Malware is not a shopping outfit
By Charles Miller

This week’s question is “How does the computer user avoid getting malicious viruses, worms or spyware?” It is becoming common today to lump all of these unwelcome pests together using the term “malware.”

Malware is pretty much any program, virus, Trojan, spyware, keylogger, etc., that you would not welcome into your computer and would want to get rid of if you knew it was there. Back to the question, though, how do you avoid malware?

The answer, of course, is to never connect your computer to the internet. It is a dangerous place full of nasty malware. Okay, I knew that answer was not going to please anyone, so I will change the question from “how do you avoid” to “how do you minimize” getting a virus, adware, spyware or other unwanted malware on your computer?

Here is the short list of six common-sense ways to reduce your risk. For the purpose of this column, I am going to omit antivirus software and firewalls from the answer in order to focus on those operational methods and techniques you can implement.

1. Keep your operating system, browser and programs up to date with the latest security patches. Microsoft has a lot of security holes in its Windows operating systems, programs and Internet Explorer browser. Fortunately Microsoft has a good history of fixing these security holes, often before major viruses are circulated via the internet. Unfortunately, a lot of users do not have a good history taking advantage of these fixes. Point your browser to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to check for the latest security patches and install them.

2. Set your Internet Explorer privacy settings to “medium high.” If you increase the privacy setting from the default “medium” position you can reduce the risk of receiving dangerous cookies. The downside to this is that setting the privacy setting to “High” will prevent you from using hotmail.com email because they use cookies that are blocked by the “High” setting. In Internet Explorer these settings are found under Tool/Internet options. Click on the “Privacy,” tab then adjust the slider to the desired position and then click on [Apply] and [Ok].

3. Consider installing and using an alternative internet browser such as Mozilla Firefox. This browser is free to use and free of several security vulnerabilities found in the rival Internet Explorer.

4. Do not open any attachments sent to you via email. The subject of file types and email attachments could fill a whole article (perhaps next week). For now, just remember that if you refrain from opening any and all email attachments, you will avoid most viruses, worms and Trojans spread via email. Admittedly, this is a draconian approach, but it does work.

5. Do not use a preview window in your email program. A preview window, in case you do not already know, is the window that lets you view the contents of a message without clicking on it to open. If you use the preview window, there are some viruses that will automatically infect your machine faster than you can click the [Delete] button.

6. Do not set your mouse to single-click! Windows gives a user the option of changing the default double-click of the left button to open a program with just one click. Please do not do this. Having your mouse set to single-click increases the chance that you will inadvertently launch a virus attachment when reading your email.

So there you go—six ways to reduce your exposure to those nasty viruses and other pests.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ7@SMAguru.com. 

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