System security updates
http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi
Small Business Technology Newsletter? By?James E. Gaskin,?Network World,?08/10/06
Summer burns us outside and spyware burns us inside. The summer sun will soon relent, but spyware only gets worse. Luckily some new vendors plan to help us in the fight, and some existing players in the spyware battle offer even more help.
Catch up by reading 10 Ways to Stop Spyware. The article is 18 months old and aimed at tech folks supporting family and friends after work hours, but still includes excellent advice (if I do say so myself).
Always run two spyware cleaner programs: one resident, and one manually every week or so. No one cleaner catches everything, no matter what the marketing tells you. The two free programs recommended by everyone, and for good reason because they work, are AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I suggest running a resident commercial spyware cleaner, or commercial all-in-one security suite with spyware protection, and using one of these two products as your second spyware cleaner.
Bringing up commercial utilities, the biggest name that's late to the security party is Microsoft. They started offering a free spyware cleaner last year, but only after they bought Giant Anti-Spyware, a small security company. Does it make you nervous, like it makes me nervous, that Microsoft had to buy a company to get a spyware cleaner to the market? Microsoft executives should be embarrassed.
Next move for Microsoft is their Windows Live OneCare subscription service, atypically first in the market before Symantec and McAfee and others hit the streets. Typical for Microsoft, however, you follow their rules or forget it. Their rules include deleting all other security programs from your computer (your Windows XP computer; no Windows 2000 support here) and you subscribe rather than buy. I have yet to test this, and no reader has asked a single question about it, so let me know if you want me do dig into this. The "Microsoft only" software requirements make me nervous, frankly, because as I mentioned previously, no one utility catches all the spyware on a system.
Another security suite that's been doing a good job with little press is from AOL. Yep, AOL subscribers receive a free security suite as part of their membership. I've been testing it my wife's computer, so you know I'd hear immediately if there was a problem (that tech support for family and friends job we all have).
Updates planned for AOL include a stand-alone suite to compete against the big boys (meaning Symantec and McAfee, because Microsoft hasn't earned big boy security suite status yet). An addition to their suite is RestoreIT from FarStone. I'm running FarStone's RestoreIT Pro 7 on a laptop as a test and it offers a range of backup options from a few files to entire disk partitions. You can recover a file or two accidentally deleted, or use the recovery CD created just for that computer to resurrect a system that's been really hosed by spyware or a virus.
Fans of free software should be well acquainted with AVG antivirus from Grisoft since they've been giving away a solid antivirus utility for years. They've expanded their line to range from individual PCs to enterprise installations. Grisoft just added Ewido Anti-Spyware, including a free version to match their antivirus (free for home use on one computer).
Security vendors searching for an easy to use model to emulate will find a great example in an unusual place: Xandros Desktop Linux - Home Edition Premium. I'm testing this as a replacement for Windows 98 on older, slower computers and they have an excellent, friendly Linux product. Their security suite includes antivirus, a firewall, and file protection (spyware and virus cleaning). Since Linux suffers so few security problems compared to Windows, Xandros could skip the security suite and few would care. The polish and easy configuration of their security settings does them proud. And most importantly for those of us supporting family and friends, Xandros requires the administrator password to modify the security settings, so users can't turn them off like they do in Windows. Most small company network administrators also love this feature.
Medium and large companies save money buying server and appliance based security tools, but small companies still use individual software. Vendors now bundle licenses for two or more computers together for savings on the low end, which is helpful. Even Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare includes three licenses in their basic package, a smart step for them and for users.
Summer fades but spyware remains. Use this as a reminder to keep fighting the good fight.