Windows XP, End Of Life or End Of The World? How Can I Stay Safe on Windows XP?

I guess by now you have heard that Microsoft ceased support for Windows XP on the 8th of April 2014. In some circles this is old news, the April 2014 End Of Life was already known in September 2010, when Microsoft announced that Windows XP will no longer be sold after 22 October 2010. Many people mistook this date as the date when Windows XP machines will stop functioning and this is mainly due to the manner in which the end of life date was announced, many sources made it sound like the end of the world for Windows XP users. But is this really the end of the world? In this article we will look at whether you should upgrade to a newer version of Windows and how you can stay safe not only on Windows XP, but on every other operating system as well.

First of all, your Windows XP machine will not stop functioning, but will continue to operate as it always did. The only difference is that you will no longer receive any Windows Updates because Microsoft will no longer develop patches for Windows XP after 8 April 2014. According to Microsoft, existing updates and fixes will still be available, but I guess after some years Microsoft might even pull these from their servers. The biggest concern by Microsoft is your security and to quote from their end of life page; “PCs running Windows XP after April 8, 2014, should not be considered to be protected, and it is important that you migrate to a current supported operating system”. Technically, this might be true, because should a hacker discover a flaw in a core component of Windows XP, it could be exploited to circumvent any security measures on a Windows XP machine and Microsoft will not be fixing that flaw. But is it fair to say that every XP machine should not be considered to be protected? In my humble opinion, no! There are a couple of things you can do to make sure your Windows XP computer is safe and secure.

I've read quite a lot of articles about Windows XP coming to end of life and from the comments on these articles, it is clear that a lot of people are not really worried about this. Some people feel that Windows XP is a very old system and people should have upgraded ages ago, while other believe that Windows XP still caters for all their needs and that they can continue to use the system without any foreseeable risk or problems. I am one of those people who have used Windows XP for years (and still do to a certain extent) without a single phone call to Microsoft for support. Whenever I ran into problems I always found a solution on the Internet and chances are you will still find solutions to Windows XP problems, because forums and articles will remain on the Internet for years. Computer repair shops will still have people with the necessary expertise to troubleshoot issues on Windows XP and many issues on Windows XP can still be addressed by a system restore or a re-installation, so it is not as if these tools are going to vanish now that Windows XP has reached its end of life.

The stark reality remains that at some stage it might be necessary to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, because certain hardware might not work on Windows XP, for example in the near future you might not be able to connect your mobile phone to your Windows XP machine. This has already been seen with the Nokia Lumia phones (running Windows Phone off course, so it is no surprise that support for Windows XP is pathetic). In order to connect a Nokia Lumia phone to a Windows XP machine, you need to install Service Pack 3 with Microsoft Windows Media Player 11. The lack of hardware support on Windows XP will boil over to many devices including DVD players, printers and graphics cards, because the manufacturers will no longer develop drivers for these devices. But the chances of installing a new DVD player or the latest graphics card in an old machine, running Windows XP is fairly grim. I still use an old Pentium 4 machine with an AGP slot for my graphics card, so I won't even be able to install a PCI Express card on that machine, so why would I worry about Windows XP drivers for a PCI Express card if I can't even install the hardware on the machine? Still, some people are running Windows XP on fairly new machines, so when they decide to buy new hardware in the future, they may be forced to upgrade to a newer Windows version because there won't be any drivers to run the hardware on Windows XP and I think this should be the only reason to move away from Windows XP.

Many companies still run Windows XP on their computers because their in-house software was developed on Windows XP and upgrading to Windows 7 or even Windows 8 is not financially viable at the moment. I can also speak out of experience. Years ago I developed a program in Windows 98 and had to make some modifications to it to make it work under Windows XP. I know comparing Windows 98 to Windows XP is not the same as comparing Windows XP to Windows 7, but it remains a pain in the neck to port your software to a new operating system. I could afford making the modifications, because I did not make any money from this software and I did not have any loss in production while I made these modifications, but certain companies cannot afford the downtime, so they opt to stay on Windows XP. If your software works well in Windows XP and you can continue to run your business using Windows XP, why upgrade? If it is not broken, why fix it? But in the end, I will still advise companies to develop Windows 7 or 8 solutions on the sideline, while running your in-house software on the Windows XP machines in the mean time. Should the time come when you are forced to upgrade, you will be ready to make the transition without too much effort. This is easier said than done for small and medium enterprises, who do not have the necessary manpower and financial resources to make such a transition, so they opt to stay on Windows XP for as long as possible. However, when your business model depends on software running on Windows XP alone, I think it is time to consider other alternatives, because you might face bankruptcy in the face if you are forced to leave Windows XP.

