Almost all of us today have Desktop at home and use internet to chat, browse and to carry out other works. Internet is the least safe place on this planet. What makes it insecure is that it is public, what we do and access resides somewhere else on somebody's else Server, applications that we use are not ours - in a nutshell we do not have any control on any of the hardware or software that we use. In such a scenario what becomes important is security - Security of your data and you identity. With the technology going in the hands of terrorists, it has even become more important. I want to highlight few things which any one can do easily and feel secured. Believe me whatever any one says NOTHING IS SECURE ON THE NET. It takes few minutes to break a password, few days to crack any software, their are experts sitting who keep on posting keygens and methods to crack. In the background of all this it becomes important to have a basic knowledge of few security aspects of applications running on the desktop and Security Aspects related to Internet. What every home users needs to know has been summarised in common language.

A. Understanding the Security related to Applications running on the Desktop
 
1. Automatic Update - Importance and need

The most important application that runs on the dekstop is your Operating System (OS). It could be Windows XP, Vista, Linux etc. On this OS reside other applications like Messengers, Explorer, Games etc. These applications use the OS to provide you the experience and facility that you get from that application. Any flaw or error in the OS (which is quiet common) can be dangerous as hackers could easily exploit it to gain access to your computer via Internet or Local Network.  Creators of Applications including OS release patches to correct these flaws. these patches are available on their sites and applications download them via a update process.

What is important is to atleast patch up the OS. Configure your OS to get these patches automatically. The same can also be manually updated by going to site update.microsft.com. These updates fill up the gap or any flaw that OS could have.

2. Firewall

Windows XP and Vista comes with a firewall  build in. We need to understand the importance of firewall first. You can visualise firewall as the outer boundary of your house which has a gate and a security guard sitting their, who monitors who comes in and what goes out. The Security Guard is well instructed by you about what he can allow in. A Firewall is a similar wall between your computer and the Internet, which allows what can come in and who all can access it. It has been seen that firewall is switched off by the users or is forced to switch off by the representatives of the Internet Service Providers of the locality. And this is not the correct procedure.

Firewall blocks traffic and so does the boundary of our house. Imagine a house without a boundary - any one can come in. Disabling a firewall does the same. What should be done is configuring rules to allow certain type of traffic to come in or go out - IT SHOULD NEVER BE SWITCHED OFF

3. Anti Virus 

The steps mentioned above are the precautions. But what happens if firewall is broken or some flaw in the OS is compromised. This means that some unauthorised application has gained access to your computer - it could be virus, spyware, adware and these are dangerous. They could send infrmation out from you PC or could make it useless by erasing the data.

Anti Virus is another important application that reduces the risk of you system getting infected from such malawares. They intercept them and clean or quarantine them and protect your desktop. They are like security guard itting at the gate who monitor everything and immediately take action as soon as something fishy is noticed.

But mearly having a Anti Virus is not sufficient. What is important is that the Anti Virus Software should be regularly updated - atleast twice a day. Question is why - Let me explain.

Anti Virus softwares use pattern file to identify virus. The creators of virus keeps on changing the code of their viruses, because they also knwo that a Anti Virus has been developed to track their virus and clean it. Ant Virus companies keep on changing / updating their pattern files regularly. Every Anti Virus software can be configured to automatically update itself as soons as it detects a internet connection. If it is not updated regularyl it will fail to identify or catch a new virus and the while purpose will be defeated. Their are free Anti Virus softwares available for Home users and which are good also e.g. AVG, Kespersky, Panda etc.

4. Other Precautions to take:

1. Never Install any software about which you are not sure of what it is.
2. Many a times which browsing Internet a windo pop ups which asks to intall something, never click yes untill you are very sure.
3. Configure your Explorer to ask everytime a site wants to install something. It should never be configured to Atomatic.
4. Never Leave any drive or folder shared, as it could lead anyone connected to your network to access it easily.
5. Never use administative account to do normal work. Create a normal user account for routine works.
6. Have a strong password for your administrative and user accounts. Use a combination of words, letters and special charachters like $, #, as they are difficult to crack.
7. Never Save passwords or other information in your browser, as they can be easily accessed.

These are few precautions that we can take to help secure ourselves on the internet. the precautions given above are not exhaustive but will do a great help. But to achieve all this another very important thing is to go for genuine - licenced software. Unlicenced software are not allowed to get updated by the creator. Except for Anti Virus other softwares are one time investment and is worth making it.

Another very important thing is to protect your wireless network and router from unauthorised accessed. This I will cover in a separate post.

I have tried to cover few very important points in a very simple non technical language. But still lot remains to understand. I would like to help or clarify whatever doubts users may have.