Increase Internet Security With These Tips
Browsing the Internet can be fun and entertaining and also informative. The Internet is still a large and vast area of untapped information and continues to grow daily. While there is a very large amount of information and entertainment to be gleaned from the Internet, there are also those who use the Internet for their own ill-gotten gains. It takes more than the usual pieces of advice such as keeping your antivirus applications up to date, apply all patches to your operating system and third-party applications, and being careful where you roam while you are on the Internet. It also takes a little bit more than resisting and staying away from spam e-mails, links that have hidden Trojan viruses behind them, and stay away from phishing websites.
There are advanced techniques you can use to keep yourself safe. One of them is to avoid JavaScript, especially if it exists on a website you are unsure of and do not trust. While JavaScript works in pretty much every browser you can use and allows the Internet and websites to provide a much more dynamic experience, it also allows cyber criminals to fool your browser into performing an action it should not execute. Any action from instructing your browser to load a component from a different website all the way up to providing a Web attacker a method to impersonate you or someone else on a real and legitimate website is very possible. Facebook, for example, are known for scammers who set up fake Facebook pages and offer cash or gift cards if you take their code and place it in your URL address bar. A security researcher who works for Sunbelt Software, Chris Boyd, said, “Scammers use this technique to initiate undesired surveys, fill your social networking profiles with lots of spam or even divert you to phishing pages.”
JavaScript also resides on webpages that have malicious intent or have been hacked. Firefox has a plug-in named NoScript that will allow you control over which websites will or will not execute JavaScript within the browser. By preventing scripting and then utilizing NoScript you can create a white list of websites you trust, thereby mitigating a majority of the drive-by web attacks that occur on the Internet. NoScript also contains some a feature called a cross site scripting blocker. Cross site scripting is being used more and more by hackers to gain control of various online accounts including YouTube and Facebook. Many other browsers also allow you to disable JavaScript. Browsers such as Safari and Internet Explorer that does not have a NoScript feature will allow you to adjust various security settings that will display an alert before scripting happens.
JavaScript also appears in Adobe Reader and can be disabled as well. Symantec estimates in the previous year approximately half of all attacks that were web-based were linked to malware PDF files. By changing the settings that make it difficult for PDF files to run JavaScript you can put a stop to most of these type of attacks. Of course by turning off JavaScript you lose the convenience of running movies, animations, and dynamic websites. In this case you still have the option to turn JavaScript on or off as needed.
Another method to follow is staying away from the many offers of advertisements stating they will rid your computer system of the many infections and viruses they have detected. By allowing these sites to supposedly scan your system, they tell you they have located many more problems and offer to fix the situation for you. This is a classic case of rogue antivirus software. The more you resist the more windows that pop up on the screen telling you the infection is rampant. To protect yourself, do not purchase their software as is a ruse to get you to install more malware that you didn't have in the first place. The easiest way to get away from the continuing pop-up windows is to either close your browser, use your operating system's task manager to close your browser, or rebooting your system.
You can also resist using applications that cyber criminals love to hit the most. Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word do not contain the strongest security features. By using other applications that perform the same functionality you can still get the job done in case you come across a file you do not trust as being safe. By using the software application OpenOffice or Foxit Reader to open suspicious document or PDF files, you stand a better chance of remaining safe in case the file in question is malicious. You do not have to use these applications on a continuous basis, but it is always good to have a secondary plan just in case you have a bad feeling or question about a file.
There are services that exist that can help you safely open a file. Google has an approach where you can forward a file attachment to a Gmail address and allow the filters built within Google to scan the attachment for you. If it is a good file Google will let you convert the document and open it within Google docs to read its contents. There is also a free service called Virustotal that will scan your file using over 40 antivirus engines. If a file has been discovered to be malicious Virustotal will alert you.
You should always use applications that are up to date and contained the most recent fixes and security patches. You should also clean your hard drive and system for programs you no longer use it as they have aged and probably do not contain the latest security fixes. Not to mention you could probably use the extra hard drive space. There are many tools and utilities that exist that will scan your system and determine how many applications are out of date and need the latest revisions.
Hackers know that many people cannot remember a large number of passwords, therefore many people use the same password in many locations. Once a hacker is successful by using a phishing attack to steal your username and password they now have the ability to use that same combination on other popular sites you may visit. There are many password management utilities that exist that would help you keep track of a variety of passwords. Utilizing good password creation and passwords that extremely difficult to guess, hack, or re-create is also a very good practice.
CISSP training and certification training in the area of information security should be a necessity of all organizations seeking to strengthen their infrastructure defenses. K Alliance is an strong resource of information security certification training.
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