Right, so in a business environment, it might be necessary to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, but what about the individual, the normal man on street? I believe they have the least to worry about. If you are a happy Windows XP user, why upgrade now? When the time comes where a upgrade is inevitable, you will most likely have to buy a new PC, because older PC's can hardly handle Windows 7, so what are the chances of running a future version of Windows on a Celeron, Pentium 4 or Dual Core? (Yes I know, technically you can run Windows 7 for example on a Pentium 4 or Dual Core, depending on the size of the processor and RAM, but in the end they perform pretty poor when compared to running Windows XP on these systems). What about the Windows XP user who has a newer computer that can handle Windows 7 or 8 quite well? The question is not really about what your computer can handle, the question is, is it necessary to upgrade, merely out of a security point of view? I guess it depends on who you are and what you do on your computer. Unless you are a celebrity or high profile figure, chances are small that you are going to be targeted by hackers, but you still run the risk of getting infected by malware, leaking out personal and sensitive information to the creators of the malware. In order to get infected by malware you need to do something to introduce the malware to your system and even if the malware is exploiting a certain unpatched vulnerability in Windows XP, the malware still needs access to your system to make use of that vulnerability. So if you do not browse questionable and dangerous websites, if you are not “click-happy” (clicking on every link you see) and ignore strange and suspicious looking e-mails you have a lower risk introducing malware to your system.

So it boils down to clever computer use in general and not a specific operating system, so here are a couple of tips to keep you safe and secure on your PC (whether you are on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and in some instances these tips are even good practice for Linux users).

PC Safety Tip #1: Only browse trustworthy websites

The hardest part for this tip is how to identify a trustworthy website. This discussion is a whole article on its own, but generally speaking, stay away from sites involved in piracy, pornography or advertised through spam. Rather stick to well-known sites with a good reputation and as a rule of thumb, use your gut feeling, if something is bothering you on a website, rather stay away from it.

PC Security Tip #2: Do not be “click-happy” but rather “click-vigilant”

Do not click on every single link or ad you see on the Internet or in an e-mail. You should NEVER click on any link in a suspicious e-mail and stay away from ads making unrealistic promises, or claiming that you have a new message, or that there are problems on your PC that needs fixing, or that you are the quadrillionth visitor to their site and that you have won a boat trip to the Bahamas. Use your common sense and once again follow your gut, if it sounds to good to be true... it probably is.

PC Security Tip#3: Uninstall all 3rd party software that you do not use

This is a very useful tips for Windows XP users, because you automatically close down vulnerabilities in your system by removing unused software. Over time we install a lot of programs and some of them is only used once to perform one specific task. If you do not think you are going to use a specific program again, rather uninstall it.

PC Security Tip#4: Refrain from adding programs to your system tray / Windows startup

Not all programs give you the option of adding it to the system tray, but normally these programs load at startup, so if you want to remove them, remove them from the Windows startup. As a rule of thumb, if you are not using it constantly and if it is not a security program, remove it from your Windows startup. Rather launch it when you need it, than having it run in the background, filling up your memory and introducing vulnerabilities to your system. Disable stuff like the Adobe and Java Updaters and rather update them manually. Do not leave your GPS updating software running in the background, rather launch the updater when you actually want to update your GPS. Refrain from leaving programs like TeamViewer running in the background, especially if you do not need remote access to that computer on a constant basis.

PC Security Tip#5: Do not install browser toolbars or plugins / add-ons

For Windows XP users, this is a must, especially if you want to make sure you are closing down any possible weaknesses in your system. Browser plugins and toolbars are the most vulnerable parts of your browser and is normally exploited to do drive-by installs. These plugins and toolbars are normally developed by 3rd party developers and do not go through all the security standards and checks that the browser's own components had to go through.

Plugins are normally useless, unless it is a plugin for a specific, useful purpose like a dictionary. Try to stay away from all browser plugins or add-ons, but if you really need to use a browser plugin, make sure it is from a trustworthy developer and that the plugin is widely used.

While there are exceptions to plugins, browser toolbars are always useless, even the ones developed by anti-virus companies. I haven't come across a single toolbar that made my life easier. They are normally used for ads and change stuff in your browser that you never asked them to do. So stay away from browser toolbars, period.

PC Security Tip#6: Do not open attachments from unknown senders

You should not even open attachments from known senders if the e-mail look suspicious. I've seen malware sending itself to everyone on the victim's address book, so it may appear as if your best friend sent you a photo, but the attachment is actually an executable (EXE) file containing malware. Use care when opening e-mails.

