Monday, December 14, 2009

The Ultimate Guide For PC Security


The Ultimate Guide For PC Security


Being a hacker, you're coming face to face with some of the most malicious programs on the internet every day. You want to be secure. Most of the programs you'll be downloading will be malicious, so how can you tell if the program will be working against you or for you?
This guide will be looking at the sca
nning of malicious files, as well as a guide to anti-viruses & firewalls and a brief introduction to "sand boxing" and anonymity. So yep, you're in for quite a bit of reading. Grab a drink, maybe a cigarette.

Being secure is important. Just because you call yourself
a hacker, it doesn't mean you're immune to attacks towards your computer. Without my anti-virus, I doubt I'd actually be typing this now - I'd probably be searching through my registries and screaming like a chicken on speed. I'm like that.

Not all anti-viruses work the same way. Some anti-virus programs are bad; some are good, and some are just plain useless. We'll be looking at which ones are the best of the best, and which ones are just plain fail.
Being infected with something can also put your friends and family at risk, other users of your computer could be h
aving their log in & credit card details stolen without any knowledge of it. Worms can also spread to your email contacts and friends on popular websites such as Face book.


Downloads & Scanning
 

For example, you download a program and the poster is claiming that it is a clean bot net controller. If we can this, it wi ll come up with results such as "Win32/RBot" etc.. This means that the file should be what we wanted.
Now, if the bot net-controller scan came up as something like "Win32/Trojan.agent.a", we can tell that this is a malicious program that will against work us. This is an example of a download you do not want to use.
All in all, the scan should show results similar to what
you were downloading.

You should always be careful what you download. You may often be downloading malicious software without even realizing sometimes. Trust me, this happens to a lot more people than you think.
If you're expecting a file to be much bigger than the download you find, don't touch it. An example of this would be "Windows XP Theme - 350kb!" when it should be a lot higher, such as 30-50mb.
Remember to always check the names of the files you download.. If you're downloading a cracked program, it would be unu
sual for it to have no credits or advertisements in it. I would trust " 'x' cracked by 'y' " more than I'd trust " 'x' crack". Credits, names or advertisements should nearly always be in .rar or .zip files, this is one good way of recognizing a trusted download.
Here is a quote from Wikipedia which you may find helpful: "Example: ZTreeWin_1.5.zip contains a crack to register Ztree
Win 1.51 included files are: keygen.exe, one.nfo, file_id.diz and 'RUN.EXE'. It is the 'RUN.EXE' that contains the rogue program"
Downloading really isn't necessary and i
s often risky, but we have some clean content in the HF-L33t section if you wan t to upgrade for that.

Online File Scanners ---------------------


Web-scanners such as "Virus-total" and "NoVirusThanks" are becoming increasingly popular with the amount of anonymous downloads posted all over the internet.

If you want to scan a file you find suspicious, you ca n go to either http://virustotal.com or http://novirusthanks.org to do so.
Virus Total will send samples of the file to the anti virus companies, so this is not recommended if you want to keep your file undetectable.

"No Virus Thanks" has an "Advanced options" area where you can choose to not distribute your file to the anti virus companies, this is handy for keeping things fully undetectable, but if it's a file you don't trust and don't want yourself or others to be infected by it in the future, I suggest you allow them to distribute it to the anti virus companies. I respect what these websites and the malware fighting websites do, and so should yo


Visiting Websites & Reading Emails.


Be cautious of the websites you visit. I wouldn't recommend visiting any websites that seem cheap, uncommon, or freely hosted. Malicious websites are often misleading or can just inject things into your system without your consent. If you use the "Chrome" bro wser from Google, you may have noticed that it automatically downloads files without prompting you. Chrome is a browser I would not recommend just because it is so new, all new things have vulnerabilities, and if a vulnerability can be exploited, it will be exploited.
I'm behind a firewall and anti-virus anyway, but the only websites I visit are popular ones. The untrustworthy and uncommon websites usually don't appeal to me, for obvio
us reasons..
When opening emails, you should also be cautious
. Just bec ause it's an email from your friend - it doesn't mean you can trust it! You may see some emails asking you to update your bank details -- your banks should never ask you to do that via email. The details you enter will be sent out to someone who is going to exploit your details, so steer away from these emails.
Worms can be spread via email. For example, you open an email from Bob containing a worm, this worm is th
en sent to all of your contacts. This is how most worms will work, and it is s uggested that you change your emailing service if it could be vulnerable. You can use Microsoft's live hotmail service which is excellent, it will also disable any harmful content from downloading onto your computer. You can find this service at http://mail.live.com

Firewalls 
 

The good anti viruses will have a built-in Firewall, but if not, then it may be worth downloading one. Firewalls aren't essential, but can help a lot.
Some firewalls have IP masking options, but these can usually slow down your computer and are not worth using unless you're d
oing something illegal.

