Protect Yourself

I recently attended a discussion on security by a renowned security expert. He copyrighted the discussion, did not allow photography or video. I guess that is why he is a leader in the industry. Anyway, he brought up a couple of great points that I have felt for a while now since he gave credence to them, I thought I would share them with you.

Invest in a good anti-virus software and personal firewall. Learn how to use it. The better the firewall, the more annoying it is. Kind of like the security features in Windows Vista. If your firewall or anti-virus is not asking you if a program is okay or not, it is not a good program. It should bother every time something writes to the registry, a program is installed, a plug-in is installed. The more it prompts for you input, the more secure it will be.

As you and your computer become more stable, that is, you have all the programs and plug-ins you use on a day to day basis, you won't know it is there. And that is the point you are aiming for. Initially, very annoying... Later, very satisfying as you can surf in peace.

These aren't the experts points, but mine, the expert drove it home when he put it into perspective for me. To paraphrase, he said everyone drives a car right? Do you complain when you put gas in it? Do you complain when you spend $30 for an oil change? No, because you know it is a necessity when driving a car. Well, don't complain, because you have to pay $50 a year on good anti-virus software. That is the cost of computing in these here the aughts.

Buy the software, learn how to use it. Can't say it enough.