The importance of safe surfing

The internet is a wild place: an ungoverned electronic land at the other end of your modem cable. Despite the lack of order, though, few people give a second thought to exploring it unprotected.

Many online adventurers are unaware that connecting to the web can expose a computer to all manner of peril. If it's not the latest email-borne electronic virus seeking to erase a PC's hard disk, it's hackers eager to sift through surfers' personal files and folders, given half a chance.

Of course, it's not the casual web surfer's fault that, when connected to the net, most home computers offer the same level of defence that a bikini offers a swimmer in shark-infested waters. In short, if you're active on the internet, you need some proper protection.

Get tooled up

Any internet-connected computer should be equipped with two key software tools, the first of which is an antivirus system. This will guard against electronic contagion, which is now rife.

Computer viruses take many forms, and internet users must avoid them at all costs. In extreme cases, they can wreak havoc on a user's PC by erasing important files and documents before latching onto outgoing emails and continuing their destruction.

Even if a virus's only aim is to amuse the unsuspecting recipient with a silly message or two, an infection is bad news; time spent dealing with even a 'harmless' virus is time wasted.

It's easy to think that you don't need antivirus software: after all, you'd never be fool enough to launch email attachments from unknown sources.

But even if you exercise proper caution, your friends and colleagues may not. Viruses need the help of unwitting humans to spread, and there's no shortage of those.

When viruses relied on the use of floppy disks for transmission, they had a much tougher time. But the massive popularity of the internet has now given them a very easy way to spread.

Another reason to maintain up-to-date protection is that, just like real bugs, computer viruses are constantly evolving. In the world of the virus writer, outwitting virus protection systems is an ever present and irresistible challenge.

We may all know that launching email attachments is dangerous, but who can tell what form tomorrow's evils will adopt? Unless you're blessed with clairvoyance, the only sure way to protect against viruses is to invest in virus checking software.

To help guide you, we've looked at three of today's most popular antivirus products. You might decide to buy one from a High Street retailer or download the latest editions from the associated websites, but do get one.

Light my firewall

Sadly, viruses aren't the only hazard lurking online. Around every virtual corner lie computer hackers, people with more time than social lives on their hands.

In fact, the hacking fraternity is a social circle all of its own; internet newsgroups abound with hacker chat, from hints and tips to the latest conquests of the hacking elite. Dedicated hackers use technical tricks to mask their true identities and locations, promoting their deeds through pseudonyms instead.

For most, their only desire is to achieve peer-group recognition: the grander the hack, the greater the status.

In a way, this is good news for everyday net users, the majority of whom would be unworthy of attention from ambitious hackers. Why waste time gunning for the birthday card list stored on Joe Bloggs' home PC when there are missile-firing Pentagon computers to infiltrate?

Even so, you should not be complacent. Hackers have to learn their trade somehow, and someone's computer has to be the target. And since home PCs are generally the least protected, it should come as no surprise to hear that hackers use them to practise. The way to guard against these virtual assaults is to install a firewall.

A firewall is essentially a software bouncer, blocking a computer's doorway to the net. Depending on its assigned rules, a firewall may interrogate any or all communications the shielded PC attempts to make.

The protection extends to both incoming and outgoing net traffic, and nothing can bypass the firewall unless expressly permitted by the operator.

For instance, entering a web location into a browser window causes a PC to access an external server computer containing the requested web page. A firewall program can be set to block access to certain websites or web addresses containing proscribed key words such as 'sex' or 'porn'.

If the rules permit the internet-access request, the electronic information will be allowed through the firewall to, in this example, the computer's web browser.

Working in reverse, firewalls validate external demands for data stored on a safeguarded computer, turning down those that fail to adhere to its set of rules. In other words, no-one from the outside can gain access to a firewall-protected PC without the machine having some say in the matter.

In truth, firewalls are a necessity only on computers that have a permanent internet connection. Dial-up web users are less exposed to the threat of hackers because they cut their connection at the end of each internet session.