PC Security Tip#7: Never let your browser save your passwords

This is once again a little common sense and good practice. The safest storage space for a password is your brain, but we all tend to forget our passwords sometimes, so rather store it in some offline location or device. Never store your passwords on a device that has Internet access and make sure the device is encrypted. I am not a big fan of a password manager, but if you have to use one, once again, use it on a computer without Internet access.

PC Security Tip #8: Only use trusted USB drives on your PC and disable Autorun

You should not trust any USB drive unless you use it yourself and even if you use it yourself, do not plug it into a computer that doesn't have an anti-virus on it. If you have to borrow it to a friend, colleague or family member, make sure you scan it with an anti-virus scanner before using it again. Use a tool like Panda's USB Vaccine to protect the USB from getting infected with Autorun malware. This tool can also be used to disable the Autorun feature on your PC altogether, which is a must for Windows XP users. Do not take any chances with USB drives on your Windows XP machine, you are more likely to get infected by a USB drive than being infected by a malicious e-mail.

PC Security Tip #9: Use an alternative browser and dump Internet Explorer

Microsoft might have stopped developing patches for Windows XP but alternative browser developers will continue to support Windows XP for quite some time. So I suggest a browser like Firefox, Chrome or even Opera. Remember, these developers will continue to update and fix their browsers, but Microsoft will no longer patch Internet Explorer 8 (which is the latest version you can install on Windows XP). Support for IE8 died when Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows XP.

PC Security Tip #10: Use an up to date anti-virus and firewall solution

Why did I not mention this as the first tip, it seems pretty important to have this in place before anything else, right? Well, that's not entirely true. If you follow tips 1 to 9 down to the last letter, without any compromises, I will even go so far as to say that you can remain safe and secure without any anti-virus software. I am not promoting the use of a PC without anti-virus software, I'm merely illustrating the point that you can minimise the risk of becoming a cyber crime victim, by having some good PC security habits.

It is not good enough to have an anti-virus application as your only line of defence against cyber attacks, these days you also need a good firewall on your PC (especially Windows XP users). Your best bet would be an Internet Security suite like avast Internet Security, but if you cannot afford the paid version, at least use a free anti-virus and firewall application.

Most people are running their Internet connections through a router these days. Make sure you are utilising the firewall features of your router and if possible, use a router with NAT (Network Address Translation) capabilities. Having a software firewall on your PC, combined with a NAT router is a great way of controlling both inbound and outbound traffic on your computer.

Conclusion

Windows XP is an old system, you can't argue that fact, but it has been and always will be a great and stable operating system. At some stage you will have to upgrade to something newer, but it has to be your own decision. I don't have a problem with Microsoft pulling the plug on Windows XP, but I have a problem with Microsoft bullying their loyal users into upgrading, by using scare tactics through claims that all Windows XP machines are suddenly insecure.

Should you upgrade immediately? Not necessarily, you can continue to use Windows XP for as long as it does the job for you. The purpose of this article is to illustrate that PC security is not only vested in a secure operating system, but also through safe and secure computer usage practices and habits. It is not the security flaws on its own that makes an operating system insecure, but the way you use that operating system, where those security flaws can be exploited.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.

The Best Internet Security

What is the best Internet security suite in the world? I've reviewed quite a number of Internet security suites and all of them have pros and cons, but what if we were able to take all the good features of each Internet security suite and build the perfect Internet security suite of all time? It is not completely impossible, because most Internet security suites have stand alone versions of their anti-malware and firewall components and some even have a stand alone version of their spam filter. Right, so what do you really need for an Internet security suite?

First of all you need a malware scanner and a resident anti-malware shield to protect your computer from malware attacks. Secondly you need a good firewall to control inbound and outbound traffic over the networks you connect to. Finally you need a good spam filter to protect you from e-mail fraud and other types of unsolicited bulk e-mails. I believe these are the most important components of a good Internet security suite. These days Internet security suites contain all kinds of extra features like parental control tools, anti-phishing tools, identity theft protection, special protection for browsers, sandboxing tools to isolate suspicious applications, ad blockers and more.

