestine capers.

 

 

 

Norton and McAffee are subpar in my eye. If I were to ever pay, I'd go for NOD32 like urbestfriend also suggested, but probably more likely the paid version of AntiVir because they're so awesome ^_^

 

 

 

Nice tips for passwords. However, changing a password that often for some may prove quite annoying. While personally do it following the digits of Pi (change it after 3 days, 1 day, 4 days, 1 day etc lol. I'm on digit 841 ^_^) and use a random password generator like you said, if you were to properly secure your system, a password change every 2 months to half year might suffice.

 

 

 

Spyware:

 

 

 

There are currently no exceptional free anti-spyware programs out there. The best one is probably the version of Spyware Doctor that comes with Google Pack (Google it lol), but it's a watered-down version of the full version. Other good options are Super AntiSpyware, Spyware Terminator, and MS Defender.

 

 

 

I personally use Spyware Blaster. It's a program that once run, modifies your registry to trick spyware into thinking that it's already installed on your computer. You only need to run it once every time it is updated, so it doesn't take up space. Also free (All of the software I talk about it free and I use myself for the most part)

 

 

 

Ad-Aware 2008 and Spybot: SD have somewhat slipped in their effectiveness on a grand scale, but still viable options.

 

 

 

Speeding (your) Computer Up:

 

 

 

I thought this guide was for explaining how to better secure your account, but whatever, this information is good for a lot of people.

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure myself, but I believe that if your hard drive is something like only 10% or 10GB free, you're system will run 30% slower. Also, the default Windows Defragger will refuse to work.

 

 

 

Speaking of defragging, disk defragmentation is another way of boosting your system speed. It works by rearranging the files on your computer in a sensible manner to your computer so it can access the files quicker. This also helps to prolong the life of your hard drive as the read head does not have to work as hard to find files all the time.

 

 

 

However, I suggest against using the default defragger as it does not work with little space left as I mentioned, but also because it is slow. I highly recommend the free JK Defrag, as it is much faster and more efficient.

 

 

 

I also use CCleaner and think it's great. It deletes all of those temporary files with a click of a button. Now I just need to find a program that will delete single files with 35 passes :rolleyes:

 

 

 

I recommend running CCleaner before running JKDefrag. Why organize files when they're going to be deleted anyway?

 

 

 

I like you use of pictures to describe CCleaner. Very good for someone unfamiliar with the program.

 

 

 

As for the registry clearing capabilities, I suggest getting a dedicated registry cleaner to do the job. I use TweakNow.

 

 

 

RAM and Memory: I'm not sure if RAM stick is any better, but at least it seems to be more widely used than RAM card.

 

 

 

Excellent screenies walkthrough to adjust the virtual memory. The reason extra virtual memory can never really replace more true RAM is because RAM operates much more quickly than a hard drive. V-Mem is usually 1.5 times your real RAM, but you can bump it up to 2x.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But overall, excellent guide ^_^.

 

 

 

And as always, grammar FTW!

[RSBDavid]

Alright, decent guide, but there are a few things that I'm going to suggest.

 

 

 

Firstly, you haven't mentioned a firewall. This is a valuable and essential part of your defense against malware. Windows Firewall isn't exactly top-of-the-line (more around the lower-middle region imo). I would recommend that you put in there people downloading something like Comodo (free and pretty easy to use) or Zone Alarm (which is pretty good, but can be a pain to configure, and also costs 30 bucks).

 

 

 

Also, AVG is pretty good, but it tends to give many more false-positives than other free software. It would be good to list other alternatives. For free ones, I would definitely recommend Avast! or maybe Avira (but I haven't used Avira, so I can't say, all I know is I've read some good things, no bad, and it's free). For pay, definately NOD32 (but it would be good to note that it can be hard to use because of it's interface, but it's pretty much the best software I've come across so far).

 

 

 

Also, spybot is pretty good (especially is Immunize feature), but have a note for people to be careful what it deletes. It's screwed up internet on me once, and I've had a game disabled because it marked something as bad when it wasn't (simple mistake, which happens occasionally).

