What is your security setup these days?

I suppose my best security setup after all the aforementioned Frontline Shieldings with HIPS/AV/AS/Virtualization/Sandbox etc. those honors would have to go to FD-ISR snapshot ARCHIVES (.arx) closely followed by sets of 2 duplicate images per each bootable system created by World-Class Imaging Minds in both Paragon (.ARC) + the snappy little midget duplicator know as DriveSnapshot (.SNA)........

......and those strategically located out-of-tower base onto alternative Hard Drives for total safe keeping.

Even my researching virus/malwares/rootkits as often as i have done and on occasion still do, there is simply no chance of doom/disappointment of any real significance, even a hard drive failure has no influence on PRESERVED data + files + system here.

A heck of a lot of credit belongs to the the membership here as well as Wilder's for hosting this board of very dependable/useful discussion. The rest i learned by local practice experimenting like we all love to do.

 

Avira Premium Security Suite
Webroot Spy Sweeper
FrstDefense-ISR

Enough Said!

 

Resident

ZA Free
McAfee AV
Spyware Terminator (No HIPS)
Hostsman
BOClean
SSM Free
Spyware Blaster

On Demand

Spybot
Ad-Aware SE
AVG
A-squared
SUPERAntiSpyware

Other

Firefox with NoScript,AdBlock+,Scrapbook,Site Advisor,RefControl,CookieSafe,Filterset.G
Sandboxie
CCleaner
Filemap by BB
FingerPrint
WhatsRunning
RegShot
Tiny Watcher
Returnil

added
removed

 

Dlink wireless router with WPA2-Auto Encryption
ESET Smart Security Beta2
Adaware SE
Spybot S&D
Spyware Blaster
Firefox with NoScript and AdBlock Plus

 

When I first came here, I was using ZoneAlarm Free, AVG Free and Ad-Aware with Windows Defender as my real-time. Then, after much reading here, I decided this set-up needed a change. So, I tried numerous HIPS, sanboxes, behavior blockers, etc.
Many of the apps I tried are really top-notch, but it dawned on me that I didn't really need them, as I look in my tray and saw 4 or 5 security apps real time. It just struck me as a bit too much. So, I decided to look at my original security set-up (FW, AS and AV) and revisit it. Of course, by this time, I had ditched ZA free , AVG, Lavasoft and WD (ugh). At any rate, I opted to go back to just the FW,AS and AV, changing the brands I was using and not the type of progs I was using.
My wife and I have always been safe surfers, so really- the minimal set-up works fine for us.

Desktop:
Outpost Pro
Counterspy
F-Prot
SAS (on demand)

Laptop:
Windows Firewall
SAS Pro
F-Prot
Winpatrol
Ewido Micro 4 (on demand)

and we're behind a router

 

Kind of brand new on this security thing and still treading the basics...

Linksys Router (FW+NAT)
NOD32 Blackspear flavor
LnS 2.06 (with a big hand by Climenole and Phant0m)
Norton Antibot (it's just sitting there and never really caught anything )
Firefox -> noscritp, adblocker+ & cookie safe (with these plugins installed I NEVER had any type of crap on ANY AS proggie ever since )
SB S&D on demand, now
Spy Sweeper on demand, now
SAS Pro, evaluating real time, on demand, soon
Acronis True Image 10, just in case and also good support here

Thinking of having a go at DSA as free HIPS but I have no idea at the moment if I really need it

Lots of users talk about safe surfing and using common sense but don't know exactly what it means... because they don't say what it really is...
I visit any page I like day to day and that includes crack and pr0n stuff (maybe is this the lack of common sense they talk about?) as well as use P2P like there is no bandwidth tomorrow. Virus safe for many years

About the HIPS thing, anyone using the PC in a normal way, eg not testing with special programs that don't really emulate real life, has actually ever caught anything that requires HIPS? I'm asking because if it really makes sense using I wouldn't mind bloating a bit more my PC although I do treasure my resources since I run mostly a gaming rig and the need for speed is upon me.

Be safe

 

Good Question - one which more people should ask. To my way of thinking the law of diminishing marginal returns applies perfectly to security. You have a hardware Firewall 9X% of the problem solved. You surf with Firefox - the % increases to 9Y%. You have Acronis - so if something ever did get in you can fix it.

As to HIPS - my concern is that after 3 years of showing nothing when or If a HIPS program shows a problem many users will simply ignore the warning in their hurry to do whatever they were doing.

