7. Beyond Basics

If you’ve read though this guide all the way to this point, congratulations! You are now better educated and more prepared in computer security matters than probably 90% of your friends.

If your head is reeling and you just want to get back to using your computer, then stop here. But if you want to take it to the next level, and become proactive in helping to change the status quo of computer security, then please read on.

Educate Yourself

After reading this guide, you are no longer a friend of spammers or virus writers. You now know how to clean and defend your computer from attacks. But why not take it to the next level and become an enemy of the enemy?

For example, learn more about e-mail and how spammers send spam, and you can make their lives much more difficult. Learn how to obfuscate e-mail addresses on Web pages so they can’t be harvested by spam-bots.

Learn the tell-tale signs of e-mail hoaxes and where to go if you aren’t sure. Learn why forwarding e-mail jokes and “cute” things like that aid spammers and harm your friends and yourself.

Constant Vigilance

Most computers have pretty extensive logging capabilities. By default, most Windows systems come with the logs disabled. They are easy to turn on, and doing so helps you learn about the health of your system as well as unusual situations. System logs are one of the best ways to predict hard drive or other hardware failures. Security logs help you detect attacks against your system. The logs can also help you figure out why things suddenly crash or lock up.

Status lights usually aren’t all that interesting, but if your normally calm modem panel suddenly lights up with a lot of activity and you aren’t doing anything unusual, it’s a strong indicator of a potential problem.

A lot of time computer operators know what their computer “feels” like when it’s running well. Unfortunately, most people wait a long time after “feeling” their computer isn’t running “right” to report or investigate issues. The sooner you can identify a problem, the less damage you are likely to suffer.

Set Traps

How good is your firewall? Do you know? Using intrusion detection systems (IDS) you can find out. Whether it’s a decoy server (a “honeypot”) designed to catch hackers in the act, or if it is a system that detects unusual network activity, it’s a great idea to have some software or hardware to monitor these things. It will usually give you early warning that an attack is coming and where your weaknesses are.

Having advanced notice allows you to tack the efforts of the would-be hacker and notify authorities so they have a really good chance of catching the perpetrator.

Attack Back

If you detect a scam, report it! The FBI and FTC want to know about scams that are being perpetrated on the Internet, and the more details you can give them, the more likely they are to be able to prosecute and send the perpetrator to jail.

If you receive spam, take the time to see if you can detect where the e-mail originated and report the offense to the spammer’s ISP.

If someone sends you a chain e-mail with 100s of e-mail address at the beginning of the e-mail, tell the person that you are upset and do not want to be included in future e-mails from them. Better yet, educate them on proper netiquette and how to use the BCC: function to suppress e-mail addresses.

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