Ten Commandments

[FreewheelinFrank]

Just a little something to keep in mind, going into the new year.

   1. Thou shalt not buy merchandise found in pop-up ads or spam.
   2. Thou shalt not post thy email address, phone number, address or social security number to the internet, nor shalt thou post anyone else's.
   3. Thou shalt not forget to update thy Windows every second Tuesday.
   4. Thou shalt not connect to the internet without installing an antivirus, nor shalt thou begin a scan without checking for updates.
   5. Thou shalt not connect to the internet without installing a firewall.
   6. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's credit card number, nor his bank routing number, nor his social security number.
   7. Thou shalt not enter thy credit card number without seeing the tiny padlock icon on thy status bar.
   8. Thou shalt not reply to the email from the Nigerian banker.
   9. Thou shalt not forward chain letters to thy friends and family.
  10. Thou shalt not use "password" as thy password, nor thy birthday, nor thy children's names.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/archives/2005/dec10.php#tenlaws

Else thou shalt verily be smitten by calamity:

[.: Mac :.]

oh and the 11th Commandment:

Thy shalt only use Mac OS X

[szc]

Bump...

Our Mac is trying to sell their OS again...     

[DavidR]

No, the 11th Commandment (or earlier) is don't browse, read email or use any program connect to the internet whilst logged on as a user with Administrator Rights (unless it is an absolute requirement, like windows update, etc.).

Whilst browsing or collecting email, etc. if you get infected then the malware by default inherits the same permissions that you have for your user account. So if the user account has administrator rights, the malware has administrator rights and can reap havoc. With limited rights the malware can't put files in the system folders, create registry entries, etc. This greatly reduces the potential harm that can be done by an undetected or first day virus, etc.

Check out the link to DropMyRights (in my signature below) - Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator. This obviously applies to those NT based OSes that have administrator settings, winNT, win2k, winXP.

[..::ReVaN::..]

Ekhhmm i feel perfectly safe as an admin user(which i am)..... My 11th Commandment would be: if you're so worried about security switch to Linux

[.: Mac :.]

Revan, Linux is great but some users here might not be quite advaned enough to know how to compile their own programs.

Sasha: Yea im trying

[..::ReVaN::..]

Revan, Linux is great but some users here might not be quite advaned enough to know how to compile their own programs.

Yes but you can't beat the price can you.... Besides if you don't know anything about windows or computers why not just go on linux you'll have to learn the basics in any way right?   

[DavidR]

@ revan
I'm perfectly happy as and admin user, since you know know nothing about me I find the sucker comment offensive. Hell you don't even know if I'm using Linux (dual boot) or have used Linux and chosen to use windows.

I'm sure no Linux user with any idea about security would contemplate browsing the internet whilst logged on as root. As rare as Linux malware is should the user be browsing whilst logged on as root, they would in effect be handing root privileges to any malware that did manage to get loaded.

[.: Mac :.]

Yea price is great, even better is that it works on both x86 and PowerPC systems

DavidR: Good point.

[..::ReVaN::..]

@ revan
I'm perfectly happy as and admin user, since you know know nothing about me I find the sucker comment offensive. Hell you don't even know if I'm using Linux (dual boot) or have used Linux and chosen to use windows.

I'm sure no Linux user with any idea about security would contemplate browsing the internet whilst logged on as root. As rare as Linux malware is should the user be browsing whilst logged on as root, they would in effect be handing root privileges to any malware that did manage to get loaded.

Sorry DavidR i didn't mean to call you a sucker actually i have to remove that word cause it got copy pasted(Firefox giving me some problems, don't ask)... Ofcourse you're right but if you're so paranoid about security and are not into gaming i don't see why not go to linux.You can still dual boot right?BTW i'm not buying this DropMyRights stuff for a minute.

[Lisandro]

I'm sure no Linux user with any idea about security would contemplate browsing the internet whilst logged on as root.

For sure... Dual boot, Linux never browse here as root 

[..::ReVaN::..]

I would just like to add that i am not browsing as a root in Linux and i never did Tech....David was just making a point....

[DavidR]

Not paranoid about security as you would know if you had read many of my post with Polonus, where I actually make the same point about going so far with security that it makes having a computer and accessing the internet pointless.

I'm not asking you to buy DropMyRights, have you even read the information on it and do you understand how it works?
It is a relatively simple precaution so you can continue to user your regular user account with admin rights, click on the shortcut to start the browser with limited rights, need admin rights close the program and open it normally unrestricted. No have to switch to limited user account to achieve the same thing.

[polonus]

Just a remark for FwF,

I know that "The Eleventh Commandment" is one of the better
dark strong beers on the continent, it is next to "Forbidden Fruit". OK a side remark, getting back on topic. A lot of things can be solved just using common sense, and a couple of simple security measures taken: drop your rights, update and upgrade, make your configuration secure as seen to browser and mail client, watch your passwords, analyse your surf and download tendencies. Then you have tackled a lot of first step security pitfalls.

polonus

[..::ReVaN::..]

Not paranoid about security as you would know if you had read many of my post with Polonus, where I actually make the same point about going so far with security that it makes having a computer and accessing the internet pointless.

I'm not asking you to buy DropMyRights, have you even read the information on it and do you understand how it works?
It is a relatively simple precaution so you can continue to user your regular user account with admin rights, click on the shortcut to start the browser with limited rights, need admin rights close the program and open it normally unrestricted. No have to switch to limited user account to achieve the same thing.

David yes you're right i haven't read it and i thought this meant using different accounts(i only want one account on my PC) but i will read it as soon as i catch some spare time and i'll let you know what i think about it...