HASA How-tos - June 2010

The news today is full of articles about Internet dangers, but few of them tell you how you can defend yourself from these threats. HASA now has a Research Article outlining how to make your computer safe for browsing.

Facebook spam. iPad breaches. Conficker worm. Botnet zombies. Phishing emails. Trojan payloads.
No, these are not names of new grunge bands. These are the kinds of dangers the ordinary Internet user faces when trying to visit sites. On any given day, you'll find an article about one or more of these exploits in your daily newspaper. The online version, of course.

While there are plenty of attention-grabbing headlines, there are not so many resources to tell you how to avoid becoming a victim of these malware attacks. The information is out there, but presumes too much professional computer knowledge to put all the pieces together. Even some IT professionals aren't entirely sure what to do. When you do get your hands on the information, it's often in "geek speak" and can't clearly explain why you need to do this or that to your system.
Anglachel has waded through the references, analyzed the security articles, and figured out the basic steps HASA visitors should take to secure their systems. It has been pulled together into the research article Safe Browsing which is available to all visitors. While aimed at Windows users running either IE or Firefox, the general information is applicable to any operating system and web browser.