[CVRC] Computer Security

[Bob Evans]

Keeping Your Computer Safe

Virus e-mails and worm programs are still a major problem for today's
computer users. If you have an internet connection you need to be able to
keep up with the news on the latest attacks AND the latest patches for your
software. For example, there is currently an attack being propagated by the
"W32.blaster.worm" (see http://tinyurl.com/jxz8 for more information). The
patch to prevent this attack has been available since July 16th, but many
people don't know how to either be kept advised of the latest patches or of
the latest attacks.

It is easy these days to keep track of the latest patches - simply subscribe
to the Microsoft Security e-mail list. Go to
http://register.microsoft.com/subscription/subscribeme.asp?ID=135 and follow
the instructions. This will add you to Microsoft's e-mail list that details
the security problems that are deemed serious. It will also advise you of
the availability of patches. Next, subscribe to the mailing list at the
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) organization. See
http://www.cert.org/contact_cert/certmaillist.html for instructions on
signing up for their e-mail alerts for new attacks. Neither of these e-mail
lists will flood you with messages - they only send e-mail for critical
problems; Nor will they give you e-mail address to spam e-mailers.

Finally, you can automatically have the latest patches to your Microsoft
operating system and programs downloaded to your machine, ready to install,
by using the Windows Update feature. You can do this by performing the
following steps:
1) Start Internet Explorer
2) Click on the "Tools" menu, then on "Windows Update"
3) When the "Windows Update" page appears, click on "About Windows Update"
to learn about "Windows Update"
4) Click on the "Scan for updates" link. This will examine your system and
prepare a list of patches that can or should be applied to your system. When
the scanning has completed (which will take a greater or lesser amount of
time, depending on your system and internet connection speed), click on
"Pick updates to install" on the left of the page, then click on "Critical
Updates and Service Packs".
5) Examine the list of items that could or should be applied to your system.
You should certainly select for installation anything that is security
related. You can remove from the list of items to be installed anything
else. Note that some fixes must be installed individually and any of the
patches may require a reboot before installing other patches.
6) Click on "review and install updates" on the left of the page. Follow the
installation instructions.

Notice that at any time you can "review the installation history" to see
which patches have been installed. Also, you can personalize the settings
for Windows update.

Now, the best way to keep your machine up to date is via the "Automatic
Updates" feature. Note that this feature is only available on Windows 2000
and Windows XP - a very good reason to upgrade! Click on the "Start" button,
Next click on "Settings", then click on "Control Panel". Look for the
"Automatic Updates" Icon and double-click on it. Click on the "Keep my
computer up to date" check box, then select "Download the updates
automatically and notify me when they are ready to be installed". Finally
click on OK. When updates or patches to your software are available, and
you're on-line, they will be downloaded from the Microsoft site to your
machine. You will be notified that the updates are ready to be installed.
You can also examine the list of updates and choose which patches will be
installed. You should ALWAYS install the security patches!

Last, but not least, you should have anti-virus software installed. Your
anti-virus software should be set up to automatically download the latest
virus definitions from your anti-virus software vendor. This may require you
to pay a very modest annual fee. Remember that it takes anti-virus software
vendors a few days to learn how to detect a virus, and then they must update
the signatures files. It is up to you to download the newest signature files
either automatically or manually. Old signature files will not protect you
against the latest virus or worm attacks! The two most popular anti-virus
packages are from Norton (now Symantec) and McAfee. See the following links
for more information:
http://www.norton.com/
http://us.mcafee.com/

Feel free to e-mail me any questions. You can reach me at n6yma@arrl.net.

73, de Bob N6YMA

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Bob Evans                    n6yma@arrl.net
1918 Wiseman Lane            775-265-4696
Gardnerville, NV 89410