I have discovered a combination of 3 specific security applications that will protect you against malware, hackers and spammers. I chose these applications because they provide the highest level of protection without affecting the performance of your computer too much.

avast! Pro Antivirus

I will start with malware protection. avast! has the best malware detection rate of all the malware scanners I've reviewed so far. Apart from its good detection rate, it also has an impressive resident shield (or rather several resident shields). You get the File System Shield, Mail Shield (scans your e-mails for malware), Web Shield (protects you against online threats while browsing the Internet), P2P Shield (protection against treats on P2P networks), IM (Instant Messenger) Shield, Network Shield (not a firewall, but adds an additional layer of protection over your network traffic), Script Shield and the Behaviour Shield (heuristic scanner). Apart from these shields, it also provides additional protection through its Auto Sandbox (allows you to run suspicious programs without harming your system), SafeZone (a special secure desktop environment to conduct online transactions safely), Browser Protection (a special web reputation plugin and the ability to run your browser sandboxed), Remote Assistance (enables you to receive technical assistance from other avast! users, remotely) and Site Blocking features.

I guess it is clear from all the shields it has to offer, avast! Pro Antivirus can protect your computer against most threats on its own, but no security suite is complete without a good spam filter and firewall.

SPAMfighter PRO

Some people feel that a spam filter is unnecessary, but I believe a spam filter just adds another useful level of protection to your computer security. You need a spam filter to cut out all those unsolicited scam, malware, porn and enhancement product e-mails, just to name a few. Why waste your time filtering through hundreds of useless e-mails and walk the risk of being scammed or infected by malware? You might argue that the malware scanner should protect you against malware, but if the malware can't even reach your computer, there is even less risk of being infected.

Another big problem these days, is porn and indecent content being distributed and actually forced down the throats of spam victims. You don't want your children to be exposed to these e-mails and a spam filter will not necessarily eliminate the risk of exposure completely, but it will certainly lower it to an acceptable level.

SPAMfighter PRO is a unique community-based spam filter. When I say community-based, I mean that the strength of SPAMfighter lies in the amount of spam reported by SPAMfighter users worldwide. One may argue that a system like this can easily be abused. Yes, maybe, but it has been fighting the spam battle for quite some time now and is very good at identifying spam and leaving your good mail alone. When I reviewed SPAMfighter it did not flag a single good mail as spam and only a handful of junk e-mails were not identified as spam.

One of the main reasons why I like SPAMfighter so much is it compatibility with most popular e-mail clients. Many spam filters tend to work with Microsoft Outlook only, so if they are not compatible with your non-Microsoft e-mail client, they can't do the job at all, no matter how good they are at filtering spam.

Outpost Firewall Pro

These days you can't use the Internet without a proper firewall, providing adequate two-way protection for your computer. Most people think a firewall only needs to protect you from hackers trying to break into your computer, but you walk a greater risk of having sensitive information leaked from your computer to a remote location, than someone trying to gain access to it from a remote location. So you also need something to monitor your outbound traffic as well.

There is not a single personal firewall solution that can beat the level of network security and effectiveness provided by Agnitum's Outpost Firewall Pro. You know a firewall is good when companies like AVG Technologies, Lavasoft and Sophos use Agnitum's firewall technology in their own products. This is not your standard firewall, Outpost Firewall Pro comes with several additional features like Anti-Leak, System Guard, Application Guard, File & Folder Lock, Anti-Spyware scanner, Ads and Sites Blocker and ID Block. You can read more about these features in our latest review of Outpost Firewall Pro. Performance is a big issue to me, because I believe your security software should never handicap your productivity on your computer. The latest version of this firewall (version 7.5.3, also known as the Performance Edition), has been enhanced quite a lot in terms of performance.

Firewalls tend to annoy users with endless prompts and warnings, but Outpost Firewall Pro works in special Auto-Learn mode for a while. During this learning period it suppresses all those annoying prompts while learning more about the programs you often use and the network connections you normally make from your computer. It is not completely prompt-less during this period and you will still be warned about serious attacks and unauthorised connections being made to and from your computer.

What I really like about Outpost Firewall Pro is that it is much more “intelligent” than most firewalls and only bothers the user when there are some serious decisions to be made, decisions that a firewall should not be allowed to make on its own.

The only drawback about this firewall is that it may be a bit too advanced for novice users, but only when it comes to customizing the firewall to suit your needs. Because of its “intelligence” it will make the right choices during the setup process and most of the settings should work out of the box, so novice users won't have to worry about changing any settings to make the firewall work. If you are a novice user, I suggest you install avast! Pro Antivirus and SPAMfighter PRO before installing Outpost Firewall Pro, just to make your life a little bit easier.

Conclusion

avast! Pro Antivirus, SPAMfighter PRO and Outpost Firewall Pro are exceptional security programs, each in their own right. Running them side by side, gives you an edge over malware, spam and hackers.

