Anti-Virus or Anti-People?

“Police and security services have been granted new powers to hack into personal computers without a warrant, following European Union proposals aimed at extending the use of intrusive surveillance.”(Williams, I. 2009, P. 17)

As the Internet has become a fairly high priority to most people’s everyday life’s it proves a very easy target for hackers and con artists to exploit. Although technology can be easy to use, it can also have many security problems to the unaware user. We’re now living in a world where we need to be on our guard more often. Just as you wouldn’t leave your house door open 24/7 you need to make sure the doors on your computer are locked firmly shut too.

In many cases it is often the users who believe they’re not vulnerable that often get their computers attacked. This is a foolish way of thinking as these users tend to be the one with out of date protection or simply none at all. This is something that really needs to change as any system that has weak security can affect more than just one person. For example a shared computer in a library. A user sharing data via a memory stick could easily pick up a virus from an affected computer. These types of security leaks are often not thought about and it is about time they should be.

“The attitude to virus detection and avoidance among the general population (and even among much of the specialist population of techies, too) veers between sloppy and irrational.” (Cassidy, S. 2009, P. 154)

In this article I would like to discuss with you the impact it has on society. What you can do to help prevent being attacked and also my view of security in general and what is being done about it.

The first thing to make clear is not everyone is a No1 target for being attacked. There should be a definite awareness of issues you may face offline and online. However, don’t let it lead to paranoia. Not everyone has to have a PC like fort knocks it simply needs to be protected enough. The enough being an individual preference.

For most home users an updated Firewall, Anti-Virus combined with Anti-Spyware should be sufficient. Many virus scanners incorporate the use of Spyware scanning. However one specialising in this area will add even more security.

Firstly, despite the logic DO NOT run more than one of everything. This is especially important with those that protect you in the background. It will not only take up more resources but the chances of them conflicting is quite high too. Fortunately, most applications will warn you that this is the case. If you’re still tempted, trust me it isn’t worth the hassle.

One of the biggest threats you will face as a computer user is connecting to the Internet. This opens many possibilities for obtaining a virus. If you really are concerned about your data then you should consider having a PC that is used for Internet and entertainment only. If anything nasty does hit it you may choose to simply format and start again. For data storage you could have a second PC that is locked down with no Internet use and has high quality security software. The most important thing to remember is to ensure viruses do not get transferred from PC to PC.

How much security you have will depend on your Operating System. I will not be going too much in detail in this post regarding which OS to choose. For that see my post “Striving for the perfect OS.”

As the Internet has evolved so has the form of attacks. The stereotype of a hacker sitting at a computer day and night are far from reality now. The only real intervention a hacker has is setting a single or network of computers to scan and attack vulnerable computers. The hacker is then notified once a vulnerable target has been found. Why should a human make the attack when a network of computers can do it far quicker and more effectively? The chance of an attack being “personally” at you is much more rare. That is unless you have something worth stealing such as a major corporation. The security on their networks will likely be managed by experts in the area. They also have the money to invest in much more advanced software, hardware and techniques.

*Statistics of how many attacks a year*

When you’re connected to the Internet a hacker or computer will search for vulnerable ports, imagine these as doors. All the hacker needs is a key.

What’s important to remember about hacking, viruses and other forms of attacks is that they’re intended to be silent in nature. To a frequent user they will be more apparent due to that user having a feel for how speedy or slow their PC should be at certain tasks. This comes with experience. To an occasional user they can go unmissed.

There is one area in the computing industry that can be grateful for all this chaos and exploiting peoples worst fears. That’s of course the Internet security firms.

With many security firms competing with each other to give you their protection it pays do to your research. There are of course higher respected security suites than others. It’s all down to personal choice  although you need to be fully aware  of the pitfalls that your decision may have. First and foremost you’re going to want Internet Security that you can use. If you’re not going to update and use on a regular basis then it won’t be as effective. Secondly have a look around the user forums. How are the support questions being answered? One day you may need it. Finally pay attention to reviews and user feedback. How often does the software get updated? A security suite is only as strong as its weakest link.

It is important to try and avoid being sucked in to the marketing and media of a product. All this “we have this many new features” in this version and “we can detect this many viruses” pulls away from its true purpose. It’s main purpose being in reality how well does it keep its users protected. The statistics and reports made out on the box are not necessarily thoroughly analysed. Therefore it may be able to protect against 114,000 plus viruses, what happens when a serious worldwide threat comes along tomorrow? Will the company be aware of this and updated accordingly? If the last version was so great why did it all have to be reinvented again from scratch? If it isn’t broke then don’t fix it. Is it society forcing companies to reinvent their products every year? If we don’t see a new design will we think security firms have run out of ideas?

Are we as a society impeding the development of software? Do we get what we need or just what we want? If it simply looks like it will protect us then surely it will, won’t it? The security firms not only have to deal with computer threats they also have the threat from competitors who could potentially put them out of business.

I refuse to be taken in by a cute little teddy bear on the front of a box. The only way we’re going to feel safe and secure inside is by doing our research. Nor do I want a company telling me what I need. They don’t know me personally and providing they have my money then getting to know me is not on their to do list.