That's not to say that modem users shouldn't consider buying firewall software, rather that they present hackers with fewer opportunities to attack. Security is always a good investment.

One last piece of advice: some of the antivirus and firewall products reviewed here can be bought as a double pack, enabling you to save money.

If you're investing for the first time in both firewall and antivirus, be sure to call the companies concerned and request information about current offers.

Expel those spies

A final category worth mentioning in relation to internet security is sweeping software. When you surf the net, you leave a trail. Behind the scenes, the web browser caches to hard disk website addresses, audio files, graphics and animations from visited sites in order to speed up return trips.

Some websites will even prompt your computer to create 'cookies', little files containing personal information about your surfing habits.

While these are innocuous enough, we imagine few people are keen on having hundreds, possibly even thousands, of files containing personal data littered on their computer's hard disk.

Even more alarming is the advent of something known as 'spyware'. An increasing number of websites and internet operations are making use of these devious little software applications, which are often downloaded automatically and installed without the user's knowledge or permission, to monitor surfing activities and forward the details back to the originating outfit.

The perpetrators argue that spyware isn't harmful in any way, but how would you feel about a program that arrived unannounced, eavesdropped on your every online action and snitched on you later?

If you don't like the sound of any of this, the products we've looked at in this article can help you take back control.

I spy, something beginning with 's'

We're not talking about so-called cookies here; these small text files reside unseen on a user's hard disk and do not undertake cloak-and-dagger communications. Spyware is an application specifically designed to seek personal information and return it in underhand fashion to those third parties willing to pay for it.

In the main, these third parties are marketeers wishing to target their materials more effectively.

The worst spyware exponents present their wares as entirely innocent add-ons. Sometimes, these programs install themselves on a victim's computer without warning, and can be very difficult to get rid of.

Once downloaded, Comet Systems' Comet Cursor, for instance, can embed itself so deeply into Windows that later removal takes serious effort. Meanwhile, the company behind the program boasts proudly that some 115 million people have downloaded Comet Cursor. How many did so unwittingly, it fails to make clear.

Critics highlight the fact that spyware tries to hide its actions; if spyware developers' data-gathering operations were not suspect, ask the detractors, why mask them?

The flipside of the argument is that without the revenue generated from the sale of surfing habits and harvested personal information, many of today's favourite 'freeware' applications would cease to exist.

We have no qualms about taking a stand on this: spyware is a bad thing. We accept the need for developers to make money, be it from the sale of programs or personal information, but businesses should always be upfront about their methods.

If a company stands to profit at the expense of your privacy, it should have the courtesy to ask permission.

Our advice is to get hold of some spyware-sweeping software as soon as you can. In the meantime, if you're at all worried, increase your web browser's security settings to their maximum level.

This will limit the spread of spyware. You can do this in Internet Explorer by choosing Internet Options from the Tools menu; click the Security tab to tweak the settings.

FIREWALLS

Norton Personal Firewall 2002

Personal Firewall does all the grunt-work when it comes to program set-up. An installation wizard allows manipulation of various elements, but all options have a pre-selected recommendation, so a few clicks on the 'Next' button soon brings the operation to an end.

Even so, there are incentives to tailor Personal Firewall. The Privacy Control feature, for example, records sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and bank details, and promises to prevent their unauthorised transmission.

Sadly, though, this claim works better in theory than in practice: we fooled the program into releasing supposedly protected details by simply altering the formatting of the data. If you have two or more computers networked together, Personal Firewall will ring-fence them as a 'trusted zone', allowing data to pass freely between them.

Price: £29.99 (inc VAT)

Contact:Symantec 01628 592 222
www.symantec.co.uk

ZoneAlarm Pro

ZoneAlarm Pro's set-up procedure is outstanding. It allows the user to choose the level of required guidance, so it's useful for both beginners and experts.

