Home User Security: Personal Firewalls
This article discusses personal firewall alternatives, including freeware firewalls, firewalls included with current Microsoft and Apple OSes, and various commercial offerings of interest to the home.
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Home User Security: Your First Defense
It used to be that an anti-virus program was a home user's first (and perhaps, only) line of defense against the spread of viruses, worms, trojans, and other malicious code. Times have changed. In the era of pervasive, always-on broadband connections, today simply having your Microsoft (R) Windows (TM) computer turned on is enough for it to get infected with the latest virus or worm. Have you applied your weekly set of critical Microsoft security patches, or your monthly Microsoft mega-patch? What if you've been on vacation for the past few weeks? The swiss cheese approach to applying security patches that are required to keep desktop computers safe and useable just doesn't work for the average home user. A firewall should now be a home user's first line of defense.
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Basic Security Checklist for Home and Office Users
This article will offer readers a simple basic security checklist that will enable users and managers to increase the security level in their organization without any additional financial investment. It is axiomatic in computer security that the weakest link in the security chain is user error. Since the measures listed below are aimed at promoting secure user behavior, they are extremely effective in lowering the risk of a security breach. Readers should keep in mind that regardless of how well written a security checklist is, such a document will be effective on one condition: that the people who are targeted by the checklist actually read, understand and follow the suggestions given.
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Always On, Always Vulnerable: Securing Broadband Connections
While it may not be necessarily change user's lives, broadband access - primarily cable and DSL connectivity - is nonetheless a great enhancement for any household or small business. The speed and always-on convenience are certain to change the way users work and play on-line. But the leap to broadband comes with a major snag - security. This article will look at the threats that accompany broadband access and the requirements necessary to protect this growing component of the Internet.
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Securing Outlook, Part One: Initial Configuration
This article is the first part of a two-part series that will help readers to secure their Outlook email clients. This installment will offer a brief overview of Outlook, as well as a guide to configuring it securely.
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Securing Outlook, Part Two: Many Choices to Make
This is the second of two articles focusing on ways to secure one of the world's most popular e-mail clients, Microsoft's Outlook. The first article offered a brief overview of Outlook, as well as some of the threats that undermine its security. It also discussed configuring Outlook for optimal security. This article will look at some more things that Outlook users can do to improve their e-mail security.
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Cookies Revealed
As with everything else about the Internet, you are only as anonymous as you wish to be. No website knows who you are until you reveal to it who you are. In the meantime, a cookie is simply a means of tracking site statistics in order to better understand usage patterns and to improve visitor productivity. A cookie is the way of remembering that information. If a website designer desires to make web pages become more interactive with visitors, or if the designer plans on letting visitors customize the appearance of the site, then they will need cookies. Also, if you want your site visits to change appearances under certain circumstances,cookies provide a quick and easy way to let your HTML pages change as required. The newest servers use cookies to help with database interactivity, which can improve the overall interactivity of the website.
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Secure Your Home Computer
By the time you reach the end of the paper you will have acquainted yourself with all of the basics required to take control of and maintain your privacy and security over the Internet. To the novice computer user this may seem like a lot of information to absorb, yet if you are patient and take each item one at a time you will soon realize how uncomplicated this really is. Above all, don't be intimidated. No one learns everything in a single day.
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