Paul Doherty — Security Software

Security Software

This article suggests some software that every Windows user should be running if using a broadband connection. It covers software to detect and remove spyware, remove pop-ups, provide a firewall and defend against viruses.

Free products mentioned here are displayed in bold. The other products are generally inexpensive, and in many cases have a free version which offers slightly fewer facilities.

It seems strange to many people new to PCs, but the free products are at least as good — and in many cases far better — than similar paid-for products.

Defeat pop-ups and spyware

To stop pop-up adverts use a browser which has built-in pop-up blocking (Opera, Firefox, Mozilla) instead of Internet Explorer (IE). In fact, because IE is often the target of attacks from the Internet, it may be a good idea to use a different browser anyway.

If you want to keep on with IE, I'd certainly install the Google toolbar, which also includes a pop-up blocker, as do various firewalls such as Kerio or ZoneAlarm (paid-for versions only).

If your copy of IE behaves strangely (changing its home page, or displaying pop-ups even though you've got a pop-up blocker installed) you've almost certainly picked up some spyware or adware.

These can be very hard to get rid of; sometimes professional help is needed (contact me). But there are some excellent tools about, and in many cases they will be able to remove the infection. Be aware, though, that there are many, many websites offering paid-for removal tools; at best these are no better than the free tools, and at worst they are just a con — they will "detect" spyware that isn't there, or maybe add some!

One of the best tools is the AntiSpyware Beta free from Microsoft. "Beta" because it's still in test, but it works pretty well.

You could also try Spybot, Ad-Aware, or CWShredder. Spybot can also protect you against future re-infections. You should check your system with one of these (Spybot is my favourite) every month or so. If these don't cure the problem, have a look at the SpywareInfo website.

Note that the best spyware removal tools are free: there seem to be a lot of paid-for versions being advertised – at best these are unnecessary, at worse they are harmful. Many are dishonest – they do a free scan but then require payment before they remove whatever they find. Some "find" things which aren't there.

Detect viruses

You should also be continuously running a virus detector — AVG is free, and there are plenty of paid-for ones (Norton, McAfee, Sophos and others).

Although Norton and McAfee are expensive and widely advertised (and often pre-installed on new computers because they pay the manufacturers to do so) I see far too many PCs with problems caused by Norton or McAfee to recommend either. Indeed, if allowed, the first thing I do with any PC is replace them with something else. The free products are usually far better for most people.

Whichever one you choose, it must be updated frequently (weekly or, preferably, daily) — most can do this automatically, so long as you leave your PC turned on for this to happen.

Windows updates

Make sure you regularly check for, and install, any "critical updates" to Windows from Microsoft. You can check for these yourself, or you can set Windows XP to check for updates automatically.

Defend against attacks

When you connect to the Internet, you become visible to other computers on the Internet, and some of them might want to launch attacks against you (probably not you personally, they are just looking for unprotected computers). If — as I recommend — you use a broadband router rather than a broadband modem, this will offer you a good degree of protection through something called NAT. If you are using a broadband or ADSL modem, you must add on some protection against attacks. Unprotected computers can be compromised in a matter of minutes, even if you don't download anything or read any e-mail. The latest version of Windows XP (SP2) has a firewall built in, and this is good enough to protect most people from outside attacks.

A personal firewall is vital for anyone not using NAT or the Windows XP SP2 firewall, and might be a good idea even if you are because it can identify things on your computer speaking outwards, as well as stopping things from outside connecting inwards.

The two main free personal firewalls are ZoneAlarm (an older version is also available — some people find it safer), and Kerio. I used to recommend Sygate, but it has been bought by Symantec (the makers of Norton) and discontinued. All personal firewalls have a small number of users who find that installation causes problems with their systems, so might like to use an uninstall utility such as InstallWatch Pro before you install a firewall.

"Spam"

Unwanted e-mails are a problem for which there isn't a complete answer yet; my feeling is the best you can do is be careful with your e-mail address (don't publicise it unnecessarily), use multiple e-mail addresses if you have them (one for friends and family, one to sign up for things), and run an e-mail program with good spam-filtering facilities.

If your ISP offers spam filtering consider using it, although I'm not a fan because of the risk of "false positives" – you might lose some genuine mail unless you're careful.

Outlook Express is not the best e-mail program to use: you'd be better off downloading and using Thunderbird — it's free, is just as easy to use as Outlook Express, and can import details of your mail account from Outlook Express.

It's also safer than Outlook Express, it has a good built-in spam filter which you have to "train" to recognise spam, and can use rules to filter your mail. Rules are probably the best way to deal with spam, but they take time and expertise to set up effectively.

Other utilities

Startup Control Panel is very useful to see what will start up every time Windows loads, and Startup Monitor will tell you every time anything sets itself to run every time Windows loads — well worth running in the background, as lots of viruses and similar will try to run themselves on Windows startup.

NetMeter is useful to run to see when things are using your broadband connection, and the Sysinternals Process Explorer will show you what processes are running and what files they use. These two are probably only worthwhile for advanced users who like to know exactly what their computer is up to!

Web Sites

Test to see if your browser accepts ActiveX downloads
Doxdesk detection script
McAfee Virus Information Library
SpyWare Info
Is it SpyWare?
Rogue or Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
WinTasks Process Library
HoaxBusters
Pest Patrol Library
HijackThis (tool for knowledgeable users)