In life nothing is guaranteed. Use a hardware firewall, firefox and an image and
the % of risk left is not worth worrying about.

You might want to try DeepFreeze6 or Returnil which compliment rather than replace Acronis.

 

Hey Long View
I appreciate your feedback and also the tips. Now about returnil and deepfreeze... the former is free which is good and the install is small print which is great. Any special reason to get Deepfreeze as far as special features?
I see myself using this only when I evaluate some new installed proggie and nothing else to return to previous state.

Also heard here about "sandboxing" - like sandboxie and other program of which I can't recall the name with all the acronyms being used here lol - which seems to do things in a pretty similar way.

Like my post count implies I'm not an expert on these special security programs so simplicity of use/setup is of relevance. If other have opinions please vent them

edit: just noticed that with returnil the virtual environment will be freezes until you reboot the PC - what if the program requires a reboot to be fully installed?

 

Well you certainly arent a safe user. P2P, cracks, porn, fall under the "dark side" or dangerous surfing. Common sense would be not downloading attachments/programs from unknown sources and being careful with your private info (to avoid phishing).

Not being a safe user doesnt mean you cant stay virus-free, it just increases your exposure.

 

I'd say you've nailed it.

 

I fully understand that, that's why I was asking about HIPS as an extra safe measure as making sense under my pattern of web surfing. May I presume you'd say yes? I was looking at DSA on my setup...

Although I use P2P a lot it's mainly for media content. It's very rare to install stuff as well as cracks, maybe that's my notion of common sense surfacing; although a XP user, I favor freeware programs since when you look closely they end up satisfying my personal needs. Unfortunately many times they don't and most software isn't that expensive anyway when it comes to games and some of the programs discussed on these boards.
As for porn content, well... maybe I need a spare girlfriend or a testosterone suppressor

 

I dont use HIPS, but youre welcome to try them.

 

I don't generally use HIPS either mostly cause they're just too annoying for me. If I do use one it has to be something like ThreatFire that doesn't bother me much.

Right now, my security setup: Debian Linux.... Taking a break for a few days...

 

No cheating!

 

Firewall
Linksys Router RT31P2
Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0.1025.7828 (700)(anti-spyware & ads with AGNIS block list 8/21/07)
Harden-It 1.2
Windows Worms Doors Cleaner 1.4.1

AV/AT
Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 7.0.0.125
Comodo BOClean 4.25

HIPS
DiamondCS ProcessGuard 3.410
DiamondCS WormGuard 3
RegDefend 2.001 (with revised custom Ghost Group from Tony Klein 5/29/06)
WinPatrol Plus 12.0.2007.2

Block Lists
MVPS Hosts File (8/18/07)(with HostsXpert 4.0)
SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.4 (Immunize enabled)

Resident On Demand Scanners
Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06
SUPERAntispyware 3.9.1008
Kephyr Bazooka 1.13.03
A-squared scanner 3.0.0.357
Ewido (AVG) Micro 4.0
Mischel TrojanHunter 4.7 (932)
UnHackMe 4.5 Beta (May 25, 2007)
Sysinternals RootkitRevealer 1.71
F-Secure Blacklight Rootkit Elimination 2.2.1064
Gmer 1.0.13.12540
Resplendence RootKit Hook Analyzer 3.01
AVG Anti-Rootkit Beta 1.1.0.42
TrendMicro HijackThis 2.0.2

Online Scanners
CounterSpy spyware scan
X-Clean Micro (Facetime.com) spyware scanning
Prevx HijackThis analyzer; HijackThis log file analysis (HijackThis Log Analyzers)
VirusTotal
Jotti's malware scan
McAfee Freescan

 

Firewall: Comodo Firewall Pro Beta 2

Av: AntiVir Premium

Hips: ThreatFire 3.0.4

Sandboxes: Sandboxie 3.01

Block Lists: Spyware Blaster (finally added another update).

Resident On Demand Scanners: SUPERAntispyware Free Edition 3.9.1008,
Panda Anti-Rootkit 1.08.00, F-Secure Blacklight, Ewido (AVG) Micro 4.0.

Online Scanners: Trend Micro Housecall, Kaspersky Online Scanner, Eset Online Scanner and Panda Nanoscan.