The main use of a firewall is to prevent incoming traffic, which will stop things like 'telnet' from reaching your connection, and can also stop worms etc. from accessing your network. Firewalls will also block the backdoors that Trojans create, so if you find yourself unlucky enough to have a RAT (Remote Access T rojan) on your computer, the backdoor should be blocked by your firewall, but it is possible for a Trojan to bypass this. Having a firewall does not mean you are secure, many firewalls can be easily disabled or bypassed by malware. Some firewalls will also block legit connections, such as downloads for software. Do not think you're secure just because you have a firewall, this is a common misconception with firewalls. Too many people think tha t by installing a highly popular firewall, they'll instantly be secure against the latest intrusions, but this is not at all true.
Firewalls may also make an effect on your connection speed. If you have a very fast download speed, you may n
otice a difference when you get a firewall, but the download speed may remain normal on users with slower speeds. This effect can vary between users, and depends on the connection. It's best to try several f irewalls to find out which one suits you best - reviews are personal and will not always be the same for everyone.
One of the favourite firewalls is "ZoneAlarm" which is very popular and has a free version. The paid version is obviously better, but it isn't necessary at all.

If you're using Windows Vista, I'd recommend choosing ZoneAlarm as your firewall. The same goes for XP, but you might want to get your hands on a "BlackIce" crack instead, if possible.
Another great Firewall is "Comodo" which is also free can be found here...



Comodo: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
Zone Alarm: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/c...
wall_b.jsp
Ghost: http://www.ghostsecurity.co
m/ghostwall/


Antiviruses 
 

An anti-virus program is essential. You honestly shouldn't go without one. If you don't have one, there is a list of downloads and recommendations in the next post. Don't be worried about the anti-virus slowing down your computer, if you get the r ight one then your computer will remain at maximum performance.
You want an anti virus that will scan your RAM
and system folders constantly, because then you will be alerted if something harmful has been found in them. The average anti virus will only scan and remove when told to, but the best ones will scan constantly, update daily, and give plenty of tweaking options to fit to your preferences.

If there are malicious programs that you want to download such as Metasploit, it is best if you have an anti virus that will allow you to do so. Some anti virus programs will give you no optio n and will quarantine the file straight away, but others such as Kaspersky will give you the option to clean, remove or ignore.
Viruses can sometimes fully disable your protection,
but the stronger programs such as Nod32 can withstand this and will be unclosable. You want something tough if you're going to be downloading riskware.
A good anti-virus will also constantly scan your downloads and running processes. Hopefully you are able to understand now why these are essential.

If you want to run more than one antivirus, you must find a combination that works. If you have a good antivirus, you won't need to. Infact, you shouldn't ever need to run more than one. I remember having Kaspersky running while I installed Nod32, my PC growled. :3 The only antivirus-related programs I have installed at the moment are HijackThis, ComboFix and NOD32. I like to use HijackThis to see what's running on my computer, and I always keep ComboFix just incase, you never know what's round the corner...
I remember having no antivirus software installed whatsoever, and then I received a rootkit that wouldn't let me download any software.. I got rid of them eventually, but it wasn't easy, the rootkit wasn't detected by most AV's because of it being so new/rare - you still can't find it on a few of the AV databases! But I do wish I had it again, so I could send it out as a sample.
I will be listing my favourite anti-viruses in my next post. I strongly recommend you stick to these, as there are many fake ones that you can be easily lead to. Remember to look things up before downloading them.


The Top 5 Anti-virus Programs.

Here's the list of my top five favourite anti-virus programs in order.
You can pick which you want from each picture, but I'd recommend
Avira


1.Avira

 

                       Download From Here



2. Bit Defenender





            Download From Here

3. Kaspersky




Download From Here


4. Avast





                   Download From Here


5.  Avg



Download From Here
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