ROME: 11th November 2005 -- The last item in what may
become a short series on simple computer stuff obviously struck a
chord. Here is another, in response to a request: how can
we Salesians exercise our moral responsibility to protect our computers
from nasty things coming in and from those who may want to pry into or
worse steal sensitive documents? And we have to do this in just a
paragraph or two! It won't be complete, but here is something to
work with at least.
1. The term 'we Salesians' is used
deliberately above - it wouldn't hurt a Province to give some thought
to the issue as a policy. A new slant on the Preventive System, I
realise, but an important one nonetheless; a Computer Protection Policy
might offer at least broad advice along these lines: Beware anything
that solicits; change passwords regularly (6 months) and use 'strong'
passwords; use at least one anti-spyware program even if you have to
pay for it (there are free ones); every computer should be behind a
firewall - the 'house' or 'institute' one if you have a local server,
or at least the Win XP one if you have that - or both (there are other
free firewall options too); beware of and probably don't use P2P
breakthrough technology (Peer-to-peer file sharing) since it is open to
both pornography and copyright violation; use chat and IM (messaging)
cautiously - better still don't use it. Encrypt very sensitive
material. There would be more, but the above is a start.
2. Now to take up a couple of the above with
some simple offerings and descriptions: A firewall is an
electronic wall that sits between your computer and the internet.
It asks you (at least once) before something can go either way, though
it's best at stopping things coming in. Many use Win XP, so use
theirs. Otherwise find a free one (ZoneAlarm? Other?) No-one
should be on the internet without a firewall in operation, full stop!
3. Spyware/adware: Trend Micro
Antispyware is a free utility on the Web that will do the job for you -
detect and help you remove. Spyware can take personal information
(including passwords) from your computer. Adware is mainly a
nuisance. There are free pop-up blockers which will stop the
nuisance and prevent you from clicking accidentally on things that may
install spyware or unwanted programs. And while we're at it,
beware all 'free' offers other than Open Source 'free' and reputable
company type 'free' (e.g. Avast! Home Edition will do what ClamWin will
do and more but it is not Open Source, you have to register, yet it is
free and stays that way) Oh - and you should be able to trust 'free'
computer advice from austraLasia!
4. Passwords. Two things here. Use
'strong' passwords, e.g. IC'tRmU&P (I can't remember my username
and password!) and not weak ones (qwerty-iu). Strong here means
random - random with numbers, letters, uppercase, lowercase and
acceptable symbols. Secondly, why not use Password Safe - a safe
where you store all your different passwords - those things so easily
forgotten if they are random! - where you only need one password to
find all your others. Get it (free - it's Open Source) at
http://www.counterpane.com/passsafe.html
5. And finally, encryption: I believe we
have a moral duty to encrypt sensitive material. How can you do
it? Forget simple encryption like putting things in zip files
with a password. Even strong passwords can be cracked in a
relatively short period of time. I suggest TrueCrypt. It is
free, Open Source, easy to use and is like an industrial
strongroom. You can encrypt a whole drive, a USB pendrive or even
create a virtual drive which holds some encrypted files. (But remember,
make the password strong or you leave the door open anyway). Just
yesterday or the day before, Tony Blair lost a vote in the UK
parliament because he wanted law-enforcement to have 90 days to hold a
suspect. A compelling reason given was that it took at least that
long to decrypt computer hard-drives of suspects. That gives you
two pieces of information: (1) that TrueCrypt would take about that
long to decrypt and (2) that any encryption could probably eventually
be broken - at huge cost. They did it to NASA after all.
I hope there is something in all of the above for
everyone. JBF
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