Computer security, am I just being too paranoid?

Look up pobox.com. They are a mail forwarder. You create an account (NOT free) and you then get three email addresses (addr1@pobox.com, addr2@pobox.com, addr3@pobox.com) that will all transfer to YOUR email (regular) account. You can use one permanently and then use the other two for stuff. Like give one to a website as your email address. Get the email from them in your regular email accound, click the verify link and then go on POBOX and get rid (change) that one address. Your idea is good too as long as you don't have to give yahoo, google or hotmail your real email adress so they can sell it.

I still believe that YOU get what you pay for. There is no free lunch! Companies that give you their services for free and still make a fortune in profits? Some sounds wrong there, doesn't it? I once had to deal with an idiot online that kept insisting that the Internet was FREE!!! I had a hard time convincing him that it wasn't. I mean, someone has to pay for the Internet connection (in this case, his parents - so not 'free' already). What about the ads? "Who cares about them??!" Well, you will since you go out to buy things and the cost of those things has advertising dollars connected to the cost. Young people, you can't get them to think, can you?? HA.

Servers, switches, IP addresses, Hosting costs are never free so why would someone put up a free Internet service unless there was money in it for them somewhere....

One thing I tell people is that SECURITY is like one side of a teeter-totter. The other side is ease of use (convenience). The more you push down on the side of security, up pops the ease-of-use factor. You push down on the ease of use side and security pops up. The trouble with the analogy is that people think there should be a "balance" between ease of use and security. WRONG! There has to be a limiter on the teeter-totter that limits how much security you can do away with. Security has to win unless you have absolutely nothing to lose (and a credit rating or criminal record is nothing to mess around with).

First of all, nobody here, including you, is paranoid. We are all stating the facts. There have been issues of malware and "viruses" from a time long before there were any personal computers. What has happened, after the World Wide Web made even having a personal computer popular, people started making malware not to just joke around or to "prove something" to the rest of the world that they had technical abilities, but to actually start making money. The Internet originally was for the military types. You had .MIL, .COM, .EDU, .GOV, .NET and others to differentiate what was represented on this Internet at the time. I first got a message (SMTP) onto the Internet in the 1980's using a mainframe. There was simply not a lot to do out there. Getting on the Internet was a major issue. You had to install your own TCP/IP stack. You had to have modems and telephone lines to transmit TTY protocol. Not for the average person and you had to go directly to govenment agencies to get a TCP/IP address range. Today, with the WWW, everyone just about has access to a computer and the Internet. So, this means that the criminal element now has a way to not only show off how brilliant they are but to make money doing it.

The part that scares me is that, in the old days, there were almost no programmers out there. I learned BASIC back in 1967 in high school. I was the only one in a high school with 6,000 students who connected with a computer since nobody knew what to do with the equipment when it came in. If it involved pushing buttons, I was IN.

So, today we have everyone trying to be a programmer. Some people are good at it; some aren't. But I have seen a lot of scary design out there. No security. Passwords are kept in a file somewhere, ripe for the picking. Everyone is more interested in getting things done simply and quickly and security has usually fallen by the wayside. It isn't so much the user, is what I'm saying. It is the content providers that need to get their act in gear and embrace security as part of everything that you do. I already conversed with a programmer who is creating systems for dentists and doctors and doesn't really know about HIPAA laws and doesn't consider putting the records of patients up on a public cloud site to be a security problem or a violation. How does this affect us normal folk? Does anyone think about your medical records being put up where employees of some advertising-related public website that reads everythinfg that goes up on that site? I mean, that is bad enough (can't get a job because everone thinks your "illness" might affect your work...). How about people putting your credit card info up on a public website that takes no responsibility (according to the TOS) for your data security?

These are the things that scare the hell out of me today. Not someone putting a tracking cookie on my computer. In the old days, malware wiped off your hard drive. By today's standards that would be a joke unless someone is keeping critical information and forgot to back it up or the downtime it would cause.

So, paranoia, in a day when all malware seems to be directed at making money for someone else at your expense, is well worth it to have. At least a little of paranoia is a good thing.

What people need to realize is that any level of security is going to be inconvenient. It used to be that anti-virus software slowed down your computer. In some cases, it might still do that. But what is the alternative? The really isn't any, is there? I here people (like my old boss) say that "a/v slows down my computer", or "I don't believe that there is such a thing as a computer virus" or "I can just be very careful and then I won't need any security software". Well, my boss brought his laptop in from home and plugged it into the enterprise network. In a few minutes a MAJOR county government was down at an estimated cost of $10 million. Just one laptop did this. Not everyone is even going to remember the NIMDA virus (and someone else did the same thing and brought in the SQL Slammer virus). But is sure cost taxpayers a lot of money. So now we have new rules. You HAVE to use certain software or you don't get to connect (and some flagrantly violate the rules even today - I have an Apple and there is no such thing as Apple malware...) Wrong.

So, my concerns today is outright theft but also loss of salaries and revenue becuase some major corporation has to shut down while fighting malware that was brought in by some self-centered idiot. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there but computer crime is still on the rise. We read about it like every other week. Exposing passwords, government communication, account numbers. Someone has to pay to clean all of that up. And that someone is all of us.

