from Subject: [langalist] 2000-Mar-27 LangaList
Secure Your PC Online, Part 4 (Final Installment )
In Part One (http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/04.htm), we
discussed the four myths of online security and the essential steps
you need to take to ensure that your PC doesn't suffer from the worst
and most-common online/networking security holes. By itself, Part One
gets you a long way towards solid, basic online security.
In Part Two (http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/05.htm), we
looked at "Personal Firewalls" that sit on your PC (and on each PC on
a shared Internet connection). These applications work on a local
level to block unwanted access to your PC from hackers or other
undesirable agents. Part two gets you most of the rest of the way
towards achieving a high degree of safety online.
In Part Three (http://www.winmag.com/columns/explorer/2000/06.htm),
we outlined further steps you can take that let you build a
comprehensive and nearly impregnable six-layer defense. It will make
almost any online PC secure enough so that hackers probably won't
even bother to try to break in. Instead, they'll turn their attention
to easier targets.
Each of those previous three parts has raised some additional
questions and prompted interesting comments from readers---perhaps
from you! Many of these comments, questions and answers can be found
in the threaded discussions that accompany each previous installment
(check 'em out via the links above!). But there are still a few loose
ends to tie up. My new column on the WinMag site this week--- Part
Four--- wraps up those loose ends and presents you with a potpourri
of useful tidbits you can use to refine and adjust the information
you gleaned from the previous installments.
I'll start with a "Personal Firewall Update." I'll tell you the
results of my ongoing tests of various firewall applications, discuss
the allegations that one of the most popular personal firewalls (Zone
Alarm) is actually a "Trojan" app, and also tell you about a brand-
new version of ZoneAlarm that's now in private beta testing.
I'll also list a number of "hacker-tracker" tools, sites that
anonymize your surfing, apps that strip "adware" off your PC, and
"reverse snoop" apps that can tell you who's trying to follow your
movements as you surf from site to site.
There's more too--- way more than I could fit into this email without
blowing it out to gargantuan proportions. So please click on over to
the WinMag site (http://www.winmag.com) starting in the midafternoon
(EST; GMT-5) Monday March 27th. Join in! |
