From The Naked PC issue #4.26...

How to Protect Yourself from Viruses and Other Malware

by Lee Hudspeth
December 20, 2001

Later in this issue you'll find an article entitled "The Naked PC's Virus-Related Article Links" with links to all the articles we've published on virus-related topics. These articles provide valuable checklists for activities like optimizing (and safely testing) your anti-virus program, understanding and dealing with hoaxes, evaluating anti-virus programs for ease of use, thwarting virus attacks, and so on. Here's my checklist for use when protecting yourself from malware. (Special thanks to my colleague Mike Craven for his assistance in refining this checklist.)

Note that this list is focused on folks running stand-alone desktops or peer-to-peer networks; if you're a network administrator then you can certainly extract value from this list, but I won't be talking about the special types of protection required when running a network that support enterprise-wide email services, Web servers, and the like.

1. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER OPEN OR EXECUTE AN EMAIL ATTACHMENT FROM SOMEONE YOU DON'T KNOW.

Or even someone you do know if it's not a file you were expecting. And it's a good bet to call or other wise verify with the sender that they did indeed send you the file and not some virus program that commandeered their email client.

2. INSTALL AND USE A MODERN ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM.

Any one will do, but the most important thing is to use one. (I'm in the process of reviewing anti-virus programs, see the link below, and stay tuned.)
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/426/tr.cgi?av2

3. BE AGGRESSIVE.

Configure your anti-virus program to be aggressive in how it detects malware.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/426/tr.cgi?av3

4. GET DAILY UPDATES, AUTOMATICALLY.

Configure your anti-virus program to update its virus definition files and its engine (and other software components) DAILY.

5. AUTOMATICALLY MONITOR ALL FILE ACTIVITY.

Turn on your anti-virus program's "auto-protect" feature.

6. AUTOMATICALLY SCAN EMAIL.

Turn on your anti-virus program's email scanning feature.

7. AUTOMATICALLY SCAN MICROSOFT DOCUMENTS WHEN OPENED.

Turn on your anti-virus program's feature for scanning Office documents.

8. RUN WEEKLY FULL-SYSTEM SCANS.

This is easy to configure with your anti-virus program's options settings dialog.

9. USE A FIREWALL.

I recommend that you install and use a personal firewall on your PC(s). I personally recommend ZoneAlarm. If you have a network that's sharing an Internet connection, be sure to familiarize yourself with your router/gateway's built-in firewall.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/426/tr.cgi?av4

10. INSTALL SOFTWARE SECURITY PATCHES.

Routinely check the Web sites of all your software programs that connect with the outside world--operating system, email client, browser, personal firewall, document editing tool (like Microsoft Office) and so on--and update them by installing the manufacturer's suggested security-related service releases and/or patches. In our ebook "The Book That Should Have Come with Your Computer" we devote an entire chapter--Chapter 8--to the subject of staying ahead of the upgrade game; for information about tracking down software upgrades see the section "Tracking Down Upgrades."

11. SCAN FOR TROJANS AND SPYWARE.

To identify and remove trojans that might slip by your anti-virus program, check out MooSoft's The Cleaner, available as shareware:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/426/tr.cgi?av16

To identify and remove spyware, check out Lavasoft's freeware tool Ad-aware:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/426/tr.cgi?av18

Even if you've followed all the above steps, it is still theoretically possible that a piece of malware could escape detection.

If you're thinking these steps represent too much work, not so. Once you've spent a few minutes configuring your anti-virus program using my recommendations, it's "set and forget." Ditto with your personal firewall. You can subscribe to free newsletters that will automatically inform you of software security patches, or you can manually peruse various "virus info" pages (just remember to do so regularly). Other ways to stay ahead of the upgrade game are described in the aforementioned book.

You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:LeeHudspeth@TheNakedPC.com

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