There are basically only two disadvantages of this setup. Firstly, you can't manage these applications from a centralised location, like with an integrated Internet security suite, so you have to manage and configure them individually. One may argue that the Windows 7 security centre gives you a birds eye view over the status of all your security applications and all three applications have an auto update feature, so is it really such a big deal if you have to manage each one separately, because how much management and configuration do you have to do by hand anyway? It is probably not such a big deal, but I know some people will still prefer to have all these components bundled into one integrated security suite.

The second disadvantage of this setup is cost. It the time of writing this article, avast! Pro Antivirus will cost you $39.99, SPAMfighter PRO will cost you $19.97 and Outpost Firewall Pro will cost you $29. That is a total of $88.96. If you compare this price to that of an integrated Internet security suite, you will find that the latter is much more cheaper. avast! Internet Security will cost you $49.99, Outpost Security Suite Pro will cost you $24.97 and Kaspersky Internet Security will cost you $59.99. These suites may have a couple of extra features and they may be much cheaper, but the level of protection provided by this setup surpasses that of any integrated Internet security suite.

avast! Pro Antivirus, SPAMfigther PRO and Outpost Firewall Pro each has a free version as well, making them a great choice for a free Internet security setup you don't have $88.96 to spend on computer security software.

 About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about internet fraud and malicious software

A Quick Look at Kaspersky Internet Security 2010

I recently did an in-depth review of the latest Internet security suite from Kaspersky Lab, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 (KIS 2010). It is certainly an improvement over previous instalments, providing a more comprehensive level of protection against malware based threats. Some components have been divided into smaller, separate components, making the application very flexible in terms of customisation. What does that mean for the user? The user is able to disable unnecessary components in cases where similar protection is provided by a standalone application, for instance a spam filter or parental control application. There are a lot of good things to say about this security suite, but it is definitely not without its faults, I will discuss these in detail a little bit later.

Installation and setup
Very easy and straightforward. Getting the application up and running is child's play and the process is fairly automated, meaning very little user interaction is required during the installation procedure. I have a little bit of criticism against Kaspersky Lab going the opt-out route regarding the participation in the Kaspersky Security Network. With "opt-out" I mean that you need to explicitly opt out from participation and I would like to see this the other way around. But at least Kaspersky Lab gives you the option to opt out, unlike other software developers who never even inform you of participation in their usage data collection programs.

Updates
The software updates itself quite often, with definition updates released several times a day. The software checks for updates on an hourly basis, but certain users report that actual updates are published every three hours on average. Nevertheless, Kaspersky Lab stays up to date with the latest threats and outbreaks, to the benefit of every user of their software.

User Interface
It is quite easy to use the software, making it an attractive option for novice users. Most of the components work out of the box and customising them is no rocket science. However this can't be said of all the components. The firewall component is the least user friendly and making changes to the firewall rules, to make it behave in a way that suit your needs, is an extremely frustrating and time consuming operation.

Performance
You won't need a monster PC to run Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, but you need at least 1 GB of RAM and an 1GHz processor to run the security suite on Windows XP, without compromising the overall performance of your computer (for Vista and Windows 7, double these figures to 2GB of RAM and a 2GHz processor). Off course you will notice a slight decrease in performance, but nothing major. With the processing power of today's standard office computers, you shouldn't have any trouble running the software on one of these.

Real-time Protection
This is where Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 packs the punch. This security suite brags with a whopping 13 different security components, each one of them providing tailor made protection against specific types of threats. You are basically protected against malware (viruses, spyware, trojans, rootkits, etc.), network attacks, spam, phishing attacks, intrusive advertising through banners and even your kids are protected against inappropriate content on the Web. There is more to Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 than meets the eye and only a look under the hood can reveal the different levels of protection provided by this world class security suite.

Threat Protection Tests
This is the core of every security software review, in other words, can the software protect me when the pawpaw hits the fan? Malware tests were satisfactory, although it missed a couple of threats. Malicious files are isolated properly and accidental execution of a known threat is nearly impossible. The heuristic scanner is fairly clever too and the software defended itself perfectly when I tried to disable it by force.

The firewall fared well against the couple of leak tests I threw at it, but I was able to determine the computer's MAC address and the fact that it was up and running, with a simple port scan from another computer. The proper behaviour of a firewall in this case would be to hide the computer completely from an unauthorised computer, connected to the same network. The firewall detected and blocked the port scan, but it did not blacklist the offending PC, because it assumed that its IP address was spoofed. I would have liked an option to block the attacking computer completely, but hey, this is not a perfect world.

