Snippets from the
Register
:
As
the SANS Institute notes, 20 minutes is not long enough to update your
Windows PC before it is too late. If you take a new PC out of the box,
plug it in to the Internet, and power it on, ...few people... know
enough to immediately hie thee over to Windows Update and get the
latest patches from Microsoft. Then reboot. And get more patches. And
reboot. Ad infinitum.
"Mrs. Jones, I'm sorry to inform you,
but we've run the tests, and it appears that you have XP. Now don't cry
- it's bad, but it's not a death sentence. Modern science has advanced
in recent years, and it's now possible to live a reasonably happy life
with XP. And there's a survivor's group that you'll want to meet as
well."
- Set Windows Update to automatically update the computer, without asking questions.
- Install a personal firewall that blocks almost everything by default.
- Buy a 2- or 3-year subscription to an anti-virus program and set it up to automatically download all updates.
- Buy an anti-spyware tool and set it up to automatically update, scan, and remove spyware.
- Replace Internet Explorer with Mozilla or Mozilla Firefox, and then hide that blue E so it's not on the desktop.
-
Replace Outlook Express with Mozilla Thunderbird.
