IT/IS Security - Personal Protection Software
Personal Protection Software
Personal Protection Software is software that helps to keep your personal computer safer from the various threats that are currently faced when using the Internet.
This page does not cover how to set up or configure those packages, nor does it cover the procedures that you should adopt in order to keep you identity, your family and yourself safe whilst using the Internet, you will find that information on other pages in this section. (well you will eventually anyway, once I've written them!).
Please also see my page on "Family Protection" which covers in more detail how to ensure that your family is safe when using the Internet.
Think of this page as a starting point and summary of what you might want to install. Also sorry to all those who are not currently using Microsoft Windows operating systems but this information is very "Windows centric" at present because I don't get much chance to use Linux or other OS's. If you want to see none-Windows applications listed here, feel free to send me your recommendations.
If I install all of this, will my computer be safe?
Well, nothing will keep it absolutely safe but I offer here my opinion on the software that may help. Please don't think that simply installing this software means that your computer is "safe", it will, however, be a lot safer than it was. You will certainly need to configure the software correctly and will also need to follow some basic security guidelines to make best use of what is suggested.
Other places
There are lots of other places on the web where you can find out more information on this subject but one of the best is: SpywareInfo which has a superb collection of software links and loads of information about safe computing, security and freedom of speech. Try there first to see a much larger selection of software broken down into logical areas.
Another site that looks interesting (I've not had time yet to investigate it in detail) is: Wilders.org.
What do I need to keep my computer safe?
For a start, you can stop using (or at least limit the use) of applications which create security problems for you!
This includes a number of applications that are in very common use, mainly from Microsoft.
The most critical of these is Internet Explorer. The very design of this application makes it suseptable to serious security failings and no amount of "patching" can change this fact. You can save yourself a lot of security issues simply by using another browser instead. I currently use Mozilla FireFox which is a fast, standards complient browser. Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express are other applications that often cause problems. If you must use any of these applications, I suggest that you search on the Internet on how to make them a little more secure.
Next you should consider installing one of each of the following categories of software:
Please do not worry overly if you do not understand each of those terms, some of them are explained in more detail elsewhere on this site (follow the links where I've included them in the sections below) and you can search for the term on the internet and find out lots more if you are interested.
I'll now quickly go through what each of these does (roughly) and give some examples of specific packages that you can use. I've tried to keep to free software wherever possible but I let you know if there is nothing free suitable and what the best (in my opinion) is.
Personal Firewalls
Follow the link in the title to get a more detailed explanation of what a personal firewall is and why you might want to use one.
A personal firewall is an absolute necessity for any PC connected (even indirectly) to the Internet as it helps to control local applications access (which a network firewall cannot do) as well as incoming access (which a network firewall can do). Recent examples of Internet based worms (the Blaster worm) even lead me to recommend installing personal firewalls on any machine connected to any kind of network; any of the firewalls listed here could have easily protected a machine from infection by Blaster.
Good examples are:
- Kerio Personal FirewallThis is the one to go for if you want to learn about firewalls in general as you get an interface that shows you all of the gory details. It's the one I use on my laptop as it can be useful sometimes to look at the complete list of rules. Version 2.1.4 is free for personal use but the latest version is much better and reverts to a free version at the end of the trial period.
This is the one that I currently use as I find it is less fussy than Outpost in day-to-day use. - Agnitum OutpostThis is probably the best of the bunch at present in terms of features and security. Though it is not as easy to set up as ZoneAlarm, it has a number of very useful additional facilities. There is also a paid for version that provides some extra features, the most important of which would be the ability to prevent local users from changing the settings without the suitable password (great for shared PC's).
- ZoneAlarmThe basic version is free and should be sufficient for most people. This is the one to use if you want the simplest possible setup.
There are plenty of other packages in this category but none of them are any better than the ones I've listed here.
Unfortunately, more of the developers of these tools are charging so if you want the best security, you will need to pay I'm afraid, however the free versions of these three packages are sufficient for most use.
Anti-Virus
Anti-virus packages are one of the oldest personal protection types. Unfortunately, the developers have never really had the incentive to make them pro-active, that is to block new viruses before they appear. This means that you need to keep the virus definitions constantly up-to-date, ideally weekly, certainly no less than monthly.
Having said that, I should note here that I rarely run anti-virus on my personal machines, there isn't room for me to explain why on this page but suffice it to say that this is an area where you can really minimise your risks by careful procedures. I will put more detail into another page when I have time.
For most people though, an anti-virus package is an important part of the security armoury so I've listed a few that seem to have good support at present. In reality, there seems little difference these days in the effectiveness of the packages but you may prefer one over another so have a look at and try a few before choosing one.
Because of the constant need for updates, most anti-virus applications cost money but there is a good page listing free ones at "Freebyte's Guide to free anti-virus software".
I do nor have any personal preferences on anti-virus tools as yet so I will leave it up to others at the moment, try the Freebyte guide.
Anti-AdWare/Spyware
"AdWare" is installed, usually without your knowing, and will pop-up adverts, hijack your browser sessions and/or track your use of the web for marketing purposes.
