My commonsense computer security

..... that you don't have to be a computer whiz to follow:

Security in today’s computer world:

Here’s my post as to how to stay secure when there’s hackings, viruses, and phishings going on these days to steal your info and maybe even identity theft.

PHISHING: Fishing (spelled with a PH) is when someone nefarious tries to pretend they are someone you trust. They ask for usernames and passwords and other private info and instead of it going to those you trust, it’s someone pretending to be them. For example, I got an email from “RCN” technical support saying I was going to lose my account, and that I should enter my user name and password. Nice try, I told the potential hackers…. Get a real job. If you hover your cursor over the return address, you will see it’s something stupid with words that sound like someone with carp in their mouths when pronounced. These emails are based on FEAR in hopes you give up some info so that they could log onto your account that they otherwise are too abysmally stupid to figure the password themselves. There’s a lot of tricks, but the bottom line is do your own investigating if you get such stuff. Usually legit companies don’t contact you that way. Instead of clicking on the hacker’s links, go DIRECTLY to the supposed website to see if there’s a real problem (probably not). As you can see, it’s like detective work but the bottom line is proving that the message is coming from the so-called person in question. As you can see, this method IS NOT a computer problem, but a PEOPLE PROBLEM when they are tricked,

PASSWORDS: Hacking is not always a people problem. It’s merely password cracking and “guessing”. When an insecure company, like yahoo, gets hacked, they don’t “try to guess” your passwords. They use software that tries to decrypt passwords and if you have a passwords with common words 8 letters or less, they can do it within a day if you have real word passwords like “bigchair”. Instead use a combination of numbers, letters, caps, and symbols and maybe 10 or more characters. Even with 8 characters, nobody can humanly guess it as it statistically would take 1000’s of years. But with rapid software that uses a dictionary, they can. One way to create a secure password is the first letter of a sentence you can remember. For example you may say, “I went to a Barnum and Bailey circus today and had three hot dogs.” This translates to IwtaB&Bctah3hd. I dare anyone to “guess” that, and even with software, if it takes a day for 8 characters, I’d say a 300 million years for 14 characters since there’s so many more combinations. THIS ALSO A PEOPLE PROBLEM since we tend to choose simple passwords.

MALWARE:

When your computer gets malware, the hacker can implant a “keylogger” which means the keys you hit are transferred to them. This means they neither guess nor use a program to determine your password, but can watch directly what you typed. THIS IS A COMPUTER PROBLEM. I will address different operating systems and how to prevent malware.

Linux: This free operating system that anyone can download on their computer is the most secure. This is because, unlike PC’s, Linux is a “multiuser operating system” than can run with more than one user. So the operating system separates the system files from the user’s directory (and other users) log-in and the system files are “uploaded” to make the computer run in a similar fashion that on the Internet files are “downloaded”. You computer (account) cannot affect the system files any more than a person with a virus on their computer affects a website. It’s all separated and as I joke, Linux is a very schizophrenic operating system. Linux is made that way so that one account does not affect another. In addition, there is no registry file that permeates through the whole computer, including the system files. Also, if there is “hidden code” in say a picture file, Linux will execute the picture but the rest it will ask “what the heck is this?” and won’t execute something you did not give permission to. If all this is not enough, Linux won’t allow any installed program without a password. And that includes malware. The only malware Linux can get is a TROJAN which is DELIBERATELY installed malware that the person THOUGHT was legit. This can be avoided by simply installing only software from their approved repository. In any repository, only choose programs with a HIGH RATING and with MANY THUMBS UP just in case a nefarious person snuck their program in there. To date, I’ve never heard of a person with a Linux virus that “they did not know how they got”. It just does not happen. You need no virus protection on Linux. I use Linux.

Android: THis is a mobile operating system but can be desktop as well (in mobile fashion). This is what I call “commercial Linux” and is just as secure as Linux in that there’s rarely malware. All “malware” (notice the quotes) that the severely misinformed new media likes to bash Android with are mostly Trojans that people DELIBERATELY DOWNLOADED. In addition, these don’t spread but stay only on that device. I have simple rules to avoid such malware. 1) Don’t root your phone (which is what make Linux so secure)
And 2) Don’t download off of 3rd party sources. There is a check in the security settings that don’t allow 3rd party downloads that could contain malware. 3) Despite the news media claiming that malware made its way to google play, this is only something like 1/200 chance. Choose only repository apps that have a high rating and with MANY ratings. If there was a problem, you’d see it by then so you will be safe. This makes your Android virtually 100% malware free. You need no virus protection on Android. I use Android.

Chromebook: You need not worry about malware as it’s impossible to download anything on a chromebook. This Linux-like system is the most secure browsing computer but it has limits as to what it can do. It is good for surfing, basic games, office work, forums, emails and entertainment videos. Chrome does not even have virus protection. So, just click away! I have a Chromebook.

Apple’s iOS: Follow the same rules as Android. This is why you, me, and nobody else knows of any malware on smartphones.

Microsoft: Now this is another problem. You can get malware by, 1) reading your email, 2) clicking on a link, 3) misspelling a web address in the browser, 4) clicking on something you did not intend, 5) viewing a picture or some other app, or 6) even turning it on despite powerful up-to-date virus programs that slow your computer many times over. The other operating systems don’t “catch” viruses this way. You can follow the phishing and password advice to a “T” but if the computer is extremely feeble, it will give your secrets away in a heartbeat. This is because Microsoft is only a one user operating system and all users in different logins have access to the system files. In addition, the “registry file” which is still very much alive today in Microsoft permeates the whole computer, including the system files so that it can make a major mess-up. When a program is installed, it by default changes the registry file which has connections to ALL system files. So even if you limit the user as to what to download, the registry can still be modified. Microsoft has “back doors” as well for hackers to gain entrance. As they always say, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. At best, to avoid this security mess on Microsoft is like walking on eggshells and not enjoying your computer. Everything you do with it is “wrong” and fosters paranoia. Given that, this is why I ditched the Microsoft and never looked back.

So, this is my objective view as to how to avoid computer security issues.
In summary:
Don’t fall victim to phishing. Learn what it is.
Have strong passwords
Use any operating system with commonsense except Microsoft.

Do all this, and you’ll probably be fine.

 

Yes, I forgot to mention that about updates. With Linux virus protection is built in. Of course it's not an anti-viral program, per se. It's that it patches potential weaknesses that hackers/malware can enter thus acting like that. In most operating systems, some type of notification comes up to tell people to update. So it goes without saying. Or at least it should.

 

I don't really have experience with wine, as once I dumped my Microsoft I could care less about running a windows program routinely on Linux, but I will say this much. Wine is an emulator (also uses RAM). There's virtual folders. Thus, that is your "Microsoft" machine. None of these have anything to do with the system files of Linux which would still still be protected the same way as if you ran the Linux operating system itself. In short, the same security you enjoy on Linux would not be compromised running another (emulator) program.

The situation would be similar to a dual-boot as I have windows 7 and Linux on the same machine. I rarely boot up into windows except to use it for something only Microsoft can handle (rather than using Wine), so this is more than an emulator as the windows partition is part of the Linux system's partition as a "device" and a virus on windows can even affect the same RAM, but I rest well knowing that won't transfer to Linux. Yes, half of my computer can be dead in the water and the Linux will run fine.

So, overall my answer is basically "No", but I suppose there is that rarer than winning the $10,000,000 lottery chance that something could happen, but then again I could worry that my microprocessor fan might catch fire, too. (And that's hard on some systems that have none! lol)