Avoid Malware – Modify Your Instinctive Behavior

One of the keys to the success of the web is; it can satisfy our curiosity about almost anything we can think of.

Over time we have learned to satisfy this curiosity simply by a mouse click here, and a mouse click there. In a sense, we have developed a conditioned response to “just click”.

The reality is, we are all pretty curious creatures and knowing this cyber crooks are now exploiting our natural curiosity relying, more and more, on this aspect of social engineering to create an opportunity designed to drop malicious code, including rootkits, password stealers, Trojan horses, and spam bots on our computers.

So in a real sense then, it may well be our instinctive human responses that pose the biggest risk to our online safety and security. Our curiosity coupled with our conditioned responses can often override our common sense, so it’s not unusual that many people will open an email attachment despite knowing that the attachment could be a virus, or other form of malware.

Security experts agree that a significant number of malware infections could be avoided if users stopped opening the types of files that are clearly dangerous. To this point however, this type of dangerous behavior continues despite the warnings.

As part of the Tech community I am aware that many Techies are disdainful of AV solution software but instead, they rely on their own experiences and common sense to avoid malware infections. They are well aware of the hidden dangers on the Internet and they have overcome that natural tendency to “just click”.

Think like a Techie and be aware of the following security risks on the Internet:

• Trojan horse programs
• Back door and remote administration programs
• Denial of service
• Being an intermediary for another attack
• Unprotected Window shares
• Mobile code (Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX)
• Cross-site scripting
• Email spoofing
• Email-borne viruses
• Hidden file extensions
• Chat clients
• Packet sniffing

Act like a Techie and review the following actions you can take to protect your Internet connected computer system:

• Install an Internet Browser add-on such as WOT (my personal favorite), which provides detailed test results on a site’s safety; protecting you from security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser exploits, and online scams.
• Don’t open unknown email attachments
• Don’t run programs of unknown origin
• Disable hidden filename extensions
• Keep all applications (including your operating system) patched
• Turn off your computer or disconnect from the network when not in use
• Disable Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX if possible
• Disable scripting features in email programs
• Make regular backups of critical data
• Make a boot disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised
• Turn off file and printer sharing on the computer.
• Install a personal firewall on the computer.
• Install anti-virus and anti-spyware software and ensure it is configured to automatically update when you are connected to the Internet.
• Ensure the anti-virus software scans all e-mail attachments.