Chapter 4. Protecting Your Windows Environment from Internet Attacks

Unless you've been living in a cave somewhere, you've no doubt heard of viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware, and other computer security issues. Although the Mac platform has been subjected to such attacks, they are far less frequent than they are in the Windows world. When you use a Maceven if you use it heavilyyou might run into these threats occasionally or never if you are particularly careful. On a Windows machine, you will run into them constantly no matter how careful you are. After you've connected your Windows environment to the Internet, you should immediately protect your computer from these threats.

Although the specifics of the threats you face from Internet attacks are numerous and complicated, they are of the following three general types:

• Hacks A hack is someone attempting to use your computer for some purpose, usually to use it to compromise some other computer, such as getting information from the hacked computer, using it to attack other computers, and so on.
  
  
• Viruses For simplicity's sake, I've grouped a number of kinds of malicious programs as viruses. Although there are numerous specific kinds such as Trojan horses, worms, and so on, they all are similar in that they are programs that are installed and run on your computer without you knowing about them and for a purpose that, in almost all cases, won't be good for you or for other people.
  
  
• Adware/spyware Like viruses, these programs are installed on your computer without your permission, usually as you browse the web. Their purpose is typically to gather information about you and report that information back to the organization that "provided" the program. They can also present advertising to you, again without your consent.
  
  

As soon as you connect your Windows environment to your network or to the Internet, you need to defend it against these kinds of threats. In this chapter, you'll learn how to do this.