I’d like to talk somewhat more in depth of the scanning of files and how viruses are identified. As a general user you may not be as safe as you think. It is important to be proactive and be aware of the shortcomings of certain Anti-Virus software.

As viruses are becoming more advanced and complex security firms have had to develop new ways to combat them. One of these methods that developed was heuristics analysis. This type of analysis has been round for many years now and plays an integral part of finding new viruses that are just released or unknown to the developers. This method can have its pitfalls and one the main reasons I wanted to mention it in this post was due to the fact that it does find false-positives. When these are detected it can leave the less experienced user panicking about how the files got there in the first place. It can be especially worrying if the user doesn’t have a backup of their work and the said file is apparently infected.

How heuristics work

Basically they analyse the file by what’s known as a “definitions” file. The definitions files are the most common parts update when you perform an update of your security software. If the definition for a virus does not exist then it simply cannot detect it. This is where heuristics come in. If you imagine virus definitions as exact postal addresses then a heuristic acts as a postal code. It cannot find and detect every new virus but it can look at existing ones and look for changes. A false-positive can occur when a heuristic analysis finds code that looks like a virus but simply isn’t.

The amount of false positives generated will simply depend on the quality of software you use. It’s likely that we will never get rid of the false-positive but the more software advances and the community develops this can be minimized.

False sense of security

For users who are new and inexperienced it can be rather off puting and even scary when thinking of security. I would say at least from my point of view the most important thing I want to hear from my Operating System is that the security is working correctly.

I’d like to see more being done about security as it is an important factor in any part of our life. Although the Government have many issues to sort out I have always wanted more to be done regarding laws and simply how people can just get away with such crimes.

Moreover it isn’t just the security aspect we have to think of it has an environmental effect too.

If we were to just look at spam and the amount of electricity that is wasted just to certain individuals who think it is a “cheap” way to gain profit. The simple matter of fact is that it is for them.

“Spam will comprise more than 95 percent of all email in 2009, despite crackdown on several major outfits in recent months, according to IT security firm Barracuda Networks.”

(Williams, I. 2009, P. 17)

The world is now making its choice in how we can help look after the environment if not for the immediate future, wasted energy is still wasted. The culprits may be harder to track and be punished for what they do however working together we can make a difference.

If I was in power I would propose that we have anti-environmental laws. If law-enforcement believes you to be wasting energy without a valid reason e.g. for personal gain then consequences will follow.

What does everyone think to this?

The Drawbacks

However trusting we may feel with major security firms, I cannot help feeling if we CAN really trust them. As far as media attention is concerned very few hackers ever get a mention. There are of course those who cause a lot of chaos who may get a mention on the evening news. It is though a very anonymous and silent area or so it seems in our world. Who’s to say security firms don’t keep themselves in business? What have they actually got to lose from doing so. I’m by no means saying they do or don’t but it certainly is a thought I find hard to get rid of.

It doesn’t matter what Operating System you’re running any security software especially real-time which runs in the background has an effect on performance. Unfortunately if we wish to have fairly robust security then there isn’t another real option. The most likely solution would be to improve OS security and put it through more intensive testing. However we would be foolish to think we would ever have an OS that is a 100% secure. The developers are only human and humans are all subject to error. If we’re looking for perfection an Operating System would simply not be released.

The Pro’s

Although many users can be disgruntled at the thought of having security software it is important that we get an indication of how well we’re protected. As to many users manually performing this task would be time consuming and possibly not as effective. To those who simply want to turn on their machine and use it and switch off with the peace of mind a green or “your secure” message sat in the background will help them to sleep at night.

Software experience

I would just like to provide some of my personal experience with using various security software. If you have any questions please feel free to ask as there’s only some much I can fit into one post!

AVG (Free) + Comodo Firewall

To those who are infrequent users and want minimal fuss are likely to go with a free combination of software. I don’t have an immediate problem with this as I have mentioned above not everyone is a prime target for being attacked. If you check your email once a week and make sure you only open things you know and trust the chances are you will get by.

AVG Free provides a basic interface with very little customization but enough protection to see you through most of the serious threats. It doesn’t however provide an auto-update function. This does come in the full version however if you’re choosing to purchase software I recommend you look elsewhere.

For free I have little room to complain. I have used AVG for a couple of months at a time and it did the job in notifying me I was vulnerable. In the versions I have used it didn’t provide too effective in removing threats however. I wouldn’t say the threats I received were particularly troublesome either.

The Comodo firewall has received many rave reviews in from my research and general passing by forums has a lot of respect. It’s likely one of the most useful and well built software you will ever use.

Kaspersky

kaspersky_1

kaspersky_2

kaspersky_3

Norton

I hope this article has given you an insight into technology safety the more we all start to become aware of the problems the sooner we can all play a part in trying to solve them.

It’s just security firms that need to do all the hard work to combat security. Search engine providers should look at the links they provide. Are they safe?

When all this is said and done, less spam – faster Internet

Example AVG and Kaspersky (False positives)

Talking to a friend about facebook and all the users who are false…setup for spamming

Look at security books in PC world.

Global warming…should spammers be blamed?

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