The spam filter is the only component in Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 that did not do so well during this review. At first I had loads of issues getting it to work in Thunderbird 2 and secondly, I discovered that there is no support for Thunderbird 3 at all (perhaps in the future?). The spam filter operates quite well in Outlook Express but the actual spam filtering left me wanting. I have to mention though, that the accuracy of the spam filter improved, after training it with more or less 150 spam e-mails, but even after all that training it still allowed obvious spam e-mails to come through. So it is disappointing to see a spam filter, with so much potential (Heuristic analysis, GSG technology for image recognition, analysis of RTF files and self-training text recognition with iBayes), struggling so much when it comes to actual spam filtering.

Value Added Protection
Like I mentioned earlier, during the discussion of the real-time protection, you also get a parental control and anti-banner component with Kaspersky Internet Security 2010. These components are disabled by default, because not everyone will have use for them. However, these simple tools are really impressive in terms of functionality, they do exactly what you would expect from them. The parental control component is easy to configure and very little configuration is needed, because it relies heavily on heuristic detection of inappropriate websites. Heuristic analysis is often something that delivers either a lot of false positives or false negatives, but the heuristic analyser of the parental control component is totally different, it is successful at detecting inappropriate sites, with very few false positives.

People with a vendetta against banner advertising will find the anti-banner component very helpful. Once again it relies on heuristic analysis to detect common banner sizes. The parental control and the anti-banner components, each has a white-list and a black-list, which can be used to explicitly allow (white-list) or block (black-list) specific websites.

Conclusion
Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, is a well rounded Internet security package. There is most certainly some room for improvement in the firewall and spam filtering division, but apart from its faults, it still remains one of the leading Internet security suites in the market. I highly recommend it for home and office use.

To win the battle against cyber crime we need comprehensive protection against online threats. We need to take the necessary precautions to keep our computers free from malware and unauthorised access. In order to achieve this goal, we need the necessary protection on our computers BEFORE an attack strikes. An Internet security suite like Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 can help you achieve this goal.

One golden rule applies to computer security, prevention is better than cure!

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about internet fraud and malicious software. For more details about this security suite, read my in-depth review of Kaspersky Internet Security 2010.

Reconciling Parental Control Software with Internet Security Principles

By Coenraad De Beer

Conventional parental control software is a security risk on its own. Parents often fail to identify the underlying risks of Internet monitoring software, but what do you use if you want to monitor your child's activity on the Internet?

Parental control software remains a useful tool to monitor your child's online activity and at the same time block inappropriate content. The fact that you are an adult does not necessarily mean you like to view offensive content, so the software can also be utilised to block offensive content on sites you often visit. Unfortunately, with the monitoring part of the software comes an inherent security risk of sensitive information that may fall into the wrong hands.

If you want to use parental control software, you need to use it responsibly, especially if you install it on a computer that is shared by several members of your household. The trustworthy members of the family need to be aware of the software and the need to have administrator privileges to disable the software before working on the computer. Parents often forget to disable the software before doing online shopping or banking, effectively allowing the key-logger component of the software to log important information such as social security numbers, credit card numbers and passwords.

Many Internet monitoring software packages take screenshots at certain intervals to capture the contents of the screen at a specific point in time. This is also dangerous if you forget to disable the monitoring part of the software, before logging into a secure area of a website. Screenshots can be taken of sensitive information that's normally only accessible behind a secure login area. All this information (keystrokes and screenshots) is stored on your hard drive, exposing it to possible exploits from crackers or spyware.

Well-written parental control software will obviously encrypt the information it logs, but crackers often decipher the encryption code in next to no time. The last thing you need is a spyware infection or an intruder on your system that can bypass the encryption of the parental control software. You don't want a stranger going through your logs if you accidentally forgot to disable the software before entering sensitive information on the Internet. So the most important thing to remember is to disable the monitoring software before you use the computer and remember to enable it again when you're done, otherwise there is no point in having the software on your computer in the first place.

Some parental control software allows you to create different profiles for different members of the family. You can for instance have a "Child" profile that blocks inappropriate content and monitors your child's activity on the web, a "Teen" profile that does not block any content, but only monitors your child's activity and a "Parent" profile that does not monitor your activity or block any content. The "Teen" profile can be activated when your teenager wants to use the computer, or you can activate the "Parent" profile if you are present while your children surfs the Internet. The "Child" profile should be used to limit Internet access while you are not at home to keep an eye on your children's Internet activity.

Kaspersky Lab recently integrated a parental control module into their Internet Security suite. It does not log keystrokes or take screenshots, it only monitors HTTP traffic. To know what your child is doing on his or her computer, you only need to monitor their Internet use. It is easy to see which games they are playing and which software they are using by examining certain areas of your system, like the Program Files folder and the Add and Remove Programs section of the control panel. Clever kids will know how to wipe this information, but most programs make connections to the Internet these days, so just by examining the HTTP traffic generated by these programs, you can easily tell which programs your child is using and which websites they are visiting.

