PC
Magazine.
PC Magazine conducted a survey that asked participants to rate their broadband
ISP services. We found out that many users don't completely understand the
seriousness of potential threats or how to protect their PCs. The following are
responses to the top five security misconceptions we encountered.
I don't
keep important things on my PC, so I don't have to worry about security.
There
was a time when this statement was partially true, but that time has long since
passed. Current viruses, worms, and other threats, including the famous Love
Bug, Nimda, and Blaster, spread blindly across the Internet to thousands or
millions of PCs in a matter of hours, without regard for who owns them, what is
stored there, or the value of the information they hold. The purpose of such
attacks is nothing less than to wreak havoc. If you ignore the reality of these
attacks, you are certain to be hit at one time or another. Even if your computer
is not attacked directly, it can be used as a zombie to launch a
denial-of-service or other attack on a network or to send spam or pornography
to other PCs without being traced. Therefore, your civic responsibility is to
protect your PC so that others are protected.
I can
protect my PC if I disconnect from the Internet or turn it off when I'm not
using it.
Wrong.
If you connect to the Internet at all, you are a target. You could download a
virus when you connect and not activate it until days later when you read your
e-mail off-line. Even if you rarely connect to the Internet, you can get a
virus from a file off of a network, floppy disk, or USB flash memory drive.
I can
protect myself from viruses by not opening suspicious e-mail attachments.
Wrong
again. The next virus you get may come from your best friend's or boss'
computer if his e-mail address book was used to propagate an attack. Nimda and
other hybrid worms can enter through the Web browser. And it is possible to
activate some viruses simply by reading or previewing an e-mail. You simply
must have a PC-based antivirus package.
I have a
Macintosh (or a Linux-based system), not a Windows system, so I don't have to
worry about being attacked.
It is
true that most attacks target Microsoft Windows–based PCs, but there have been
attacks against Mac OS and Linux systems as well. Some experts have predicted
that the Mac virus problem will get worse, because Mac OS X uses a version of
Unix. And although these systems have some useful security features, they can
still be attacked.
My
system came with an antivirus package, so I'm protected.
Not
quite. First, if you haven't activated your antivirus package to scan incoming
traffic automatically, you are not protected against e-mail and Web browser
attacks. Second, new threats appear daily, so an antivirus package is only as
good as its last update. Activate the auto-update features to stay on top of
the latest threats. Third, an antivirus package can't protect you from every
threat. In most cases you need a combination of solutions, including, at
minimum, antivirus, a personal firewall such as Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm Pro, and a
plan for keeping your operating system and software up to date with security
patches. Antispyware and antispam utilities (such as PepiMK Software's SpyBot
Search & Destroy and Norton AntiSpam 2004) will also help keep you safe.
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