The novice route lives up to its promise, serving up a series of informative dialog boxes and clearly phrased security questions. Once done, ZoneAlarm gets to work right away and, like many firewall programs, its presence is most felt early on.

To begin with, it seems that almost every user action results in a warning that some program or other is trying to access this, that or the other internet service.

ZoneAlarm's simple 'Shall I allow this?' question-and-answer method eventually reduces such annoyances to a minimum, flagging up only the most dubious activities.

We don't have sufficient space to cover in detail all of ZoneAlarm's benefits, but it is one of the most attractive personal firewall packages we've come across. A free-of-charge version is available for download from the developer's website.

Price: $49.95 (around £29 inc VAT)

Contact: ZoneAlarm 49 6196 773 670 (Germany)
www.zonealarm.co.uk

Preventon

The developers behind Preventon describe their program as a 'hacker's nightmare,' but the same could be said of any of the products gathered here. After all, any firewall unable to render a net-connected computer invisible to the outside world is clearly not doing the job expected of it.

In the ease-of-use stakes Preventon is on a par with ZoneAlarm, although the dialog boxes and screens have a less pleasant, more hard-edged look; but this is a purely aesthetic criticism.

Talking of aesthetics, the program offers some nice intruder alerts which colour-code attacks according to their 'severity'. Anything that flashes up red is probably worth watching closely.

Even though the program is straightforward to set up, we felt that the supplied manual is insufficient. Its 10 slim pages cover only the surface of Preventon's functionality.

Price: £24.99 (inc VAT)

Contact: Preventon 0118 959 5000
www.preventon.com

ONLINE UPDATES

It seems barely a week goes by without a software company issuing a security alert. Sometimes the warnings point to minor program flaws and can be safely, if not entirely wisely, forgotten, but on other occasions there could be dire consequences if they are ignored.

For example, the Windows XP 'Unchecked Buffer in Universal Plug and Play Can Lead to System Compromise' security vulnerability doesn't sound particularly worrying.

However, when you discover that a failure to fix the hole could allow malicious net users to run code of their choice on your home PC, it begins to look a bit more serious.

When you then hear that Microsoft has attached a 'critical severity rating' to the warning and advises all Windows XP users to apply a patch immediately, the gravity of the situation hits home.

For most people, the best way to obtain critical software patches is to use the Windows Update tool. Available from Windows 98 onwards, Windows Update connects automatically to a dedicated area of Microsoft's website and checks for the latest updates.

If any are found, the user is alerted and a course of action decided: recent editions of Windows attend to themselves comprehensively, but earlier versions demand more user interaction.

However, not all software is Microsoft-made, so it's important to make an inventory of your collection and keep an eye on any updates issued by the associated developers.

If your list is long, you should bookmark a website such as The Software Patch (www.softwarepatch.com), which will do much of the hard work for you. Use the site's menu system to search through the latest updates for today's popular applications.

ANTIVIRUS

Norton AntiVirus 2002

We wouldn't question Symantec's line that Norton AntiVirus is the 'world's most trusted antivirus solution', but does it deserve to be? Perhaps.

Like all antivirus programs, Norton's effort is only as reliable as its last update. Fortunately, the program includes a feature called 'LiveUpdate', which effectively keeps the information up to date by downloading new definitions as soon as they are available.

It works well enough, but we can't help thinking that boxed antivirus products are an anachronism in this internet age. LiveUpdate doesn't come free - an annual subscription is required for ongoing use - so why not use an online antivirus service like McAfee.com instead? It works out cheaper in the (admittedly quite long) term.

That said, if you do not have a fast or unmetered net connection, downloading McAfee.com's multi-megabyte tools could cost a small fortune.

Price: £39.99 (inc VAT)

Contact: Symantec 01628 592 222
www.symantec.co.uk

McAfee VirusScan Online

McAfee is a commercially confused brand. The company that produces McAfee's boxed products - Network Associates - is a different entity to that which now runs McAfee's high-profile online service, McAfee.com.

