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According to a report
on the 2002 General Household Survey, more than half of all
households in Britain have a home computer (54%). The vast
majority are running Microsoft Windows of one flavour or another
- depending on the age of the machine(s) in question. Not
so long ago, "Are you on the Internet?" was
a common question between owners of PCs. Not any more. Internet-less
home users are an endangered species; we are now taking the
Internet for granted in many ways, and rightly so ~ it is
an amazing communication entity, effectively shrinking the
world and providing pretty much any information you care to
look up about virtually anything. (Whether that information
is accurate is another matter!)
So, most home PCs now have Internet access, some with modem
dial-up connections, some with the faster alternatives such
as broadband ADSL, ISDN or cable. Since the Internet 'took
off' some 10 years ago, Microsoft have always had a strategy
of patching holes ('vulnerabilities') in their operating system
to supposedly fix potential problems that arise from an Internet
connection. Being online means that your computer connects
into a network of hundreds of millions of other computers,
and potentially allows other computers to hook directly (or
indirectly) into yours. Unfortunately, and especially in the
last couple of years, the time between the discovery of a
Windows vulnerability and its fix (patch) has been exploited
by dubious groups and individuals (from various countries)
to release email attachments which effectively* self-propagate
across the Internet at an alarming rate. Businesses are generally
well aware of the security issues, and most have procedures
in place to help stay one step ahead of the threats. But many
domestic users are not only not fully aware of the
issues, but they have no idea that their own systems may contribute
to the spread of non-ethical software by acting as 'bots'
or relays which assist the propagation to other similarly
vulnerable machines. (* - Most Internet worms require user
interaction to infect the PC on which it has been downloaded,
but this is not always the case. Malicious/dubious/suspect
software can also be downloaded quietly in the background,
without any action on your part, from certain web sites.)
This connectivity exposes the possibility of a variety
of problems in terms of security of data, and the integrity
of your computer. Everyone who has a computer has heard of
the computer virus, or the Internet worm, or
Trojan, as well as being aware of some of the more
publicised activities of hackers. There is also a certain
amount of awareness about the defence mechanisms available
to maintain a secure system, namely Anti-virus and Firewall
software. The problem is that having such a piece of software
installed on your system is not enough in itself. They need
to be kept up to date on a regular basis. The software designers
have thoughtfully allowed for this by including automatic
schedulers which routinely update your system for you. However,
there are two main problems associated with this:
- There are often many options for these schedulers, and
unless there is a good understanding of the way they work,
they may not always be as effective as you think;
- New Internet worms and 'viruses' which arise 'in the
field' are increasingly likely to disable either your Internet
security software schedulers, or the 'on-access' scanners
and firewall, or both, introducing subtle and not-so-subtle
bugs and performance degradation for no apparent reason.
Understanding this type of software - the necessary
concepts and the operating functionality - will help resolve
the effects of the false sense of security which often arise
simply because someone knows their computer has anti-virus
or firewall software installed. What is the point of paying
someone to come in and fix your PC, to purge it of electronic
infection, only to find the same thing happens a month later?
TechScope will certainly clean up your system,
but will also help you to understand how to keep on top of
the daily and weekly tasks and checks required to maintain
a system's defences. This process can also be taken further
with formal personal tuition, at hours that suit you,
and at a progressive pace commensurate with your current knowledge.
(See the Tuition pages for further
details.)
TechScope does not specifically endorse any
particular software product. Whatever you have available,
as long as it is appropriate to your system's integrity, we
can utilise it to the best effect possible. However, if you
are lacking the necessary software, or what you have is simply
out of date for your system, we will be pleased to advise
on the alternatives, explaining the differences as perceived
from the point of view of experience. You can obtain this
software yourself, or ask us to order it on your behalf. There
are pros and cons to all such software, but awareness
is still the key to maintaining control and providing confidence.
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