Security - It's not fun sometimes but be thankful it's there

With Thanksgiving long weekend round the corner, here's a post dedicated to IT Security.Security isn't the happiest topic in the tech business. It's not like PCs and phones that get more powerful and cheaper all the time or displays that get bigger and more brilliant. It's mostly a steady stream of bad news or, at best, mitigations of bad situations. But there's still plenty to be thankful for.

It's unfortunate that the basic state of computing is insecure and that you will be attacked if you don't defend yourself. But you can defend yourself and defenses do get better all the time. Combined with some experience and a skeptical attitude, modern software can protect you very effectively.

I'll avoid business products which, I would argue, provide much more defensive power than consumer products. Consumers can still do a good job by following a few basic rules:

• Don't run Windows XP. Run Windows 7 or at least Windows Vista.
• For your everyday tasks, run as a standard, i.e. less-privileged user. If you get a UAC prompt for elevation, pay attention to it.
  • If an application you run doesn't work well in this environment, try to find a replacement. That application is probably badly-designed and you should blame the developers.
• Keep your operating system and applications up to date.
• Run a security suite and keep it up to date.
• Don't install software casually. Look carefully at what you're installing and at what happens in the installation process. Remove software from your system if you're no longer using it.

Can you still get burned if you follow these guidelines? Yes, but it's highly unlikely, certainly far less likely than if you don't take security seriously. The garden-variety attack out there will raise some flag that you can see. Even a high-quality targeted attack like Stuxnet can be stopped by rigorous methods, but such attacks are very rare.

And if you're a Mac user, be thankful for the fact that, by and large, the malware community still doesn't find you to be worth their attention. This situation may be changing slowly, but you're still flying under the radar.

If you put a little money and effort into securing your computers you can do it effectively. So make sure everything's up to date and then be thankful that you'll be able to rely on your systems and then go stuff your face and watch some football.