Staying safe and anonymous while working online with free software.
While not technically a survival topic, I feel that knowing how to better protect yourself while on-line to be essential in today’s would of ID theft, hackers and government spies. The first thing you should understand is that there is no way to make your computer 100% safe from all potential threats while on-line.
The best we can do is to slow them down and make it difficult for attackers and snoops to apply there trade.
The first thing you should do is dump internet explorer. Experts think Internet Explorer is full of security risks and should not be used in any shape or form by anyone interested in web security.
Download the latest version of Firefox here You can import all your Internet Explorer Favorites, etc. so you can start exactly as you were before you switched, but with lot more safely.
The second thing is to dump
Outlook it is insecure and full of security loopholes. Don’t use it. Outlook and Outlook Express both use Internet Explorer to display some types of email messages, so they share
Internet Explorer’s security risks. And you
cannot make them use another browser.
Just about any Email client is safer than Outlook, but the one I use, is Mozilla Thunderbird , since I started using Firefox and Thunderbird together my system has performed much better than before and avoiding any spyware to speak of. Next you will need an effective Anti-Virus program, don’t go out and spend $49.95 here, I use AVG which is free to download and offers protection equal to the paid programs available. AVG has been continuously refined since it was first released in 1991 and now offers very impressive protection capabilities.
Additionally, it’s relatively small, light on resources, has regular automatic updates and handles email scanning. The most important thing is to keep it updated with the latest virus definitions.
Next you need spyware protection. Here again I use a free program which are just as effective as other paid programs. I use Windows Defender which is available free. It offers very impressive spyware protection and detection. It also has excellent real-time protection against browser hijackers, auto-dialers and other security threats. I don’t trust windows firewall. Instead I use ZoneAlarm , this product seems to cause few problems for users and it is also an excellent firewall, offering far better protection than the standard windows firewall and again it is a free product. There are lots of reasons survivalist and folks in general could have for wanting to surf anonymously, ranging from simple paranoia to the real possibly of being spied on by government snoops. One of the best free programs available is called
Tor.
According to their web page “
Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy.”
The main disadvantage to using Tor is that this can be slow, if you are on dialup expect to craw. Keep in mind nothing is 100% secure, if a government agency wants to find you they will likely find a way…
What’s Your Experience?
What have you done to keep your computer and information safe while online? Please let us know in the comments.
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{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Great Post!
…and when you finish with your browsing activities *ALWAYS* run ‘CCleaner’ on your system. Both the ‘Cleaner’ and the ‘Registry’ processes. You can adjust the settings to keep your passwords but I tend to think passwords should be stored in my head and not on the system YMMV & JMHO.
There is an app called Ghostery that will tell you who is looking at you as you brows and you can block them .
Its useful, but I wouldn’t rely on it as its probably not too intricate in how it checks this, and it can only cover so many bases. So be weary in putting trust in such apps.
Great article! I am almost done downloading firefox now. Thanks for the advice. Maybe it’s not strictly a survival topic but if an identity thief empties your bank account, how much will you be able to spend on preps, huh?
Excellent advice, which I wish had been available earlier. I too have had my fill with viruses and the snoop programs which bring your computer to a crawl. So slow as to prevent McAfee from providing the paid-for diagnostics and removal. The final solution was to adopt the Apple platform, even though extreme and unadvised at the time because of the unknown and cost of the switch over. Looking back, it has been an extremely wise decision. After a month the utility and functioning had proven itself. After a year, there have been no problems with bugs, virus, slow down – which had once been so common on a weekly basis. An added benefit is the ability to do things (in the financial field) which would have been awkward or unavailable on the Microsoft platform.
Backups! Regular backups. Your hard drive will crash someday.
You can get a 2 TB external USB drive for less than $100 so regular backups should be something everyone does with no excuses.
I’ve got a whole page of tips at http://pennypincherpersonalfinance.blogspot.com/p/online-privacy-links.html
One thing I do is use Ixquick for a search engine. You can link the little search box at the top right of your browser to it, but only if you use Firefox. I don’t think Safari has that little box, and I can’t speak for Opera. Startpage is like Ixquick, I think they’re the same folks under a different name.
Tor is really not much security anymore. The gov knows all the known Tor nodes.
There is a tiny little Linux computer out called the Raspberry Pi. It’s $35.00. Just Ixquick it. It is about the size of a credit card, you plug one end into a keyboard and the other end into a TV.
Today Alex Jones was claiming there is a pixel in the screen of any LCD monitor or TV that acts as a camera and watches you. It’s built into the screen so you can’t find it. I don’t know if this is true but that is creepy if it is.
I just realized it sounds funny to say they know the known nodes. Is that a known known or a known unknown?