 

Firewall: D-Link

Av: AntiVir (temporarily out of order, using a sub. for now)

Hips: ThreatFire

Sandboxes: Sandboxie

On Demand Scanners: SuperAntiSpyware, HijackThis (1.99.1)

Browsers: Opera

 

yes,If you use diskless that will avoid infection of virus !
you computer could use all thing in the ram ,if infection of virus ,when you reboot it that will ok !All the cookies and virus will l be destroyed automatically

 

Firefox +NoScript +Flashblock +AdBlock
NOD32
SuperAntiSpyware Pro
BOClean
Windows XP Firewall
Belkin Wireless Router with Firewall enabled
External 160GB HDD

Kaspersky Online Scanner
Virustotal.com

 

Philips SNA6500 router with NAT and SPI firewall
SandboxIE
PCTools free firewall (only for application control, packet filter disabled)
Returnil Virtual System (when needed)

On demand:
Avira Antivir PE

Other:
Firefox with NoScript, CookieSafe, TrackMeNot, Adblock Plus
Paragon Hard Drive Manager (for scheduled backups on alternate drive)

 

SNAPSHOT 1 (This is ACTIVE right now)

Online Armor AV+ 2.0.1.215 (Trial)
Pro Security 1.40b2 (Paid)
BOClean 4.25 (Hacked Icons)
GeSWall 2.6 (Freebie)

SNAPSHOT 2 (This is my BACKUP)

Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0.0.125
PeerGuardian 2.0rc1
Pro Security 1.40b2 (Paid)
Norton Antibot 1.0 (Paid)
BOClean 4.25 (Hacked Icons)
GeSWall 2.6 (Freebie)

dja2k

 

I'm not Long View, however I have something to say about your post.

Returnil seems to be an excellent program, free for private use, but like you pointed out, it doesn't allow testing of programs that require reboots. Same story with DeepFreeze, no reboots for testing programs. Good side of DeepFreeze is that once passworded nobody has access to it, and it's reasonably priced.

I've been using ShadowUser for about 2 years, and it offers all of the possibilities that the above programs lack. Cons of ShadowUser: The price (69 US Dollars), it can't be passworded as administrator, Storagecraft (the makers) don't seem keen to further develop it, presumably because of its high percentage of piracy. Not so important though as it is a virtualization
program.

For testing programs specifically, it seems a unanimous opinion that FD ISR is the best choice as it creates separate snapshots of your system. Cons: The price (I think it is 69 US Dollars), and if you want several snapshots you need quite a bit of space on your drive.

Any of these choices will make redundant the use of antispyware, antitrojans, and even antivirus for some people (I personally feel better knowing I have an antivirus running). Basically one can safely run one of these programs + a good Firewall + a secure browser, and remain completely clean.

To remain on topic, my current set-up:

ShadowUser Pro + LNS Firewall + NOD32

Browser: Opera 9.23 + Ad Muncher

Acronis TI 9 for emergencies

 

added
changed
removed


XP setup

Resident:

Kaspersky Anti-Virus (previously Kaspersky Internet Security)
Look 'n' Stop

On-Demand:

SUPERAntiSpyware Free

Other Security / System Hardening:

nLite'd Windows XP SP2 (with service tweaking based on TweakHound's guide)
RyanVM's Post-SP2 Windows XP Update Pack
Seconfig XP
SocketLock
xp-AntiSpy
Process Explorer
Firefox extensIons: AdBlock Plus, CookieSafe, CS Lite, NoScript, and RefControl

 

ADDED
DROPPED

SNAPSHOT 1 (This is ACTIVE right now - Some HIPS Pop-Ups Mainly for My Personal Use)

Online Armor AV+ 2.0.1.215 (Trial)
Pro Security 1.40b2 (Paid)
SandboxIE 3.01 (Freebie)
BOClean 4.25 (Hacked Icons)
GeSWall 2.6 (Freebie)

SNAPSHOT 2 (This is my BACKUP - No HIPS Pop-Ups Mainly for Family & Friends)

Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0.0.125
PeerGuardian 2.0rc1
Norton Antibot 1.0 (Paid)
SandboxIE 3.01 (Freebie)
Pro Security 1.40b2 (Paid)
BOClean 4.25 (Hacked Icons)
GeSWall 2.6 (Freebie)

 

For the last month, while I am moving all my computing to Vista, I have dropped all hips I´ve had and created a limited user account. A pure firewall (Look´n´stop) and a AV (Avast free) thats it.

LUA in vista seems to be easier and more reliable in Vista. The runas seems to work better - If one uses the real admin account that is, not the limited admin account you make. The real admin is the built in one (named Administrator) which you have to activate, there you wont have any limitations. I´ve just learned that when trying to install imagemanager of Shadowprotect. Right now I dont see me going back to hips.