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Click for Presentation Materials: |
Computer Security by Dick Curry (htm) (pdf) Followup Comments by Dick Curry (htm) |
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Computer and Technology |
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Rossmoor Computer Club Presented by Leonard Krause Forty-five SIR members attended the October 16 meeting of the SIR Area 2 CUG. Dick Curry briefly summarized the September meetings, identifying the primary goals of our group as problem solving, learning more about computers and software and enhancing skills with hardware, software and the Internet. Dick introduced the speaker, Leonard Krause from the Rossmoor Computer Club who described the club and its programs. The educational component of the club is at the old Del Valle High School but the club office is in Rossmoor. They have an active educational program, open to all, with laboratories stocked with computers and credentialed teachers. Detailed information on 'Older Adult' Mac and Windows courses, requirements, and costs can be found on the Acalanes Adult Education web site. In addition the Rossmoor Computer Club holds summer and holiday social events … for contact information see the Rossmoor Computer Club web site. The educational programs are self supporting with modest fees for courses. Computer Security by Dick Curry The main topic for the day was security and was continued by Dick Curry from the September meeting. This topic is important because 80 thousand viruses are known, and 200 more are believed to be released each month. Individual risk is related to number and type of users, Internet use, broadband or dialup, downloading attachments, programs being run, antiviral program and maintenance, and the presence of a firewall. A firewall is critical if connected via cable or DSL, particularly if the computer is left on. A couple free firewall programs were provided which will be on our website. Periodically scan all drives for viruses. To protect yourself, have a good antiviral program installed and keep it updated regularly. Norton’s antiviral was Curry’s choice. He recommends replacing the program every year or two to get the most current engine. Malware is usually from the Internet, consequently keeping antiviral protection up to date is essential. Dick recommends that Internet security be set no lower than “medium”, that file and printer sharing privileges in network neighborhood be turned off unless you require file and printer sharing on a home network system (and then definitely have a firewall router and/or a firewall software program in place and consider password protecting all shares privileges), and that e-mail attachments be checked for viruses before opening. If in doubt a attachment should be saved to file, its file extension checked, and scanned with your anti-virus program before opening. Hidden files and all extensions should be shown in Windows Explorer in order to help identify potentially dangerous attachments, those with more than one extension including ones which will automatically extract. Down loaded macros should be checked thoroughly before using. Keep current with Microsoft Security Patches. Disable automatic completion of password, but be sure to keep a record of each password. Spyware was introduced but not covered in detail because of time constraints. A number of valuable URLs were provided which are available in his presentation materials listed above. |