KeepingyourPCsafeandhealthy,part1
This is the first in a series on how to keep your PC healthy, happy, and secure. In part 1, I will focus on the most basic piece of the equation, Windows.
Ask yourself, what is the most important part of a house? It's not really the walls, we humans lived a long time without walls. The roof? You could argue that shelter is the entire point of a house. But to me, the most important part is the part that makes all others exist: the foundation. Without a solid base to build upon, a wall, a window, a second floor, and a roof can't exist.
Your computer also has a foundation, from which everything else is built: your operating system. And for about 95% of you, that's Windows. Throughout this guide, I will discuss things like installing anti-virus products or practicing good behavior, but all of it can be rendered moot if that foundation is left insecure.
First and foremost, you should install all Windows updates, and they should be installed within 24 hours of them appearing to you. Let me explain why. When Microsoft publishes an update, they're patching a hole that they've found within Windows. Assuming the bad guys have not already found these holes, releasing an update tells them where each hole is and how to exploit it. Within minutes, they will begin trying to exploit each hole to get malicious software inside as many machines as possible. If you don't apply the patch as soon as possible, you will leave a wide-open hole in your PC that even anti-virus software can't stop.
Why can't anti-virus stop it? An anti-virus, like any program, relies on Windows to not lie to it. If it asks for a file, Windows goes and gets it. But if that foundation is infected, malware can serve up a bogus file to the anti-virus. An anti-virus has no way to verify that file isn't accurate, because Windows handles all access to the files. And this is one of a thousand ways that an infected operating system could lie to an anti-virus. An infection could also use a rootkit, which prevents Windows from even being able to see a piece of malware, even though it's still in memory and on the hard drive. So if you don't keep that foundation solid and secure, you're toast. No matter how good an anti-virus suite you purchased, no matter how vigilant you are in your behavior.
Another important part of keeping Windows up to date also means using a version that Microsoft still supports. Once support ends for a version of Windows, no more patches are published for it, and an unsupported version leaves you vulnerable to attack. If you're running something that has reached end of life, upgrading is the single most valuable thing you can do for your security.
If you're stuck on an old version and absolutely cannot upgrade, I'd highly advise doing the following. First, stop using an out-of-date browser. An old browser is just as vulnerable as the operating system under it. Install a current browser that updates itself instead.
Second, switch your primary account to a limited user account. Create a new account, make that account an administrator, and give it a password. Log into that new account, and downgrade your everyday account to a limited user. Keep in mind, this is a double-edged sword. As a limited user, you won't be able to install new software unless you switch to the administrator account. However, as a limited user, malware can't install itself either. This should keep you safe from most attacks. Not all, but most.
I hope that you see how important a foundation Windows is. If you don't keep it up to date, you've already lost the war against malware.
