How to keep personal computers safe?? If you are an activist??

[truedelphi]

It happens to me quite a lot - I look into my email and there is a message from some group that
seems like they are probably right up my alley. (often an election reform group)

They want me to help them by registering as a member... I attempt to check them out to see if they are legitimate.

But let's face it - there are so many environmental groups out there, so many anti-election fraud, pro-election reform groups. Who really is who??

I am now very reluctant to join any that I don't match up with known entities - But probably by now i already subscribe to some group that is just waiting to hack me with a virus.

SO let's say that I know that the Society for the Protection of Rainforests is legitimate, but the Society for Rainforest Protction is not. <These are hypothetical groups - don't know if either one even exists>

And I subscribe to the wrong one... And they are savvy enough to even put out a (mostly palgiarized) bi-weekly email on the topic of Rainforests.

Is clicking on the monthly click and pasted in email enough to endanger my computer?

Or am I safe as long as I open no attachments?

I am posting this here because I figure there are now quite a few election reform experts who may also be knowledgeable about how one should and can keep one's computer safe.

(I do have a wonderful virus-worm-trojan horse and firewall in place, but I still worry)

[TygrBright]

1. I'm not an election-reform activist, but...

...I would suggest you get a detachable, extra-large, external hard drive or two with a cloning program to run backups. Run them regularly, every few days, and keep swapping the drives. Keep one drive on safe premises other than where your computer lives. Keep copies of your software license certificates and/or original software disks there, too.

Then if someone really hoses you, you can dump and/or replace the corrupted HD and reconstitute your files from a backup.

obviously,
Bright

[truedelphi]

4. Sounds very sensible. I will look into this n/t

[AndyA]

2. You need to be careful about clicking on links in E-mails.

Do you have antivirus on your computer? That's your first line of defense. Get it and keep it current with updates. Also, change the settings on your computer to make it more difficult for programs to just download without your permission.

There is a lot of information about securing your computer. Search for it, locate a reputable site then follow their advice.

[truedelphi]

3. Didn't know just clicking on a link could hurt my computer

Can someone infiltrate a legitimate group through hacking into their website and then put a
"hack" of some kind into the link?

So in other words -even if I only subscribe to legitimate groups - can there be worms and other nasties there?

[AndyA]

6. When you click on a link, if your computer isn't set up to defend itself

you can give that site permission to download all kinds of nasty things. And the links can be disguised in E-mails so they don't really go where they say they're going. For instance, a link that looks like it goes to eBay could really go to a different site.

The people that do this are very sneaky, so you have to be very wary about clicking on links. Google is now popping up advisories for sites in their search results that could be harmful, they recommend you don't go to that site. So, the problem seems to be getting worse rather than better.

The computer group, suggested by another DUer below, would be a great place to start.

[galloglas]

8. T-D, you can

get a combination pack of FireWall and AntiVirus and stay relatively safe.

Also use Google to search for "Adware Exterminators", like Ad-Aware and SpyBot (both are free.

The Firewall and Virus protection can be got cheaply at some of the electronic stores (Best Buy, Office Depot, etc.) or online. Some of them can be gotten online, and downloaded (I think some are still free).

You can "Google" for the term "Software Security Programs".

Give it at try. Getting busted up by Trojans, worms, spyware, etc, is not worth the hassle.

Or, if you do have an electronics store around you, check and see if you can land a cheap router. ($40 to $60 bucks) That will also keep ypu pretty well safe.

[nicknameless]

5. You might want to ask these guys:

The "Computer Help and Support Group" forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=242

Good luck

[unc70]

7. You can't be safe; maybe a little safer. None of us! Sorry.

I am a computer expert (40+ years) and I am the bearer of bad news. I can set up your mail so that it will be really safe, but it requires blocking almost everything except plain text (and maybe de-fanged HTML). I use such a limited-feature mail reader myself (pine under Linux) for most things. I can manually extract an attachment in most cases.

If you use a Mozilla-based system (e.g. seamonkey) and disable almost everything, you can be relatively save while reading your email: no images, external links, JavaScript, Java, install on demand, and absolutely no SWF/Flash/PDF. This is true for Windows, Linux, Mac.


Of course, do all the other high-lockdown things (spam handling, anti-virus, firewall, spyware cleaners ), don't use an account with administrator privs; disable all the services you don't need (web host, remote management, file sharing); stay up to date with patches, virus definitions and such, including ones you might haved missed because you have to manually download them from the vendor's site); configure your wireless to only connect to networks that you explicitly allow and which have strong encryption and private keys, disable peer-to-peer, auto connect, default networks, etc. and then never connect to a hotspot, cafe, or hotel wireless system; use a hardware firewall (linksys, dlink) between your system and anything else on your network and monitor its logs.

Consider using a minimal web browser such as w3m or links. If you won't do that, at least use flashblock. Don't use Internet Explorer or Outlook.

Be aware that anything plugged into your USB port, IR port, or similar connection can hijack your system -- cameras, phones, portable music. Same goes for removable media: CD, DVD, diskette.

For some help detecting problems and improving your security, www.spywareinfo.com is a good starting point. That site also has forums where volunteers will help you cleanup an infected system.

If you are not scared enough yet, consider that we are starting to see pre-infected hardware components -- disk drive, graphic board, networking card. I will not discuss some even-worse threats. Remember they have successfully hijacked the State Department and the Naval War College in the last six months.

[galloglas]

9. TrueDelphi, are you a country boy or a city boy?

And what kind of Internet Provider do you use do you use?

I think SBCGlobal can provide that protection for you. PM me if you have some questions