 

 

 

Also, I would definately put in Ad-Aware. It's a supplement to the protection SpyBot can offer, and it catches different things.

 

 

 

You may want to mention how you got your computer to turn on and scan at certain times (windows scheduled tasks I presume?) so other people can do it to. I could write a small guide if you want.

 

 

 

As for password security, random password generators may help, but writing them down is dangerous. If anything, write them down and put it in a safe deposit box (the chance of someone breaking in and getting your password there is around 0%). Here's a good article about password strength.

 

 

 

Might I also recommend another browser? FireFox and Opera are both more standards-compliant than IE, and safer to use. Plus, Firefox is very customizable, from added security to how the browser looks, and nearly everything in between, thanks to a lot of add-ons.

 

 

 

Oh peanuts, one other thing I just remembered - try to do most of your work on a guest account or limited user account. Many viruses can be stopped by this because they need access to parts of files on the computer that are limited to admin-only access, including most parts of the registry.

 

 

 

Other than the above, you've written a pretty decent guide, it's easy enough to understand, but it covers some nescessary materials that will help keep people safe. Of course you can use anything I've mentioned here (I really recommend putting in something about firewalls, if nothing else), and I've included links to the download for programs and an article or two, so you don't have to go source-hunting, should you decide to.

 

 

 

 

 

and

 

 

 

My Likes: GRAMMAR FTW!

 

Good effort, nice pictures, well-structured.

 

 

 

My Comments and Gripes:

 

 

 

Viruses Anti-Viral Software: Contrary to your guide, viruses, trojans, keyloggers, worms, and the like are all separate forms of malware.

 

 

 

Viruses Malicious software that once executed performs its damage and most of the time replicates itself. Polymorphic viruses mutate and their code constantly changes to avoid detection. Viruses can perform anything a program can do: it can do something as harmless to your computer as open a text file repeatedly saying "ur a noob" (Although it might not be so harmless to your ego :roll: ), to destroying your data and even causing irreversible damage, rendering your hard drive completely useless.

 

 

 

Trojans Like the famed guise in history, a Trojan Horse will make itself to look like a friendly-program, such as a harmless game or a Runescape password hacker (Serves you right for all of you who've tried). Some of them will even play on the fear of viruses and malware of some people and advertise itself as an anti-malware program of sorts (These programs in particular are known as rogueware). Once the poor user unknowingly installs the program, it delivers its payload of malicious code, which can be likened to a virus. Trojans are famed to give remote access to the originator of the trojan, destroy data (like a virus could), disable security software amongst other things.

 

 

 

Keyloggers This group is really quite small and usually is incorrectly passed off under trojan or virus. These programs do as their name states: Log keys. Anything you type is recorded and forwarded back to a host. A keylogger is a common payload of a trojan. They can also be programmed to take screenshots at certain actions (Typing of a website and pressing enter, arrival at a site, etc). They are quite dangerous.

 

 

 

Worms These are one of the most invasive and rampant examples of malware out there. Like a virus, they can do terrible damage. However unlike viruses, they do not need to be executed by the user and instead propagate themselves by simply spreading to all users of a connected network. Remember the MyDoom worm? At its height, one-fifth of all e-mail messages sent across the entire Internet was a product of this worm. Worms typically infect PCs and then perform DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, where the infected PCs visit a site or server to overload its bandwidth, usually causing it to crash.

 

 

 

You mentioned that trojans can steal passwords and brute force them. It would take an enormous amount of time to brute force a password. A 10 character password would take a computer decades, if not centuries to crack.

 

 

 

While urbestfriend mentioned that he couldn't vouch for Avira, I can largely testify for the sheer awesomenessity of Avira's AntiVir. AVG is total garbage in comparison with AntiVir. AVG was one of the pioneering free anti-virus giants, but has since fallen back in its level of effectiveness. You say that your sister's computer hasn't had a virus in 3 years, but that might not be necessarily true. In reality, AVG has only told you that you haven't had viruses for the last 3 years. Anti-viral software can only report what it can detect. AV-Comparatives does in-depth testing of various popular anti-viral products. If you visit the site, click comparatives and select the most recent On-demand and Pro-Active/Retrospective tests (Their site says I can't directly link to the charts), you will see that AntiVir performs better than pretty much every other competitor, especially in the Pro-Active tests. Check out their full report for more details.

