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Some basic steps for computer safety
10 October 2005
We’re all concerned about online security and safety, but sometimes we take our most commonly used tools for granted.
Take, for example, Internet Explorer – that ubiquitous browser. IE accounts for 80-90 per cent of the world’s web browsing, but for the most part it’s used as-is. Few people take the time to delve into the bowels of Explorer and use its capabilities and options.
Because of the way the Net works, a lot of unseen data gets downloaded to and uploaded from your computer. In part this is through “cookies” – passive data transfers that tell the Web site when you last visited, what page you last surfed, your account status, that sort of thing. Cookies are, for the most part, not security risks. They may be information gatherers – those ad sites and special offer pop-up pages send back information about how often you activate them – but they’re not designed to transfer significantly private information.
A lot more sensitive information that you put there is collected and stored on your hard drive.
Do you use that convenient “auto-complete” service in IE? The one that lets you type a few characters and the fields or addresses are automatically filled out? If so, you are storing not only your user name but your password on your system – and that information might be available to malware and viruses. This data becomes especially vulnerable if you use shared or public computer systems.
As a good practice, I clear out the caches of stored information in IE at least weekly, on all computers I use. This makes sure that if my security is breached, my entire list of user names, passwords, access codes and other personal data is not available.
To do this yourself, select the Tools menu in IE and then click Internet Options. This brings up a dialogue box with several selections that you can use to define your security level.
On the first screen, under temporary Internet files, there are buttons to delete files and cookies. It’s a good idea to clear out both at least weekly in order to prevent cache overflow. If you’ve ever experienced the problem where all images save as “unknown.bmp” then you’ve reached the overflow wall. Delete files, close and reload IE, and this should correct itself.
Deleting files will also clear out the temporary directories of PDF or image files you looked at or opened. You can see what files and objects (usually programming code snippets) are stored by selecting Settings, then viewing the relevant files.
Deleting cookies here will only delete those transient cookies; cookies from sites where you have accounts, forums where you regularly log in, are stored elsewhere.
You can also set and clear the history here. The record of which web sites you last visited may be useful for auto-complete, but it’s better to store frequently visited sites in your favourites directory. Clear this list out so there are no records of where you’ve been in the last 20 or so days.
Auto-complete is useful, but fraught with danger: data you enter into form fields – including passwords – is stored on your computer. Select Content at the top of the dialogue box, then Autocomplete at the bottom of that screen. You have the option of storing Web addresses (the default is on) and form data here. Both are useful, but to make sure IE doesn’t keep records, click the Clear Forms and Clear Passwords buttons to make sure the cache is empty. Do this regularly.
Under the Security tab, you’ll have the ability controls what pages or programs are allowed. This doesn’t give a lot of security, but you can set the defaults to require approval to download ActiveX controls – recommended, since these may contain spyware or even viruses.
There’s also a Privacy tab that lets you set the level of cookie acceptance – selecting medium or higher is what I recommend. Don’t use anything lower than medium since it may compromise your computer security.
Of course, these tools are only part of a comprehensive security package every online user should have.
You still need to run anti-virus software, anti-spyware and anti- spybot software, and use either a router or a software firewall to protect yourself from intrusions.
Online security is possible, but only if you actively practice safe surfing and use every tool at your disposal.
Take, for example, Internet Explorer – that ubiquitous browser. IE accounts for 80-90 per cent of the world’s web browsing, but for the most part it’s used as-is. Few people take the time to delve into the bowels of Explorer and use its capabilities and options.
Because of the way the Net works, a lot of unseen data gets downloaded to and uploaded from your computer. In part this is through “cookies” – passive data transfers that tell the Web site when you last visited, what page you last surfed, your account status, that sort of thing. Cookies are, for the most part, not security risks. They may be information gatherers – those ad sites and special offer pop-up pages send back information about how often you activate them – but they’re not designed to transfer significantly private information.
A lot more sensitive information that you put there is collected and stored on your hard drive.
Do you use that convenient “auto-complete” service in IE? The one that lets you type a few characters and the fields or addresses are automatically filled out? If so, you are storing not only your user name but your password on your system – and that information might be available to malware and viruses. This data becomes especially vulnerable if you use shared or public computer systems.
As a good practice, I clear out the caches of stored information in IE at least weekly, on all computers I use. This makes sure that if my security is breached, my entire list of user names, passwords, access codes and other personal data is not available.
To do this yourself, select the Tools menu in IE and then click Internet Options. This brings up a dialogue box with several selections that you can use to define your security level.
On the first screen, under temporary Internet files, there are buttons to delete files and cookies. It’s a good idea to clear out both at least weekly in order to prevent cache overflow. If you’ve ever experienced the problem where all images save as “unknown.bmp” then you’ve reached the overflow wall. Delete files, close and reload IE, and this should correct itself.
Deleting files will also clear out the temporary directories of PDF or image files you looked at or opened. You can see what files and objects (usually programming code snippets) are stored by selecting Settings, then viewing the relevant files.
Deleting cookies here will only delete those transient cookies; cookies from sites where you have accounts, forums where you regularly log in, are stored elsewhere.
You can also set and clear the history here. The record of which web sites you last visited may be useful for auto-complete, but it’s better to store frequently visited sites in your favourites directory. Clear this list out so there are no records of where you’ve been in the last 20 or so days.
Auto-complete is useful, but fraught with danger: data you enter into form fields – including passwords – is stored on your computer. Select Content at the top of the dialogue box, then Autocomplete at the bottom of that screen. You have the option of storing Web addresses (the default is on) and form data here. Both are useful, but to make sure IE doesn’t keep records, click the Clear Forms and Clear Passwords buttons to make sure the cache is empty. Do this regularly.
Under the Security tab, you’ll have the ability controls what pages or programs are allowed. This doesn’t give a lot of security, but you can set the defaults to require approval to download ActiveX controls – recommended, since these may contain spyware or even viruses.
There’s also a Privacy tab that lets you set the level of cookie acceptance – selecting medium or higher is what I recommend. Don’t use anything lower than medium since it may compromise your computer security.
Of course, these tools are only part of a comprehensive security package every online user should have.
You still need to run anti-virus software, anti-spyware and anti- spybot software, and use either a router or a software firewall to protect yourself from intrusions.
Online security is possible, but only if you actively practice safe surfing and use every tool at your disposal.