Penny Pincher,
I don’t put a lot of faith in anything Alex Jones “reports” it seems to me that about 10% of what he says is true while the rest is half-truths, exaggerations or completely wrong or made-up BS…
Alex Jones is an idiot. There are no cameras built into the pixels on your monitor, and you cannot be tracked by your GPS unless it’s connected to a transmitter like a cell phone.
I have a Raspberry Pi ordered. It’s a pretty slick little ARM processor based Unix machine, with other operating systems available for it as well, and the price is excellent.
The Raspberry Pi seems very interesting, thanks for naming it!
Have my IT guy coming over 12 noon to update my security settings…read an article over at JWR’s site…and now your article…very timely advice…thanks for taking the time to present all this info to a non-geek like me…
I already have my location jumping around all over the place…and cookies are deleted, and I also have AVG – free version – good performer…cheers.
Most important, USE PROPER PASSWORDS!! No amount of anonimity and security software and hardware can save you from a horribly weak password.
Firstly, I have to disagree on Firefox, while it is true anything is better than internet explorer, even firefox has had some problems, as shown in the PWN2OWN contest. I would recommend google chrome, which as I understand thus far has yet to see any PWN2OWN security breach and it extremely user friendly, even more so than firefox. It also works on all th “main” os’s including, OS X, Windows and Linux(or the Chromium variant works on these).
I personally use online emails instead of using proprietary software like Thunderbird but I doubt there is a big security difference.
Now one thing I would recommend to people, is to look into more secure browsers, since windows to me is about as insecure as you can get, Ubuntu touts a very good security orientated system, but whatever works for you.
I cant comment on antivirus programs as I barely even use them, though I probably should just for that extra level of security. I also don’t use any firewalls, but then again, I probably should. Btw I use Ubuntu for most of my internet browsing.
Tor has a major flaw in that anyone can act as a “proxy” for it and in that way they can scan all the incoming traffic for passwords and such, so I would not recommend it for anything where you want to keep your password secure, like online banking. Though it can be useful and its more secure brother I2P also known as I2P anonymous proxy or I2P anonymous network, which boats a improved version of the TOR projects “onion ring” protection and a few other features.
Again, proper passwords and safe internet practices like not having a “standard” password on any of your valuable accounts.
Chrome has fallen.
http://news.yahoo.com/google-chrome-gets-pwned-twice-pwn2own-174207894.html
That is interesting, but I saw the second pwn by Vupen exploited the OS’s vulnerability, I am curious to see how this would work on, say, Ubuntu or any of the Unix OS’s. I still think its cool though that Google actually gives rewards for cracking their OS and giving them the “bug” or loophole. Thats why I prefer it over firefox, but thats just personal in the end.
Could be interesting if they started testing it over multiple OS’s like apples OSX and such.
Although it doesn’t make youre browsing secure, setting up your own VPN between friends or your MAG is now pretty easy and inexpensive to do. Using standard off the shelf wireless routers reloaded with new firmware called tomato, you can build a VPN and run all of your comms, audio, video, chat, email, files access via the IPSec encrypted connections. You can also find the routers on EBay and Amazon with the firmware already loaded, fir a small premium.
Very interesting, though I personally don’t like wireless since, anyone can access your wireless network even if its hidden/encrypted/password protected/mac address filtering. Though for browsing its secure for most, just please never ever ever sign into Facebook or twitter or anything, not to mention your bank account at a internet cafe, I could spend 10 minutes googling hacking and know how to get peoples log in details while enjoying a coffee, looking perfectly innocent.
Great !!!!!!! I have a Apple Computer that I use Firefox also along with MacKeeper. I also use Stouffer Communications Web Messaging for my e-mail. I get maybe one or two unwanted e-mails a day. They are great at keeping any e-mail with a virus out of my e-mails. I have used this e-mail server for ten years. When you receive an e-mail from me it shows a different address for security reasons. I must give you my e-mail address. Another thing if you have AOL you must be on my list of contacts for me to receive an e-mail from you.
Windows 7 pro seems pretty good from my side of the terminal. I’m not a hacker though so I wonder what it looks like to them.
I use CCleaner as well, running it once a day on start up.
I’m running chrome , its fast and I like it.
The browser is set to wipe on each close.
Using the windows 7 firewall and feel comfy with it.
I also run the windows defender and avg free version.
I feel that’s a secure as a user in the average world should be .
Where the real security comes into play on the internet is knowing what to click, when to click and when to get the heck out.
Have you ever seen an ad that looks like a standard windows box? You think its some kinda windows error, as they have become common in the past. Click “OK” to close and wala welcome to some nasty malware or worse a trojen.
Knowing what to click is your best bet on the internet.
