Personal Computer System Maintenance

Like your car engine, your computer needs regular maintenace to keep it running properly - especially if you use it to work with the internet. In this article, I'll detail a couple of the things that I do to clean off systems that have spyware and virus issues - and the things that I recommend to do to keep problems from happening.

Operating System Settings

For better or worse, Microsoft Windows XP is the predominant operating system used by consumers. XP is probably Microsoft's best attempt at an operating system yet, and there are lots of things to like about it - but there are many things to be wary of as well! XP's heritage is from the NT line of business operating systems (and not the Windows 95/3.1 line that formed the consumer OS division before the arrival of Windows XP), and as such it has a different set of vulernabilities than what earlier operating systems had. An example of this is the Sasser worm (external link) from last year - it took advantage of a vulnerability in the LSASS service - something that only ran on the NT line of operating systems. All of those new XP Home machines were vulnerable, but the old Windows 95 or 98 machines weren't!

In August of 2004, Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (external link) for Windows XP. This closed many holes in the operating system and did some nice security changes in Internet Explorer (including a built in pop-up blocker). XP Service Pack 2 also introduce an operating system level firewall - while not as nice or as robust as an aftermarket firewall, it will knock down lots of unwanted network traffic.

Recommended Actions:

• Install XP Service Pack 2 (if not already on the system)
• Download and Install all critical udpate from Microsoft's Windows Update page
• Turn on the Windows Firewall (this can be accessed from the "Security Center" in the Windows Control Panel)
• Turn off the "File and Printer Sharing" and the "Remote Assistance" options on the firewall "Exceptions" tab - unless you explicitly need to do those things from your machine
• Turn on Automatic Updates (also found in the Security Center) to keep the machine up to date with security patches from Microsoft.

Web Browsers and E-Mail Clients

Many of the viruses and worms that are in circulation directly attack Internet Explorer or Outlook Express. One way to sidestep these attacks is to run an alternative web browser or e-mail client. There are many good free alternatives available:

Browers (external links):

• Mozilla FireFox - a fairly new browser, it is lightweight and fairly speedy. The entire download setup file is smaller than the Internet Explorer 6.1 update.
• Netscape - just released version 8 of their web browser.
• Opera - an excellent lightweight browser. There is a free version that does display advertisements and a commercial version that doesn't display those advertisements.

E-Mail Clients (external links):

• Mozilla ThunderBird - a fairly new e-mail client. Has spam controls built in and doesn't suffer from many of the security holes that plague Outlook Express.
• gmail - if you're into web based e-mail, this is a nice one. It's a much quicker and cleaner interface than yahoo or hotmail. Does a fairly good job of spam blocking. You will need an "invite" to get a mailbox here, but those are easy to come by.

Kill Spyware!

Spyware or Adware are the banes of any good system. They sneak onto the machine clandestinely and use resources and bandwidth to either spy on you or to display advertisements to you.

The good news is that a little bit of effort can go a long way towards keeping spyware off of your system.

Recommended Steps (links are all external!):

• Download and run Lavasoft's AdAware. Update the signatures and run a full system scan once per week or so (more or less depending upon how much web surfing you do). The software is sold to commercial entities, but as a consumer, you can download it for free from the "download" link on the left side of their main page.
• Download and run SpyBot Search & Destroy. SpyBot is another free program that is useful in killing spyware and adware. Use it in conjunction with AdAware. Update it and run it once per week or so.
• Download and install Microsoft AntiSpyware (beta). Use this in conjunction with SpyBot and AdAware. This software seems to do a fairly good job - especially in the real time protection area.
• Download and install Spyware Blaster. This program kills off some spyware and tracking cookies before they can affect your machine. It works with both FireFox and Internet Explorer. The version that is "for pay" will automatically update itself.

Resist the Virus!

The most important single thing that you can do with your machine is to install, run, and keep up to date antivirus software. There are a number of good antivirus vendors out there, just choose a software package that you are comfortable with, keep it up to date, and run full system scans from time to time.

• Norton Antivirus (external link)- Everybody knows about Norton. Very good antivirus package, started adding some antispyware capabilities in 2004. This software does "take over the machine" and can severely slow down older systems. I have also seen some machines where it won't install properly or doesn't uninstall properly.
• McAffee Antivirus (external link) - Another well known and good antivirus software package. From my experience, updates are a little more unwieldy than what Norton's.
• AVG Antivirus (external link) - Free for personal use, half the cost of Norton for commercial use. When purchased, the updates run for two years instead of one. The Professional Versions give the user more options on when to update and run scans, but the free version is very nice.
• Avast Antivirus (external link) - Another "free for home users" antivirus scanner. I've not had any experience with this software personally, but I've read some good things about it.

Conclusion

A little bit of preventative maintenance will go a long ways towards keeping your machine healthy and running properly. It used to be that a good antivirus package and a little bit of care about what kinds of e-mail attachments that you opened were all that you needed to stay safe. Now, just the fact that you exist and have connected to the internet (external link) means that you as a user need to do be more proactive in taking care of your machine than you used to have to be.

I hope that this lengthy article was at least somewhat helpful. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at security@tsbbank.com and I'll do my best to answer them.

Aaron Boyken
Technology Officer
Titonka Savings Bank
06/03/2005

173 Main St N, PO Box 309 • Titonka, IA 50480-0309
Telephone 515-928-2142 • 800-920-2085
Fax 515-928-2042

101 Highway 69 N • Forest City, IA 50436-1616
Telephone 641-585-3247 • Fax 641-585-3907

155 Jackson St, PO Box 7 • Thompson, IA 50478-0007
Telephone 641-584-2275 • 866-984-2275
Fax 641-584-2575

©2001-2007 Titonka Savings Bank
06/06/2005