Russell Kent wrote:

Harley wrote:

Remember...a virus CANNOT run on your machine until you, personally, select
the actual program and run it.  Deleting any suspicious email attachments
will prevent it.

Harley, I wish your above statement were still true.  Unfortunately, Microsoft, in
their infinite clumsiness, decided to include some "features" in Outlook and Outlook
Express that have abysmal security.  I can send email to a stock Windows box (without
security patches) that will run a program simply by the user receiving and reading the
email; no "user running" of attachments required.

The solution: defense in depth.

1. Configure your machine to get on the Internet "on demand".  If you have DSL or cable
modem, you're already there.  If you have dial-up service, it takes some tinkering with
the Windows modem & connection settings.  You want it setup to connect if a program
needs to get some data.  Test with your web browser: it should connect without asking
you for anything.

2. Buy a good virus scanning software.  I use Symantec (aka Norton) [
http://www.symantec.com ] while others swear by McAfee [ http://www.mcafee.com ] Use
the virus scanning software's settings to do a full scan of your system in the wee
small hours (when the machine is on but you're asleep).  Also set it up to check for
virus signature updates *daily*.  If you're feeling paranoid, ask it to ask you;
otherwise, set it up to auto-install.

2a. Symantec's AntiVirus has a proxy mail scanning service (if you subscribe to the
latest software).  You setup your machine to get email from Symantec, who in turn gets
it from your ISP.  Not all ISPs will be configured to allow this sort of behavior,
however.  But it's free once you have Symantec AV, and it puts a *VERY* secure email
firewall between your machine and the outside world.

3. If you haven't got a tape drive, a CD burner, or a Zip drive (or relative like
LS-120), get one.  You'll need it to run backups.

4. Backup your system periodically.  Business computers with business-critical
information should have incremental backups run *nightly*, and full backups no less
often than every 2 weeks.  Home computers with hobbist content should have incremental
backups run weekly, and full backups no less often than quarterly.  Simple rule of
thumb: "What information am I willing to lose forever?"  :-)

5. If you are not a computer pro, and you're running a pirate web server on your home
machine, stop.  You are most likely violating your Terms of Service (yeah, yeah,
whatever :-) and putting your machine at EXTREME risk.  Trust me, take one step into
that swap and you'll be genital-deep in alligators...

6. Point your browser at http://www.grc.com and follow the links to "Shields UP!"  This
is a free (er..., advertising-supported :-) website that has a probe tester.  It will
look at your machine and tell you about any holes you have.  Very, very useful for
securing your machine from outside attacks, especially if you have an always-on
connection.

If you have a business computer on the web, and you haven't already had a security
expert look at it, try to do so.

>From the McAfee web site:

The only way to infect a computer with a file infecting virus is to execute
an infected file on the computer. The infected file may come from a
multitude of sources including: floppy diskettes, downloads through an
online service, network, etc. Once the infected file is executed, the virus
may activate.

Notice that McAfee did not say that the *user* had to execute the infected file, only
that the infected file be executed.

Russell Kent

 
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