I work in IT. I wanted to add a couple of things I use. For web search, I use DuckDuckGo http://duckduckgo.com/ and it promises no tracking of your searches. For malware/spyware cleanup, I use MalwareBytes. The free version does not run or update in real time so you have to do both manually but it is as simple as clicking a button to run or to update.
All these, except for the first tip, only apply to Windows OS’s.
When you download and installed Firefox, immediately get AdBlock+ for it. No questions. Do it right after you installed it.
Another excellent anti-virus is Avast. I’ve used it for years, and can vouch that it is as good as AVG.
CCleaner is another must. Not for security reasons, but for keeping things in tip-top shape.
Again not for security reasons, but defragment at least once per week. The makers of CCleaner have an excellent alternative to the defragger in Windows called Defraggler. The one that comes with Windows just doesn’t cut it. It hasn’t been good since Windows XP.
Spybot S&D isn’t the shadow of its former self, but it’s immunization module is still excellent. Download it, install, update, and immunize on a regular basis. Also, run it every rare once in a while.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is another essential security tool. Update it and scan weekly.
And finally, keep Microsoft Security Essentials updated constantly. Don’t disable automatic updates. Sure, it can be a major pain in the ass sometimes, but it is what saves your ass sometimes. Especially the security updates.
If you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7 the defrag runs once per week automatically unless you change the settings.
I agree with CCleaner and Spybot. Good programs.
I need to add, only defrag if you have a HDD and not a SSD, this is crucial as a SSD doesn’t last very long when you defrag it and doesn’t need defraging like a HDD does.
I have always used Firefox. I like it.
There are literally thousands of add-ons that you can install to tweak your browsing experience.
I just switched to windows 7 from XP. It was time to upgrade from my old dinosaur. I don’t care for it much but, I’ll get used to it.
I finally started to use Thunderbird on my new system. Takes a little getting used to, but that shall pass. Again, great add-ons for that too.
Don’t forget Malware Bytes Anti-Malware. Its free and works well removing malware.
I have used Zone Alarm for many years with increasing difficulty and gave it up. The Windows firewall is more than adequate when combined with other measures.
AVG is another program that grew out of control and I have used the free Avira Antivir as a replacement along with SpyBot.
These Firefox plugins are mandatory if you hope to have any internet security:
-Better Privacy
Removes persistent LSO super cookies installed by Flash which remain when cookies are removed.
-Ghostery
Blocks third party web bugs
-NoScript
Blocks JavaScript, Java, and vulnerabilities.
I also use a first generation Ironkey 256-bit hardware encrypted flash drive with 256-bit SHA hashing. Internet traffic is encrypted through the private Ironkey Tor network servers which uses only the IP address of the proxy server, making it appear that the proxy server is the client.
Imation is acquiring IronKey’s secure storage business.
A few years ago I had my ebay account hacked. Fortunately, I was able to remedy everything but after that time I decided to use more secure, unique passwords for each site.
For quite some time I used http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/ to generate such passwords, which I then had to copy and paste for every site I logged into.
Recently I ran into a program called RoboForm for securing all of my passwords, which I’m really beginning to love. It even makes online shopping easier by automatically filling in my details for sites I don’t normally shop.
The things to remember about online security:
Nothing is totally secure.
No one product catches everything
I spent the last 10 years fixing, cleaning and delousing personal computers. I’ve tried every product out there and this is what I have found that works optimally for me. I won’t get into the specialty items that I keep on my thumbdrives but the following are what I use on mine and my wife’s windows machines.
Microsoft Security Essentials: Not perfect but free and MS does a decent job of keeping it updated. I’ve found it to be lighter on resources than Avast and AVG on XP, Vista and 7.
Comodo Firewall (only the firewall). I gave up on Zone Alarm years ago.
CCleaner for general clean up and maintenance. Plus CCleanerEnhancer, which does exactly that. It adds even more programs to the list for cleaning.
Malwarebytes and Super Antispyware ( I know the name sounds like it ought to be on the rogue list). I always run Malwarebytes first, the Super. Neither is used realtime, only for manual scans. As I stated before no one product catches everything.
Spywareblaster by Javacool. This one is a passive system., It sets killbits for all kinds of trackers, cookies and other garbage. Just update it every so often, no scans to run. It keeps the objects in it’s list from ever running to begin with.
I switched Firefox’s search engine to DuckDuckGo
And finally the Firefox extensions I use are:
Adblock plus
Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus
Flashblock
Google Disconnect
Ghostery
NoScript
Optimize Google (for blocking purposes across Google products)
Privacy Choice Tracker Block
I don’t see any ads, not even text ads and Google always thinks I’m two states away from where I really am.
Most of the same extensions are available for Chrome.