So take this all into consideration when planning on how you will use your computer and your internet connection. If you are worried, you have every right to be worried. There is plenty of software out there and, you know, no one piece of software can guarantee that something new won't come along and ruin your day. Don't just give up. All you can do is make your computer and its netwrk connection as safe as possible. Look at what software is out there and try them out, when you can. Find something you like that doesn't take a lot to manage. Look at its reputation out there especially RECENTLY (1 year ago is not recent, sorry). Try to use something that, while probably signature based, also has a heuristic side that can detect strange things they have not seen before but know it is up to no good. Read up on your OS and look at the NIST government web site to see what is really out there. Don't assume Apple nor LINUX is bullet proof as the research says you would be wrong. That is, don't listen to HYPE or things you read from us ordinary people. See for yourself. The web makes research easy. We had a discussion on one of these blogs about security in Windows vs Apple. Fan bois on both sides. Someone ended the conversation with a link to NIST that showed that the eight top vulnerabilities in the U.S. were on APPLE Mac OS. There really is no such thing as absolute safety. Maybe a power failure? So, while I value everyone's opinions, you are going to see that there is a wild distribution of opinions. Don't even believe MY OPIONIONS. How do you know that I know anything about data security? The best thing you can do is figure out what scares you and do some research.

Talk to your bank about their security methods and the regulations they have to follow. They will have someone you can talk to who can explain it so you understand. If your account is hacked? What happens next? How much do you lose, if anything? It may not be as bad as you are thinking. Some banks have an online guarantee. (Think of how much money the bank is saving by having ATMs and online banking? They can afford to make this area attractive as opposed to opening more branches.

Stick with well known things. Not just in your banking (avoid the bank of Nigeria, especially if they send you email), but also with your software. People can bad-mouth software because they had a bad expierience at one time or another but things change. If you work from home, see if you can take home big-boy security software (you don't ask, you don't get). Speak with people who are not just in IT but who maybe on your company's data security staff. Find out what they use at work. Try not to use redundant resident software. One anti-virus software resident is enough but realize that they don't do EVERYTHING well. You might want to look at good anti-spyware software, a GOOD registry cleaner and general fixer-upper. I hear that there is a lot of new Identity-Theft protection out there but I personally don't know much about it but YOU CAN DO THE RESEARCH too. That's why we have FREE internet searches. To find software to protect us from FREE Internet sites. (I love it!).

Read about the OS that you are using. Doesn't matter what it is or what version. Find out the best way to configure it for security. You can always tell when the security software load is "too much" for your taste and back down a bit. Just remember that you are compromising a bit of security when you do that. Security doesn't come cheap. You pay for it with a certain amount of inconvenience.

It has been stated that aprox. every 10 seconds you leave your computer running without anti virus, someone, or something, will try and plant a malicious virus. The fear is real, but windows fire wall alone cant do a thing for you but potentially notify you that there is a problem in the first place.You should always have your fire wall on, unless you have a specific reason not to, and you should also have a good antivirus! NO im not saying the most expensive, im saying the most efficient, which depending on your expertise may be different from one person to the next.
If you consider yourself to be the average computer user, than i would suggest something like ESET, or despite my own personal problems with them, Norton.
If you feel you have a slightly better understanding of computers than most, than i would suggest the free option, windows security essentials. I would not suggest this to the average user do to its somewhat regular inability to remove malware. On the other hand, it is MUCH better at identifying the problems.
YA, downloading things can be bad, but just avoid sites like softpedia, or fileshare, where people can name things whatever they want. look for more reputable websites, and unless it offers bittorrent, try to avoid using third-party threads. To be honest, you will have more problems from things like popups, and trick "download here" ADs than anything else.
Going as far as to turn off your computer after each sitting is a bit much if its not a laptop, and can be very nerve raking. If something wants to get to your computer, it is likely already linked to your network and will sneak in when it gets the chance. If it is a desk top, make sure it has a sleep mode, or turns off the monitors eventually, and just turn it off once or twice a week, or as necessary. Remember to defrag! i suggest Auslogics.

Like i hope i have expressed, ya, there is stuff to be afraid of, but its like driving a car. something might happen, and ya you might have to replace some parts along the way, but if you have insurance and everyone was waring there seatbelts, than the important things are safe, and the rest will be repaired in time.

Just read this stuff:

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6132_102-571726/fake-microsoft-service-agreement-email-phish/?tag=nl.e497&s_cid=e497 .

Howie

People seem to forget a few things. There are two types of virus programs: Reactive and Proactive. We've been hit by viruses when running Norton and other virus scanners were able to pick it up faster. If there is a virus that hasn't been discovered, what protection is there?

The I.T. guy at work installed another commercial program recommended by one of the comuter magazines for P.C. and a virus wiped my computer clean at work this week so I'm vulnerable at work and the I.T. guy is an outside paid consultant.

One year Windows had 60 vulnerabilities.

I read in the news today that PNC and Chase had some overseas hacking attempts. PNC took their online banking offline. If they were hacked, would they tell you?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49122362/BofA_JPMorgan_Citi_Repeatedly_Hacked_by_Iran_Sources

In fact your own news story says:

Hacker claims breach of 79 banks, releases customer data

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57455693-83/hacker-claims-breach-of-79-banks-releases-customer-data/

If my credit card is stolen, there is a law that says I am liable for the first fifty dollars. What protection is there if your money is taken out of your account? If the banks and the government believed in internet security then why aren't customes given equal protection?