What Security do you use?

superscaper

Marty_J wrote: »

The US military uses quite a number of Apple computers. And "big security sectors" quite often use Mac OS X servers. When governments are after new computer systems, they go with the lowest bidder, which explains why government computer systems are so often totally crap. Personally, I'd much rather see governments using an open source OS like Linux, but that's another matter.

Interesting that I say security and military and you automatically assume I was talking about Governments. :rolleyes:

I was actually thinking about the private sector. Every secure military centric and security approved company I've ever been in I've never seen a mac.

Nothing to do with PC vs Mac (don't know why mac fanatics always assume that as well when you say something anti mac fanatic). So I quite agree about not wanting to see a mac vs pc thread, but since I'm not the one specifically bringing in PC (I assume you mean of Wintel variety) then I'm not really the one turning this into a "vs" thread. Read my post, you'll see my only mention of "PC" was in the context of "Linux PC", which was merely an example.

Marty_J

superscaper wrote: »

Interesting that I say security and military and you automatically assume I was talking about Governments. :rolleyes:

I did say that the US military uses Macs, so it's not really that interesting...lol. It has purchased 20,000 of them in a effort to increase the security of its networks.

I was actually thinking about the private sector. Every secure military centric and security approved company I've ever been in I've never seen a mac.

Well I guess you'd have to ask them the reasons for that, and there could be a number outside the inherent security of the system. Is there an OS X variant of the software they use for instance? Are Mac drivers available for the hardware they need? And cost is always going to be a factor in any organisation or company's reasoning, and we both know that Macs are much more expensive than PCs.

Nothing to do with PC vs Mac (don't know why mac fanatics always assume that as well when you say something anti mac fanatic). So I quite agree about not wanting to see a mac vs pc thread, but since I'm not the one specifically bringing in PC (I assume you mean of Wintel variety) then I'm not really the one turning this into a "vs" thread. Read my post, you'll see my only mention of "PC" was in the context of "Linux PC", which was merely an example.

Sorry, I just assumed you used Windows and so I interpreted your original comments with reference to Windows. Apologies if that isn't the case.

theloft

littlechickpea wrote: »

OK now I'm confused....
I have AVG free edition already and its been telling me that it runs out and I have to upgrade to AVG 8.0. So, can I download an update, or do I need to download a new version entirely (like do I delete the old one?)? Sorry this techie stuff confuses me.

Why don't you delete the old version anyway, it only takes a few minutes and then follow the link provided by superscaper to download the new version. To uninstall, go to Control Panel, install/uninstall programs, highlight AVG and delete. If you want to try something else, I use Avast Anti-virus which is good and also free to use.

Download from here:- http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/"

Art_2

theloft wrote: »

Why don't you delete the old version anyway, it only takes a few minutes and then follow the link provided by superscaper to download the new version. To uninstall, go to Control Panel, install/uninstall programs, highlight AVG and delete. If you want to try something else, I use Avast Anti-virus which is good and also free to use.

Download from here:- http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/"

If you download AVG version 8 it will automatically remove the older version when it is installing.

Regards,
Art.

mil0xx0

AVG

moneymass

It's been a mix over the years

Hardware and/or Software Firewalls, router (if not counted as hw firewall), antivirus&malware when on Windows, sandboxed-style browsers etc

Probably been mentioned but imo the most important security aspects are

1. Correctly configured firewall
2. Apply OS and other application patches
3. Don't use admin accounts for daily use
4. Education/common sense - don't click on/open/download everything and anything you see. Humans are nearly always the weakest link in security

Although I have an AV and malware detection software I rarely run it and havn't had a problem in a longg time.

top.position

JasonW wrote: »

Working in IT and working on security issues at work, other areas of the puter and network are tied down, but using a Linksys router with built-in firewall, and Norton Antivirus Corporate version.

Occasionally run Hijack this, sybot and adaware.

Tips are:
Ditch internet explorer completely
Use advert and flash blocking plugins
Turn off scripting, except for sites that are trusted - another browser handles these sites, to save turning it off and on
HOSTS file with more than 15,000 entries to block/redirect known nasty and ad-serving sites
Useless services disabled
Weekly backups of important stuff onto DVD
'Now and then' backups of files onto spare 200Gb hard drive that dont change much, but dont want to lose - music, movies, pictures.

I dont agree with tons of software running at one time, and just make sure everything is running as it should. Use various tools to check any compromises, and having been clean for a good 18 months, removed all software apart from norton

J

Personally I use Mac OS X patched to the latest version (10.3.9, 10.4.11 and 10.5.3) on three different machines of different ages. Comes with its own firewall (better in 10.4 than 10.5 - bizarre).

Backup home folder daily at 0630 to online backup server.
WPA-PSK on my wireless router, NAT firewall ditto.

Browser with javascript and ad blocking plug-ins (Firefox)
No anti virus, no anti spyware

chris667

Puppy Linux, with it's own firewall, and common sense.
Our work computer has lots of sensitive data on it so is not connected to the web at all, but to secure our Windows laptop which is we use XP's own firewall, AVG (which we will be replacing with Kaspersky) and SpyBot.
Incidentally, I'm not meaning to sound insulting/patronising when I say about the common sense bit - I just put the link up to try and help.

buglawton

Even people who exercise common sense all the time sometimes get busy and their fingers do the clicking slightly ahead of brain. This is where (hopefully) good anti virus and firewall software might save your bacon.

jeff1969

Hi,

I use AVG v8 for virus scanning/adware etc, used to use adaware/spybot but changed when I knew that I had been hijacked by a piece of software.

Now I use SuperAntiSpyware which is free and was able to remove the hijacking software that neither adaware or spybot would detect or remove.

Also use Comodo firewall.

Regards