Network Associates does, though, have a significant financial interest in McAfee.com, and is making moves to buy back the net incarnation (in order to remove the confusion the company itself created by spinning it off in the first place).

The upshot is that there are two McAfee VirusScan products: online and in-store. Since new viruses are constantly emerging, it seems more sensible to use the online edition. Besides, it works out cheaper and, apart from a lengthy download, there's little difference between the two.

Price: $49.90 for two-year subscription (around £29, inc VAT)

Contact: www.mcafee.com

Kaspersky KAV Lite/Personal

Kaspersky is a company that seems to have come from nowhere, but it arrived with a welcome gift in the shape of Kaspersky AntiVirus. It offers no-nonsense, low-cost antivirus protection. Best of all, you pay only for the features you need.

The product is available in two flavours - full-blown Personal or slimmed-down Lite ? and, compared with the competition, it's a minimalist operator.

Indeed, so small is the Lite version that its sub-7Mb install file can be downloaded in around half an hour, using a 56K modem.

The larger 10Mb Personal edition install file extends Lite's basic antivirus toolkit to include an automatic email and office documents checker, as well as allowing a much greater level of control over the way the program executes itself. This is the preferred buy but, if you're on a tight budget, the Lite edition comes recommended.

Price: Lite: £15.86 (one-year licence inc VAT); Personal: £28.14 (one-year licence inc VAT)

Contact: Kaspersky 01223 576001
www.kasperskylab.co.uk

OTHER USEFUL PRODUCTS

Ontrack Internet Clean-up

This is a fabulous set of tools that allows you to scan your computer's hard disk for personal files and folders you never knew existed. The ability to empty the web browser's cache and remove internet cookies is useful, but Internet Clean-up really excels in other areas.

The Spyware button, for instance, lets you see just how many of these insidious applications you have installed, even if you didn't know they were there.

The same technique can be applied to other internet add-ins, like ActiveX controls and plug-ins, although admittedly, it's less likely you'll want or need to remove these.

Internet Clean-up can also be used to silence other tell-tales, like the web browser history list and the log of recently used files and folders.

It can be set to do its tidying automatically, or the user can assume full, precise control over the various operations. A fantastic little suite.

Price: £16.99 download; £23.99 boxed (inc VAT)

Contact: Ontrack 00800 10121314
www.ontrack.co.uk

SpyStopper

SpyStopper is one of the most popular shareware programs around, and with good reason. A small download (2Mb) gets you a program designed to block almost all types of undesirable net traffic, such as cookies, pop-up adverts and, most importantly, spyware.

Despite the rather dated look of the interface the program is a cool operator, displaying active counts of the types of attempted invasions blocked. Interestingly, it deals with so-called 'web bugs'.

Web bugs are invisible parts of websites designed to extract information about a visitor's surfing practices. SpyStopper not only prevents web bugs from doing their dirty work, it also pinpoints their precise position on screen.

The program can be configured to block all offending websites. All the while, it maintains a log of its actions, so you can examine it at any time and see who has been flagged and what they were up to. Worth the try-before-you-buy download.

Price: $19.95 (around £12, inc VAT)

Contact: ITCompany 00 1 724 772 3403 (US)
www.itcompany.com

PGPfreeware 7.0.3

If you're concerned about snoops spying on you, an encryption program may allay your fears. The best-known cipher software is PGP, now available in a final 'freeware' version.

Network Associates, which owns the technology, has effectively been forced to kill it off because of suffocating restrictions in the US on the distribution of encryption systems.

Many users give this swan song editor a thumbs-up for simplicity, but conspiracy theorists have issued steer-clear warnings. Has the company been arm-twisted into including 'backdoors' for government spooks? Well, we can't answer that, but PGP freeware does scramble emails with ease.

While debate over the security of its encryption continues, we've decided not to rate PGP freeware. It's free, so try it and see.

www.download.com

See also:

ISPs want e-commerce liabilities clarified

Providers raise concerns over EU directive  15 Aug 2002

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