 

 

 

AntiVir is free, has fast, efficient, and effective detection rates, and is totally awesome.

 

 

 

AntiVir FTW!

 

 

 

Rootkits are also something else that should be mentioned. Rootkits, once buried on your computer, become totally stealthed and can even hide other programs. In conjunction with a backdoor trojan (A trojan that allows new threats to enter your system), your computer could be very easily compromised. The rootkit would hide itself and the trojan while the trojan invites other baddies onto your computer.

 

 

 

Luckily, anti-virus vendors, like AntiVir, are integrating scripts and methods to find and remove these clandestine capers.

 

 

 

Norton and McAffee are subpar in my eye. If I were to ever pay, I'd go for NOD32 like urbestfriend also suggested, but probably more likely the paid version of AntiVir because they're so awesome ^_^

 

 

 

Nice tips for passwords. However, changing a password that often for some may prove quite annoying. While personally do it following the digits of Pi (change it after 3 days, 1 day, 4 days, 1 day etc lol. I'm on digit 841 ^_^) and use a random password generator like you said, if you were to properly secure your system, a password change every 2 months to half year might suffice.

 

 

 

Spyware:

 

 

 

There are currently no exceptional free anti-spyware programs out there. The best one is probably the version of Spyware Doctor that comes with Google Pack (Google it lol), but it's a watered-down version of the full version. Other good options are Super AntiSpyware, Spyware Terminator, and MS Defender.

 

 

 

I personally use Spyware Blaster. It's a program that once run, modifies your registry to trick spyware into thinking that it's already installed on your computer. You only need to run it once every time it is updated, so it doesn't take up space. Also free (All of the software I talk about it free and I use myself for the most part)

 

 

 

Ad-Aware 2008 and Spybot: SD have somewhat slipped in their effectiveness on a grand scale, but still viable options.

 

 

 

Speeding (your) Computer Up:

 

 

 

I thought this guide was for explaining how to better secure your account, but whatever, this information is good for a lot of people.

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure myself, but I believe that if your hard drive is something like only 10% or 10GB free, you're system will run 30% slower. Also, the default Windows Defragger will refuse to work.

 

 

 

Speaking of defragging, disk defragmentation is another way of boosting your system speed. It works by rearranging the files on your computer in a sensible manner to your computer so it can access the files quicker. This also helps to prolong the life of your hard drive as the read head does not have to work as hard to find files all the time.

 

 

 

However, I suggest against using the default defragger as it does not work with little space left as I mentioned, but also because it is slow. I highly recommend the free JK Defrag, as it is much faster and more efficient.

 

 

 

I also use CCleaner and think it's great. It deletes all of those temporary files with a click of a button. Now I just need to find a program that will delete single files with 35 passes :rolleyes:

 

 

 

I recommend running CCleaner before running JKDefrag. Why organize files when they're going to be deleted anyway?

 

 

 

I like you use of pictures to describe CCleaner. Very good for someone unfamiliar with the program.

 

 

 

As for the registry clearing capabilities, I suggest getting a dedicated registry cleaner to do the job. I use TweakNow.

 

 

 

RAM and Memory: I'm not sure if RAM stick is any better, but at least it seems to be more widely used than RAM card.

 

 

 

Excellent screenies walkthrough to adjust the virtual memory. The reason extra virtual memory can never really replace more true RAM is because RAM operates much more quickly than a hard drive. V-Mem is usually 1.5 times your real RAM, but you can bump it up to 2x.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But overall, excellent guide ^_^.

 

 

 

And as always, grammar FTW!

 

 

 

Thanks for your input guys. I'll go though and add some more information in over the weekend. I totally forgot about adding firewall stuff. Thanks for reminding me =p.

[Gwasha]

Nice and great guide. Good organization, and a lot of information.

[brandon1023]

Not bad.