Police Download Report

Ten Tips to Preventing Spyware and Spam

by Dennis Moran

Many people have discovered this site while searching for anti-spyware products such as “P.C. Police”. (P.C. Police actually contains spyware itself!) Sadly the major search engines are useless for finding reputable information on keeping Microsoft Windows free of spyware, adware, and viruses. We’ve decided to give you ten tips for preventing spyware and other malware from infecting your Windows operating system.

1. Install Firefox
   
   

   
   Experts agree, it’s time to ditch Internet Explorer. It currently has the largest market share of all web browsers, making it the most attractive target for malware authors because they get the most bang for the buck. Internet Explorer also comes with Microsoft Windows, so those who are least aware of computer security issues and most likely to easily become a victim are not going to have installed an alternative browser. Mozilla Firefox has the second largest web browser market share, and is completely free and open source, yet has an excellent security track record in comparison to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The first thing any Internet user should download is Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer should only be used by web developers for testing purposes or for that increasingly rare website that is IE-only.
   

   
   
2. Install Anti-Virus Software
   
   

   
   Many computers come with a one year subscription to commercial anti-virus software from vendors like Symantec or McAfee. Many universities and corporations have site licenses that allow (or even mandate) students or employees install anti-virus software before using the campus or corporate network, so check with your system administrators or helpdesk to see if this is available to you. If your anti-virus subscription ran out and you aren’t covered by an academic or corporate site license, there are free alternatives to the more popular Symantec and McAfee products. My personal recommendation is a commercial product with a free version, AVG Anti-Virus Free by Grisoft, Inc. The free version has automatic virus definition updates and there is no need to pay for a yearly subscription service.
   

   
   
   
   
   AVG Anti-Virus Free by Grisoft, Inc
   
   
   
3. Use Anti-Spyware Software Regularly
   
   

   
   Surprised this isn’t tip number 1? Well, if you follow the first two tips you’re a lot less likely to even need to follow this step. There are three free anti-spyware software packages that are worth the effort to download, install, and use regularly. It’s essential to use all three, as each one will not detect or prevent a large percentage of the malware found in the wild. They’re all constantly playing catch-up, so using all three simultaneously will result in near perfect detection and removal. Download and use Spybot – Search & Destroy (funny title, eh?), Microsoft Windows Defender, and Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal which is included in Google Pack. Make sure to run their spyware definitions updates regularly, and scan your system and remove/fix all the problems they find as often as you possibly can. If you already find yourself a victim of some nasty spyware that none of these programs seem to want to remove, download HijackThis and search Google for “HijackThis spyware forums” to find someone who will help you remove whatever your computer has been infected with.
   

   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Don’t Use Microsoft Outlook
   
   

   
   Yes, I have a strong anti-Microsoft bias. However, I’ve also never been infected with spyware. Microsoft’s products have possibly the worst security track record in the history of computer software. They definitely have the worst track record when it comes to actively exploited security vulnerabilities – hackers don’t seem to target most other vendors to the degree they do Microsoft. Instead of using Microsoft Outlook, if you want a quality IMAP/POP3 e-mail client, why not try Mozilla Thunderbird or in the near future, Mozilla Penelope which is an open source release of the popular commercial e-mail client Eudora. You could also try the e-mail client that comes with the Opera web browser, as I’ve heard excellent things about that particular client.
   

   
   
5. Install McAfee SiteAdvisor
   
   

   
   McAfee SiteAdvisor is a new free service started by a group of MIT engineers and funded by McAfee, Inc. My sister found this one for me and I’ve been using it for a little while. It gives you a visual indication of whether or not a site is likely to infect your system with spyware, send you spam if you register or sign-up with the site, and gives details about the spyware/spam issues found on the site. In the bottom right-hand corner of your browser you’ll see a green traffic light if you have nothing to worry about. If it’s yellow, red, or grey, you’ll probably want to click on the light to get more details. This can be a life saver if you’re the type of person who has a hard time determining whether or not the site your browsing seems trustworthy.
   

   
   
6. Use Bugmenot to login to websites
   
   

   
   Stop using your real e-mail address to register for access to free content online. Either drag this Bugmenot Bookmarklet link to your browser’s Toolbar, or visit Bugmenot‘s website to install a Firefox extension that gives you right-click contextual access on login forms. If you just want to view content, you should not have to give out your e-mail address. In most cases this leads to your e-mail address either directly being spammed by the owners of the site you registered with, or that address eventually being sold to third party marketers.
   

   
   
7. Avoid free giveaways and contests
   
   

   
   
   Have you ever signed up for a free giveaway, only to be disappointed when you were never able to receive the prize originally offered? Well get used to it! On the internet, if someone is offering you free cash, PlayStations, ringtones, porn, plane tickets, etc. then they’re almost certainly lying to you. There will be layer upon layer of requirements and fine print that explain why their offer is technically false advertising. But before you discover that the offer isn’t what they advertised, they’ve grabbed your e-mail address or infected you with spyware and sold your personal information to shady marketers. If you want free stuff and amazing savings, try legitimate sites like RetailMeNot.com or Slickdeals.net. These are run more democratically, by users, instead of run by people trying to make money off of you.
   
   

   
   
8. Enable Windows Firewall and Automatic Updates
   
   

   
   This tip is pretty boring and should be common sense, but apparently not everyone does this. Click on your Start Menu, open up your Control Panel, then open up Security Center. Firewall, Automatic Updates, and Virus Protection should all be listed as ON. If they aren’t, click on them and follow the instructions and do something about it. Don’t come back until all three of them say ON.
   

   
   
9. Use gaim or Trillian for instant messaging
   
   

   
   gaim is a free, open source instant messaging application that supports all the major IM networks (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, jabber). It also has plugins that allow military grade encryption to keep your conversations on the down low. I absolutely adore gaim and if you want perfect forward secrecy and plausible deniability with your securely encrypted IM conversations, you should download Off-the-Record Messaging to go along with gaim. The very popular MacOS IM client AdiumX also supports Off-the-Record out of the box, so you’ll have automatic secure communications with those Mac users who turn the feature on.
   

   
   

   
   If gaim’s interface is not friendly enough for you, then your second best choice would be Trillian, a free commercial IM client. It also supports all the major IM networks, and also has proprietary encryption that is not very cryptographically useful but will make your conversations invisible to Echelon/Carnivore type electronic surveillance.
   

   
   
10. Use Soulseek and uTorrent for file sharing
    
    

    
    Avoid all of the more prevalent p2p networks, they’ve become havens of malware and spam as well as targets of the RIAA and MPAA. There are only two pieces of software you need for file sharing these days. First is SoulSeek, which is a wonderful community of music lovers who like to share their music and discover new music. Use this to find any mp3 files you’re looking for. Second is µTorrent, the best BitTorrent client for Windows ever created. If you don’t know what BitTorrent is or how to find or use .torrent files, just search Google for “torrent” and you’ll find all the answers to your questions. Now that you have these two pieces of software, stay away from crap like Kazaa, WinMX, eDonkey, Morpheus, Bearshare, Limewire, Gnutella, and iMesh.