Absolute PC Security and Privacy.pdf

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Table 2.1: File Types and Extensions Extension File Type Infectable JPG (JPEG) Image No JS JavaScript Yes JS JavaScript Yes JSE JavaScript Yes LQT Audio No MDB Microsoft Access database Yes MDE Microsoft Access database Yes MID (MIDI) Audio No MP3 Audio No MPG (MPEG) Movie No PIF Batch Yes PNG Image No PPT PowerPoint document Yes QT Movie No REG Registration entry Yes (makes changes to Windows Registry) SCR Screen saver Yes SYS System Yes TIF (TIFF) Image No TXT Text No VB VisualBasic Yes VBE VisualBasic Yes VBS Visual Basic Script Yes WAV Audio No WMA Audio No WMV Movie Yes XLS Excel document Yes XLW Excel document Yes This information is useful only if you can see the extensions of the files you’re working with. One of the more popular options in recent versions of Windows is to hide extensions for known file types. When this option is enabled, you only see the filename, not the extension. So a file named myvirus could be a Word document, or an MP3 song, or an executable program. Without knowing what type of file it is, you’re flying blind. Warning You should beware the double-dot (or double-extension) spoof, where virus writers tack a harmless-looking .doc or .txt to the end of the main filename—before the extension. If you’re not viewing extensions, you’ll see a file that looks like myvirus.jpg, while the full filename is actually myvirus.jpg.exe. If you don’t see the
.exe, you think you’re dealing with a picture file—and are tricked into downloading an executable program. Better, then, to configure Windows to show all file extensions. This way you’ll know that myvirus.doc should be opened in Microsoft Word, myvirus.mp3 should be played with your favorite digital music player, and myvirus.exe is a potentially dangerous virus program. Note To learn how to show file extensions in Windows, turn to Chapter 11, “Preventing Virus Attacks.” Are You at Risk Now that you know how computer viruses are spread, and which types of files can contain viruses, it’s time to reevaluate the ways you use your computer. Are you doing anything that unnecessarily increases your risk of being infected by a computer virus The answer is probably “yes.” That’s because the only 100% guaranteed protection against infection is to never share files with other users, never communicate (electronically) with other users, and never connect your computer to other computers (via a network or over the Internet). The minute you plug your computer into the office network, or dial into the Internet, or accept a floppy disk from another user, you’re putting your system at risk. Tip Changing your computer behavior is one way to reduce your risk of catching a virus; using an antivirus program is another. See Chapter 9, “Antivirus Software and Services” to learn more about these useful programs. Very Safe Behavior What is the safest computing behavior you can engage in Let’s look at how you can reduce your risk of infection to practically zero. Solo Computing The only completely effective way to protect against catching a computer virus is to sever all contact between your PC and other computers. That means not connecting to a network, not connecting to the Internet, and never accepting floppy disks, CDs, or other media from other users. You use your computer exactly as it came out of the box, never adding any new software, never downloading any new files, and never copying any new documents. No downloading, no Web surfing, no message reading. Just you and your computer, isolated from the rest of the world. It’s like sexual abstinence; if you totally isolate yourself, you can’t catch anything. Of course, you won’t have any fun, either. (Computing abstinence is no more fun than sexual abstinence—although it’s equally effective in protecting against infection.) Chances are, you’ll find this preventive strategy a little too restrictive. Using Only Commercial Software
Page 1 and 2: Absolute PC Security and Privacy Mi
Page 3 and 4: infected files from his system. Som
Page 5 and 6: You don’t have to read Absolute P
Page 7 and 8: Unfortunately, this problem doesn
Page 9 and 10: demonstrated the first experimental
Page 11 and 12: Some computer viruses are created w
Page 13 and 14: Unfortunately, that’s a bit of a
Page 15 and 16: Note In reality, you can create a v
Page 17 and 18: The right tools include one of the
Page 19 and 20: There’s still a danger of receivi
Page 21 and 22: If your e-mail program is configure
Page 23: The list starts with executable fil
Page 27 and 28: elatively easy to track down—and
Page 29 and 30: You also increase your risk if you
Page 31 and 32: Table 2.2: Virus Risk Potential for
Page 33 and 34: If you’ve ever been hit by a comp
Page 35 and 36: Overview The two earliest forms of
Page 37 and 38: Figure 3.2: The boot process as aff
Page 39 and 40: Your PC is now Stoned! Further evid
Page 41 and 42: OBJ, LIB, and Source Code Viruses A
Page 43 and 44: Magistr This is a memory-resident p
Page 45 and 46: While boot sector viruses are relat
Page 47 and 48: • Microsoft Excel (XLS and XLW fi
Page 49 and 50: For a period of time in the mid- to
Page 51 and 52: exit the program. Since many macro
Page 53 and 54: Overview As you learned in Chapter
Page 55 and 56: Different Types of Script Viruses I
Page 57 and 58: Does your name add up to 666 Enter
Page 59 and 60: Links This VBS worm sends itself as
Page 61 and 62: Win95.SK Win95.SK is a virus that,
Page 63 and 64: Figure 5.2 : Configuring Outlook Ex
Page 65 and 66: administrator. Disabling Scripting
Page 67 and 68: Attach the file to an e-mail from a
Page 69 and 70: situation. Indeed, most attackers u
Page 71 and 72: FREE SURF fwd: Joke Hello Kitty I C
Page 73 and 74: Figure 6.1 : The contents of a typi
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• PestPatrol (www.safersite.com)
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Common Worms The number of worms in
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Nimda Nimda was briefly discussed i
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type of worm from your computer sys
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(typically using Trojan techniques,
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(As you can see, HTML e-mail is ide
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If you never open any e-mail attach
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Virus Protection in Outlook Express
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Figure 7.6 : Disabling the Preview
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chat session, all other infected us
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In addition, most antivirus program
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You are infected with a virus that
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How to Remove an Instant Messaging
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when an individual takes an existin
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New Pictures of Family This virus h
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For example, the Naked Wife worm re
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This chapter also provides a look a
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Program Approx. Price Manual Disk &
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F-Prot Antivirus contains one of th
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Note Panda Antivirus Platinum is av
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Note Command on Demand is available
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Figure 9.2 : Scanning for viruses w
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Figure 9.5 : Configuring Norton's A
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6. When the Scan And Deliver Wizard
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Figure 9.8 : The results of a Virus
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Figure 9.10 : Configuring VirusScan
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Continue Scanning Records any infec
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To understand how new viruses show
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Figure 10.2 : How integrity checkin
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Figure 10.4 : How sandboxing identi
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obsessive about this sort of thing,
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look at a list of files in My Compu
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software is more deliberate, and it
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Your antivirus program will also sc
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Update Your E-mail Program Everythi
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• Virus Alerts Mailing List (www.
