Where to start learning?

Hi,

I'd like to get to grips with security issues but I'm far from being tooled-up IT-wise (i.e. I'm a novice).

How do you recommend I get started?

Many Thanks

 

grl69,

This is another good place to start, it has all kinds of tips and answers on security for your computer, and where to find the answers on the internet too!

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=53972

 

Hi grl69

microsoft provides some great videos check them out here http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/videos/default.mspx

 

One way to start is "by example". By this I mean, you can look at what other users on this forum are using for their security, and my understanding the products, you can begin to understand the different aspects of security - which is quite diverse. This link might help you:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=22741

Rich

 

You may want to take a look here. As well there are discussions on security software here and even more here.

Hope this helps...

Let us know how you go.

Cheers

 

dereks anti malware page is also very good http://homepage.ntlworld.com/derekpotter/hazards/hazards.htm

 

and this link is very good for links to security software (both free and paid), and tips and tricks on improving software security http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/main-nf.htm

It has tips on how to improve IE security, halfway down the left hand column, as well as a whole range of privacy and security advice.

 

Good start.

This forum is good, but one of the greatest weakness of the people here is that they tend to go "software crazy".

Understanding what threats are out there and how to counter them is more important than running head long into a thread full of people boasting about the security software they use.

While these people may (hopefully) know* what they are doing, the strengths and weaknesses of their software, a typical newbie doesn't. In such situations Learning that Member R uses KAV, PG+RD+WG , isn't very helpful.

Each person's needs are different, so a good understanding of what threats you are worried about and how to counter them is important. Member R might prefer to run only KAV, but you might be more worried about keyloggers so you might run in addition to KAV, specific antikeyloggers countermeasures.


* Actually there were "Senior members" (before that title was changed) running around thinking PG will keep them safe from phishing !

 

While these people may (hopefully) know* what they are doing, the strengths and weaknesses of their software, a typical newbie doesn't. In such situations Learning that Member R uses KAV, PG+RD+WG , isn't very helpful.


About 2 1/2 years ago I started looking for a replacement for my McAfee AV I was tired of 1 1/2 hour scans that found nothing. I started doing serches for AV comparisons, that lead to reading forums (including this one). Not just one, but any I coud find. When some one gave a opinion, I wanted to know why. So I could pick the one I like.I settled on Nod32. First scan I find 15 things. While looking for a AV. I stumbled over a user review of Outpost Pro firewall. I was curious, so I went to their home page and read. I thought it was perfect. My subscription to ZoneAlarm Pro had almost a year to go. When the subscription was up, I downloaded a trial version of Outpost Pro, 2 days later I bought it. I Just bought TDS-3 after trialing both Trojan Hunter and TDS-3. The most popular is not always the best. As to where I started to learn, it started with spybot search and destroy http://forums.net-integration.net/index.php?

 

There's nothing wrong with running as much software as you want, as long as you can keep it in perspective, and not ruin your system doing so. New users should spend some time trialing different apps before deciding anyway. It is certainly no substitute for not learning how to keep yourself out of trouble, however. See the links in my sig for plenty of resources (and more to come). Now that I think about it, I probably should add some links to certification resources (the free ones) as there's lots of good info on those sites.

Edit: Done, see the 'links' section on the software links page