Basic internet security: how to sleep more soundly
John Giordani, DIA
Doctor of Information Assurance -Technology Risk Manager - Information Assurance, and AI Governance Advisor - Adjunct Professor UoF
The Internet is an oceanic source of information, available to much of the world's population. Every day millions of people access this enormous source and, without knowing it, leave traces of their passage.
These tracks can be identified, read and analyzed by individuals with unique skills, for more or less lawful purposes, and this constitutes a clear violation of our privacy. However, this should not discourage us and cause us to give up the use of this valuable resource. What we should do is to learn and to know what countermeasures to take to protect ourselves.
Below is a list of the main weaknesses of the network and related defenses. The list is sorted in an approximate order of danger, the subject potentially most dangerous to least dangerous.
- Bug programs
- Virus
- Trojan
- IP Address
- JavaScript and Java applets
- Spyware and adware
- Macro
- Cookies
- Hoax
Essential precautions
If you've read the arguments above, here is a summary of the key measures to be used to achieve a good level of security on your computer and into your network:
- Keep up to date the operating system and favorite applications.
- While online, do not respond affirmatively to the confirmation pop-up windows that ask you to install programs on your computer.
- Do not click on email attachments you receive if you are not more than sure of their function and origin. And even so, remember that even a known source does not guarantee its safety.
- Install a good antivirus on each computer and access to the internet gateway/router, if you have one. If not install it on the computer, you use to connect.
- Install a good firewall on the Internet access gateway/router and configure it to allow access only to the ports you use and well-known programs.
- Navigate unsafe websites only through a proxy that will make your IP identity anonymous.
- Avoid installing test programs or video games by advertising CD-ROM or downloaded from the internet, at least on computers used for work. Also, avoid installing and using known spyware programs.
- Do not fall into traps set by the authors of hoaxes and not undertake actions on computer files only because it is suggested in an email message.