# Tempted to save on security?



## Pyan (Jul 2, 2008)

This is what happens if you do....



> *Surfing the web unprotected will leave the average web user with 70 spam messages each day, according to an experiment by security firm McAfee.
> *
> It invited 50 people from around the world, including five from the UK, to surf without spam filters.
> 
> ...



BBC NEWS | Technology | Spam experiment overloads inboxes


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## Commonmind (Jul 2, 2008)

First of all, I love the BBC. I wish us Americans spent more time doing interesting things with our media outlets (and here's to hoping they don't screw up Top Gear). 

Very interesting read (and watch), Pyan, thanks.


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## Happy Joe (Jul 2, 2008)

There are free "protection" programs out there for the obsessively penurious...

Avast antivirus
avast! antivirus software download

comodo firewall 
SSL Free Firewall Two Factor Authentication Products from Comodo

threatfire
ThreatFire AntiVirus - Behavioral Virus and Spyware Protection

spybot
The home of Spybot-S&D!

Are a few...

Enjoy!


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## Ice fyre (Jul 2, 2008)

I saw a trial they did a while back, they hooked up an unguarded PC and to slaved to a guarded machine, what they got was amazing how quickly it was infected by spy ware and viruses.

make you depair about human nature that eedjits are constantly trying to get into our machines, and wreck them or worse steal our data.


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## Ice fyre (Jul 2, 2008)

Thanks happy Joe was looking for a free anti virus programme for ages. 

Cause I'm a tight wad


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## Happy Joe (Jul 2, 2008)

My home network was once hacked (destroyed a bit of stuff) I did some investigation and actually found some boards/online discussions on hacking and how to get through/bypass firewalls, write/send trojans, steal data etc...

It was discouraging... to say the least.

I still maintain a separate, dedicated, expendable, machine for surfing/web interaction as a result.

Enjoy!


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## Dave (Jul 2, 2008)

Happy Joe said:


> I still maintain a separate, dedicated, expendable, machine for surfing/web interaction as a result.


Rather than buy a separate computer, this product uses the same idea: Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico

There is an even smaller version of the device now. I don't have one, but I was thinking about getting one. I hate how slow my computer works and how slow it starts up due to the anti-virus and anti-spam software.


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## Commonmind (Jul 2, 2008)

Home network security is and has always been an abject endeavor. If, on the very slim chance there were someone targeting you and your PC, they could very likely get into it without a hitch -- despite the protection you have in place. The knowledge required (and the places from which one acquires it) is something of an easy thing to come by.

I'm of the mind that preventative maintenance is the best kind -- in almost the same way your bodily health works in real life; keep yourself in good physical condition, make smart decisions about what you consume and use logic and reason in every situation and you'll likely not run into any major problems. This is unlike the method most of us use, which is wait until we get sick and throw a bunch of pills at the illness -- the fleshy equivalent to using a key-gen and then running AVG.

Save the occasional fluke, like malicious script embedded into perfectly reputable web-pages you may frequent on a daily basis, using a solid browser, limiting the amount of questionable software you download and using healthy browsing practices will lead to near trouble-free surfing. There are times where you will become the target of attack, as was the case with Happy Joe, but those instances are so rare. Real hackers simply don't target the every-day end-user as there is no benefit in doing so.


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## ktabic (Jul 2, 2008)

My first thought at reading that was *only* 70 a day? But then the spam countermeasures I put in place a couple of months ago have dragged it from 1400+ a week to 400 a week. Not bad for email accounts that have been kicking around for ten years or so.

As for firewalls/antivirus/spyware, I use linux (Slack FTW!) so am safe in my smug geeky superiority  (and behind two firewalls )


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## PTeppic (Oct 30, 2008)

ktabic said:


> My first thought at reading that was *only* 70 a day? But then the spam countermeasures I put in place a couple of months ago have dragged it from 1400+ a week to 400 a week. Not bad for email accounts that have been kicking around for ten years or so.



Quite - when my 12 year old email accounts hit the 400-500 mark, per day, I enabled the ISP's filtering solution.


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