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 A Multi-layered approach to Internet Security. |
Windows Vista is secure ! But here is how you can further fortify your Internet Defenses. You will need a few things. |
A Junk Cleaner & a Tweaker : Apart from the Disk Clean-Up utility of Windows Vista its strongly advisable to have a 3rd party cleaner softie; and here freeware CCleaner rules the roost. XP-Vista AntiSpy is one good freeware tweaker! Amongst shareware Tune-Up Utilities or Ace Utilities if you want excellent PC Junk Cleaning and Tweaking functions. Both the Cleaner and the Tweaker are essential not just from the PC maintenance point of view but also help keeping your PC secure indirectly. |
| An Anti-Virus : Avast, AntiVir and AVG are three good freewares. Should you wish to consider shareware, I'd go with Kaspersky or NOD32. |
| One or More Anti-Spyware : Apart from your WindowsDefender ; Spybot, Adaware or a-squared Anti-Malware are some of the freeware I'd recommend. Again, SpywareDoctor and Webroots Spy Sweeper are good but shareware. I also suggest installation of freeware SpywareBlaster, an anti-spy application which doesn't have to be open, to run. |
| 3rd Party-Firewall : Vista OS firewall is good enough, but should you feel the need for a 3rd part FW, I'd presently go with freeware Jetico Personal Firewall, as most others are still in their Beta stage.Commodo and Zone Alarm Free Firewall for Vista has also been launched. While ZA is an application-based firewall, Comodo is a rule-based firewall. |
| However, these days having just an Anti-Virus or an Anti-Spyware or a Firewall does not suffice, what with the amount of internet trash going around. And I am referring to to tons of virus, spyware, trojans, worms, rootkits, spyware and what not, breeding on the net...not to mention the unwanted popup's, intrusions & phishing ! It is said there are at least 200 to 300 new variants a day ! |
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| With this, the days of definition based defense may well be numbered. Signature-based malware scanning, as we know it, will decline in effectiveness ! But still, at this point only a few of today's security suites include "BEHAVIOUR-BASED" protection ! |
| ZoneAlarm and Panda TruPrevent (apart from Prevx ) were among the first to have behavior-based solutions that block malware by its bad behavior. Just on the basis of this strength, Panda blocks up to 90 percent and ZASS up to 70 percent of network and e-mail worms ! (behavior-based protection is different from heuristics; a technique that looks for suspicious patterns in executable code) |
| Most of the other companies like Symantec / Norton, McAfee, F-Secure, Trend-Micro have now included this in their 2007 versions or will include them in their forthcoming editions. |
| Yep, the future is towards Integrated Internet Defense Suites. Most companies have realised that and are therefore inevitably concentrating more and more on such suites to meet this demand. |
| I consider NOD32 or Kaspersky Internet Suite amongst the finest suites for Vista, presently available. Light on resources too. But the feature-rich, powerpacked Vista compatible version of ZoneAlarm Security Suite should be a worthy buy too! This one use Kaspersky's Anti Virus definations. Slightly heavy on resources, though. |
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| Having said this, these are 2 things I suggest after a Windows reinstall : |
| I suggest you download a 'good' Hosts file from mvps.org and replace your original hosts file situated in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc with this one and then lock it or make it a read-only file. HostMan is a good freeware Host manager. |
| The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the
Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. A large HOSTS file (over 135 kb) tends to slow down the Vista machine. To resolve this issue; run services.msc > Search for DNS Client Service > Change Startup Type to Manual. |
| However, CoolWebSearch Hijackers are masters at altering even Read-only or locked Hosts files. They can also redirect Windows to use a Hosts File that
has nothing to do with the one you keep updating. |
If you cannot modify the Hosts file or the Lmhosts file in Windows Vista visit KB923947. |
| I also suggest you use ZonedOut utility to Add, Delete, Import, Export, Build a Black/WhiteList and do More. It now includes Restricted, Trusted and Intranet Zones". It is an excellent too just 185kb. Then download IE-SpyAd For ZonedOut . Its is a simple registry patch that adds a long list of known porn-sites, cracksites, advertisers, marketers, and malware pushers to the restricted sites zone of IE.
Using ZonedOut you can add this list easily. |
| Finish off by using a good security tweaker freeware like Vista-AntiSpy for Vista. And remember nothing is fool-proof...we are just adding layers of protection ! |
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| In spite of this if your PC is infected with a malware; visit THIS PAGE. |
Vista may be much safer, but one must continue to guard oneself from malware attacks, as Windows being the most popular OS, tends to the preferred target of malware writers. A logical path for them, then, would be to go around Vista's defenses & attack PROGRAMS rather than the OS. Media players such as the Adobe Flash player and Apple's QuickTime have been the recent targets. |
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In this context I'd like to mention two softwares : SandBoxie and DefenseWall . They are both sandboxing programs designed to isolate your PC from internet based threats. Unlike anti-malware programs that rely on signatures to detect threats, they protect your PC by fencing off and isolating potentially dangerous programs so they can't infect your PC. They roughly work by allowing you to run your web browser, etc in a virtual environment that's totally corralled off from your real PC. Any malware programs that are downloaded through your browser or email can run in this virtual environment without infecting your real PC. When you have finished you can shut down the sandbox and all the infected programs will be erased without ever getting onto your real PC. |
| Incidentally, ThreatFire (formerly CyberHawk) is the first behavior-based real-time anti-malware to support Windows Vista. It has a freeware as well as a shareware version. |
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These Links may Interest You:
5 Tools for Managing Vista Firewall.
Virus Collecting - As A Hobby. |
| Malware Removal Guide. |
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