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While we're on the topic of switchi
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To further reduce your risk of infe
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4. Go online to your antivirus soft
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General File Cleaning When you run
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Once you know which files you need
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Reinstalling System Files Unfortuna
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of the attacker to do specific harm
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One reason for the recent increase
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How to Initiate a Computer Attack H
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On the morning of February 7th, the
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It's likely that you'll first notic
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• Activate password protection to
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The people who attack computers in
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impersonation attack is always limi
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Note The following are relatively t
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data stream and 'becoming' one of t
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As you learned in Chapter 11, 'Prev
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That's because the longer you're on
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Start by reconfiguring Windows for
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If this is too extreme a measure, y
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Computer theft is a particular prob
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typical P2P connection. No servers,
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and search for 'Weezer.' You then s
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Instant messaging presents a unique
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And that's not the only security pr
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your permission if you accept the '
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Security Risks-On the Other End Unl
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• Firewall software • Firewall
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either inside the firewall or repla
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crackers on drive-by "war runs" to
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Figure 18.3 : Filtering incoming tr
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80. Your firewall, then, can be con
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state, recorded during installation
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distributes ZoneAlarm Pro, for abou
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Figure 18.7 : Configuring the Inter
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Figure 18.10 : Viewing recent attac
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Figure 18.13 : Configuring firewall
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Despite your best precautions, you
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Figure 19.1 : Using Windows XP's Se
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the signatures of known intrusion t
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We Americans value our privacy. We
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It also reinforces the general warn
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User Profiling What good is all thi
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Tip If you can't find a site's priv
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Yahoo! automatically receives and r
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Figure 20.1 : Look for these seals
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Whether these activities are permis
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Of course, if you're one of the cor
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• Buy personal information from '
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• For any credit card, loan, or b
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• Any U.S. attorney or state atto
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When you want to protect your priva
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There are many ways you can be defr
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situation. The simple fact is that
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Another potential area of online fr
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feedback. You can also read the ind
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Money Orders and Cashier's Checks A
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The Nigerian Letter scam started ou
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• If you think your bank accounts
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And stalking can lead to worse offe
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It can also be dangerous. Many stal
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How to Protect Your Children Online
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Spyware is like a Trojan horse, in
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visited. This information is then r
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In many ways, this is like a tradit
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Using Antispy Software An easier wa
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Spyware that is installed and used
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Cookie Management The reason you pr
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You can also adjust the privacy lev
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Figure 24.5 : Removing stored cooki
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Read on to learn more about these r
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they’re easier to remember. If yo
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Note The RSA cryptography algorithm
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Fortunately, Outlook Express automa
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Fortunately, we can use digital tec
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Personal Digital IDs for e-mail can
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Some possible forms of biometric id
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Figure 26.1 : Making Web page reque
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• Stealther (www.photono-software
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“dummy” IDs, messages can still
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communities, if you will. These fre
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subscribe to on a regular basis. Tw
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Figure 27.1 : A plain-text spam mes
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The problems posed by these types o
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So all those e-mails you get from L
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as to be virtually unusable.) Spamm
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For this reason, many individuals a
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Probably the easiest way to obtain
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Don’t Unsubscribe You should also
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o o 4. Click Summary. 5. Click Save
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If you’re resigned to the fact th
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At the same time, create a second,
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On the national level, the FTC has
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But in an age where too many Intern
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Ms. Fonda did visit North Vietnam i
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which exploded and burned down her
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Nigerian Letter Scam Probably the m
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typical Web page. In addition, the
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(You can change the width and heigh
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4. Scroll down to the Scripting sec
Page 348 and 349:
Because banner ads are just graphic
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Sometimes you open e-mail ads witho
Page 352 and 353:
Of course, forced frames aren’t t
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To this end, there are several orga
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to filter out some degree of legiti
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Figure 31.3 : Configuring Internet
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OneKey OneKey (www.onekey.com) is a
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authentication The process of deter
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An electronic credential that confi
Page 366 and 367:
IP half scan A type of pre-attack p
Page 368 and 369:
A secret key that can be used, eith
Page 370:
An attack resulting from the attack
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