The parental control module of Kaspersky Internet Security logs all the websites visited by your children, all the remote images loaded from e-mails that they read and all the servers they connect to for online gaming and software updates. If the logs contain entries from winamp.com, then your child is probably using Winamp to play music or movies. Entries from ea.com, might indicate that your child is playing some games developed by Electronic Arts. Your children will also download software from certain sites, which will give you another indication of what kind of software they are using. The fact that the software monitors HTTP traffic, means that you are not only limited to the traffic generated by a web browser or e-mail client, it monitors all Internet activity from any application.

The way that Kaspersky Lab approaches parental control and monitoring software, does not compromise your online safety like your conventional child monitoring software, because there is no security holes created by keystroke logging and capturing of screen data. The logs of your HTTP traffic may still contain tracking information that you may not want to reveal to advertising companies (and their spyware programs), but the beauty of this module is that it is integrated into an Internet security suite, so you are automatically protected against unauthorised access and malicious software infections, thanks to the firewall the anti-malware shields of the software. Traffic through secure servers (HTTPS) is normally encrypted, so the monitoring software only sees the encrypted data during a secure online session like Internet banking or online shopping. I still recommend that you turn of the parental control module before transmitting sensitive information over the Internet.

Up to know I basically discussed the monitoring part of parental control software. The control part allows you to block indecent content as well. Blocking inappropriate content minimises the risk of malware infections. Porn sites are often loaded with spyware, so keeping your children away from these sites, does not only protect them from exposure to harmful content, but it also protects your computer from dangerous infections. Your child's porn surfing may be the cause of a dangerous spyware infection, something you may not be aware of (especially if you don't have any spyware protection installed). You could easily log into your online banking account or enter sensitive information on the web, without realising that there are spyware lurking on your computer, watching your every move. Parental control software is not designed to protect your computer against malware infections, but preventing your children from accessing inappropriate websites, helps them to stay away from potentially dangerous websites, which is the number one rule in malware prevention.

Proper parental control software should allow you to set up filters to block specific inappropriate content, giving you complete control over what you allow your child to access on the Internet. Kaspersky Internet Security allows you to do exactly this. Lets say you want to block access to sites containing the word "murder" in the URL. You simply add the filter "*murder*" to the Parental Control Blacklist and it will block all websites containing the word "murder" in the URL. You can also blacklist specific URL's to prevent access to certain online chat rooms, web mail services or social community websites. Websites that carries your approval can be added to a white list to prevent the software from accidentally blocking it, or you may want to allow only specific pages from a site that's currently on the blacklist. The flexibility of the software allows you to fine tune the parental control software to your own specific needs, enhancing the online safety of your children.

So what is the message I'm trying to get across here? As I said at the beginning of this article, parental control and monitoring software remains a useful tool to keep an eye on your children's Internet activity when you are not present. As a parent you need to understand that parental control software poses certain security risks of you do not manage the software in a responsible way. I feel that developers of parental control software should move away from keystroke logging and screen capturing and focus on HTTP monitoring instead. Parental control software developed by a company who specialises in Internet security, gives you peace of mind that the software was designed with security as a top priority. The next step for Kaspersky Lab may be to make the module optional. Not everyone wants parental control software, but if I want to add this functionality to my computer, I'd rather buy it from a developer who has been in the Internet security industry for years, than buying the software from a developer who does not have a clue about Internet security.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security and analysts of Cyber Security Software. Read our review of Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 for an in depth look into one of the most comprehensive Internet security suites in the security software industry.

Internet Security Is More About Prevention Than Disinfection

By Coenraad De Beer

Almost everywhere you go on the Internet, you come across victims of malware, hackers, phishing attacks and e-mail scams. These victims turn up like wounded civilians at all the malware removal forums and the security divisions of community driven web sites, seeking for help and advice to recover from the damages caused by these malicious threats. It is like a war ground, claiming casualties everyday. As with any war, you suffer a lot of casualties when you allow the enemy to get past your defences and it is even worse when you have no defences at all.

An anti-malware application is just as good as its resident shield. Anything that gets past an active resident shield will seldom be detected by any anti-malware protection system. Today's generation of anti-malware packages have heuristic detection technology helping them to detect virus- or spyware-like activity without actually knowing anything about the threat. But heuristic analysis is only a secondary layer of protection, your primary line of defence against malicious software is a definition or signature file containing the details and characteristics of specific malware threats. Even firewalls and spam filters have definition files in the form of blacklists. Neglecting to keep your signature or definition files up to date is like neglecting to pay your monthly insurance premium. Your insurance company will refuse to pay out any claims because you did not maintain your insurance policy. An update a day keeps the malware at bay.

