I (mota) have honed my 'be safe on Windows' presentation down to basically these six points:
(I considered trying to rank these points in priority order. But they are all very important!) The items in red will require changes in your own habits and skills. And yes, you will feel clumsy at the very beginning of your attempts to put these habits in place. Microsoft has put up a web page with helpful advice as well. Much of it is similar to what you see here. Also see their Ten Immutable Laws of Security. You will note that I have carefully NOT included antivirus software here. That's because I strongly believe that you are the first line of defense for your computer. Antivirus/antispyware/antimalware products can be helpful, but thinking of them as your first and only line of defense will fail sooner or later. Experts have noted massive failures in the 'antivirus only' approach. Sometimes, the anti-virus software can actually cause the vulnerability which lets malware onto your system. Run AV software or don't - that's your choice. But if you carefully and unfailingly follow the steps above, you'll never see an alert from your AV software, because you will have avoided the threat before it could ever touch your PC. Think about that! If you decide not to run a continuous-protection AV package on your PC, it is a good idea, but not 100% mandatory, to perform a malware scan using one of the many available webscanners from time to time. Think something is wrong with this list? Got something to add to it? Email me! |
Resources > All Windows versions >