- AdAware
- Spybot Search and DestroyThis is my choice if you can only be bothered to down load one.
You should note that neither of these are 100% accurate at finding AdWare so if you want to have the best security you should run both periodically (once a month or so depending on your browsing habits).
Both of these applications also have some pre-emptive filters that you can install and leave in place which will help protect you further.
Want to know more about spyware, adware and computer privacy issues? Try subscribing to the excellent weekly "Spyware" newsletter from the website at www.spywareinfo.net.
Anti-SPAM
SPAM is the torrent of useless emails that are sent to you unasked for. They are often useless but worse very often obscene and/or fraudulent. Even with the best processes for managing your email addresses, it is now virtually impossible to avoid all SPAM and so this is a class of tool that is vital if you want email to be a useful tool.
Use the link in the title for this section to get a more detailed explanation of SPAM and how to avoid it as much as possible.
There are some excellent, free tools for managing spam when it gets to your PC though it is better still to have it managed at a server before it gets to you. Each of the ones I have listed works out a probability that an email is SPAM based on rules that change themselves over time (based on previous good and SPAM messages) so you do not need to do much in the way of telling the application what is good and what is bad. Of course it will never be able to fully identify SPAM but you should get between about 93-99% correctly identified (and you should not get any good emails falsely identified as SPAM).
All of these tools act as a "proxy". In other words, they sit between your email client and your server and assume that you are using POP3 as the method of getting mail. If you don't use POP3, your options are far more limited and you will probably have to pay for a tool.
See my Anti-Spam page for a list of the tools.
Cookie management
Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored on your computer to help web sites work better. Unfortunately they can also be abused and may store far more information for far longer than you really want. In doing so they may well track your surfing habits across many web sites and be used to deliver particular types of advertising. This works because there tend to be just a comparative few providers delivering web adverts to many web sites (for example click2net.com, hitbox.com and the infamous doubleclick.net). So in order to protect your privacy you may wish to restrict the sites that you allow to store permanent cookies on your computer.
Although the latest browsers tend to have facilities for managing cookies, it is, as usual, better to get a tool that is design to do this. Whilst there are too many of these to list here, I use a very simple and small tool:
- CookieCop Version 2This was originally developed for PC Magazine in the USA and is provided free of charge by ZDnet. It comes with a pre-defined list of sites to block but this may be somewhat out of date now as the tool has not been updated since early 2002 (there is no real need as it does its job very well). This does mean that you should check what cookies you have occasionally and add any suspect domains to the list of blocked sites (the anti-adware tools can also help identify sites to put in the list).
CookieCop can also be used to block out advertising domains either by preventing images from those domains being downloaded or by blocking the site altogether, again a simple but very useful facility. - Agnitum Outpost (see Firewalls above)As well as being a firewall, Outpost has plug-ins that help to manage cookies
Web page (and image) blocking
There are places on the Internet that you will never want to go to. This is no different to wandering round a big city. The main difference is that you can often tell when you are getting to a dodgy part of town but this can be very hard on the Internet. So to help, you may wish to have some software that either prevents you from going to dangerous web sites (ones that are likely to abuse your privacy, present obscene images or illegal content) or at least helps control what those sites send to your computer.
As usual, there are many tools that will help with this including some of the ones already listed.
- Most of the better Personal Firewalls
- CookieCop
Also is able to control access via a simple list - NetNannyIs a very different type of commercial tool that aims to keep surfing safe for families, particularly children. It is fairly expensive though and needs keeping up to date
- PrivoxyThis is the web equivalent of a spam filter as it allows web sites to be filtered according to a set of rules. Unfortunately, this is not the easiest of tools to configure (though still easier than many equivalents) but it does come with a default collection of settings (the actions file) which is kept up to date separately by the developers.
- ProximitronA similar tool to Privoxy though I found it somewhat unstable on my Windows XP laptop and its future support is somewhat uncertain.
Other software to consider
This is a bit of a dumping area for other software that appears to be interesting for personal protection.
Email Protection
Firetrust Benign is an email "firewall" for Windows workstations. It can strip out web bugs, malicious html, scripts, viruses and worms and so covers areas that often slip between other packages. At the time of writing, it costs USD35. Looks interesting as an extra layer in the armour.
More Information
There are lots of web sites that will give you far more information than on this page, the purpose here is to give an overview and summary.
Two of the best sites though are:
- SpywareInfo
This site has lots of information about spyware, adware and related Internet security issues. It also has some very active discussion forums where you can get help and a list of useful other security related sites. - ITsecurity.com, Security Clinic This area of the ITsecurity site allows you to ask security related questions of real security experts and so is a very handy resource. (Hint: You may get some answers from me on this site!)
Wrap-up
That's it! Properly used and configured, this collection of tools will keep you MUCH safer on the Net; protecting your computer, your privacy and your identity.
Don't forget to also have a look at my "Family Protection" page for more information on keeping your family safe on the Internet.
Just remember that there are lots of places, even close to home, where you would not wander around on your own so why expect to be able to do so everywhere on the Internet - be safe - think.