A decent anti-malware application will isolate any known malware before it enters your system, but becomes vulnerable when unknown malware enters your system undetected. It is harder for anti-malware applications to take over a system, already infected with malware, than protecting a clean system from getting infected. Anti-malware software is primarily designed to protect your system from getting infected and its secondary objective is to neutralise threats as quickly as possible before they start to spread throughout your system. I have seen how top class anti-virus systems self-destruct when they are infected with high-risk viruses that were already present on the system, before the anti-virus software was installed. It basically means that the virus infects critical components and files of the anti-virus application, the anti-virus application detects these infected files and delete them or move them to the virus vault. If the anti-virus software deletes any of its critical components, it will eventually shut down, crash or become inoperable. The only way to repair the damaged anti-virus software is to re-install it.

Installing an anti-malware application on a system already infected with malware can be troublesome. Many viruses and spyware are aggressive and kill the setup wizard of many well-known anti-virus and anti-spyware packages, preventing them from gaining control over the system. They even terminate some anti-malware scanners if they attempt to disinfect infected files or remove any threats. It is a case of taking over some territory and defending it. Malware can be programmed to do almost anything in order to retain control over your system and it is hard to get rid of stubborn and aggressive programs refusing to surrender to an anti-malware package. Viruses and spyware are normally small, operate very fast and are very flexible. They mutate all over your system, making it hard for anti-malware applications to pin them down. On Microsoft Windows systems, you can always start your computer into Safe Mode when malware refuses an anti-malware application from being installed in Normal Mode, but many anti-malware applications rely on the Windows Installer, something that is normally disabled under Safe Mode. When it comes to disinfecting an infected system, you can't expect the installer to rely on faulty, damaged, infected or disabled components of the operating system. Off course it is not possible to make the anti-malware application completely independent, but at least develop its own independent installer, with built-in malware protection. This will make it possible to run the software under Safe Mode, where many malicious programs are automatically disabled, making the job of disinfection a little easier for you and the anti-malware application.

Unfortunately there are people under the false impression that they are untouchable when they have an anti-malware application installed on their system. Any defence system will eventually fail if you continue to expose it to constant attacks. I have come across people asking for the best anti-virus protection because they have a friend or cousin using their computer to browse porn web sites, but they do not want to confront this person about it, they rather want to increase the protection on the computer. Porn sites are polluted with viruses and spyware, not viruses alone. It is because if this approach that people fail to remove spyware from their computer, because they are using the wrong tools for the job. You can't protect your system effectively against spyware, or remove spyware from your computer if you are using an anti-virus package or vice versa. You can't keep viruses from infiltrating your system by using a firewall alone. It may block a virus attempting to enter your system through a blocked port, but it will not be able to block a virus travelling through a trusted application like your browser.

Today you need protection against malware (viruses, spyware, rootkits, trojans, etc) not just viruses or spyware alone. You also need a firewall and a good spam filter. You need a browser that protects you from phishing attacks, browser hijackers and pop-up windows. Anti-malware applications are not super applications, they have their limitations and you can't expect your system to stay malware free if you constantly expose it to malware attacks from porn, illegal music and pirate software web sites. You can keep your system clean, your identity safe and prevent someone from destroying his/her life with junk like porn, by disallowing anyone (including your cousin) from using your computer for illegal and indecent activities. Who do you think is going to take the fall for illegal porn, music or pirated software? Your cousin? I don't think so, especially if YOUR computer and YOUR Internet connection were used. Even if you can prove it wasn't you, you will still be seen as an accomplice.

So what is the bottom line? Internet security is more about prevention than disinfection. The large number of single purpose disinfection tools, available for specific threats, is proof of this. Definition files are mainly for prevention and detection purposes. When a malicious program exploits vulnerabilities beyond the reach of definition files, you need a specific tool to get rid of it and often a special patch to prevent re-infection. This is why anti-malware developers have to release new versions of their software on a regular basis to stay abreast of the latest threats and vulnerabilities. Developing anti-malware applications, limited by strict standards, protocols and rules, is like arming a S.W.A.T. team with water pistols when they need to go up against a group of terrorists armed with AK47's. Malware does not play by the rules, it is time that anti-malware developers follow the same route, but without compromising the stability and performance of our computer systems.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, prevention of online fraud and raising awareness about online scams and malicious software.