Web browser security

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:46 pm

There have been discussions of viruses, trojans, and web security here in the past so I thought I would share this. I recently found an add-on for the FireFox web browser called "NoScript." As the name implies, it blocks all scripts on a web site. You can manually choose to allow scripts per page or per site, temporarily or permanently.

It can cause some frustrations initially when you have to unblock scripts on sites you regularly visit, but I think it would help a LOT with security issues while browsing the web.

From About.com:

Just using Firefox doesn't offer any security benefits, but using the NoScript addon with Firefox does offer an important safety upgrade. NoScript addon for Firefox is developed by Giorgio Maone and is available for free from the Mozilla addon site. NoScript blocks active scripts from websites unless you specifically allow that site. For example, if you visit google.com, scripts from google will be blocked. To unblock a site, simply click the NoScript options button in the bottom right corner of the browser and select "Temporarily allow sitename".

Never select 'Allow Scripts Globally' as that would be defeating the entire purpose of NoScript. On some pages, you may need to temporarily allow more than one site. Always be sure you're only allowing the legitimate third party sites that are required. For example, when viewing a video on YouTube, you'll need to temporarily allow both youtube.com and ytimg.com.

If you're unsure about a particular site listed, use your favorite search engine to research the sitename. If there's any hint that one of the sites listed may be malicious, don't grant permissions for scripts to run from that site.

Used properly, the NoScript addon for Firefox offers considerable security benefits. Firefox users can further bolster their online safety by disabling HTTP header refresh in Firefox. While you're at it, you may also want to disable Google/Firefox prefetch.

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

wlhayesmfs · Post by **wlhayesmfs** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:48 pm

Thanks for the site, I do have a question my norton 360 just ran out so I have nothing on mine right now. Does anyone suggest something that is working for them. I have heard from some of you that you don't like Norton or Mcafee so what are you using out there since most of us are on the same sites over and over.
thanks

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 1:14 pm

For anti-virus, I would recommend one of the free ones like Avast or AVG or Microsoft Security Essentials over Norton or McAfee. I use Avast at home. One of those as a proactive measure, and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware as a reactive measure, combined with your own web smarts (ie. not clicking on popup boxes) should be all you need.

Gene Howe · Post by **Gene Howe** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 1:20 pm

wlhayesmfs wrote:Thanks for the site, I do have a question my norton 360 just ran out so I have nothing on mine right now. Does anyone suggest something that is working for them. I have heard from some of you that you don't like Norton or Mcafee so what are you using out there since most of us are on the same sites over and over.
thanks

Bill,
On the advise of the guy who cleaned my puters after an infection, I run this twice a day.

http://download.cnet.com/ATF-Cleaner/3000-18512_4-89432.html

Then, once per week I run Ad-ware, Spybot-search and destroy and SUPERAspyware free edition.

Gene

reible · Post by **reible** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:45 pm

Hi,

I have been running noscript for about 3 - 4 years now. It is great software but it takes some time to adjust to how it works for you. If you don't mind doing the setup and adjustments it sure works great.... Most people will find it works to well... and blocks way to much of the stuff they want to get to.

For those of you who try it let us know what you think after a few weeks.

Ed

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:56 pm

My favorite Firefox addition is my woodgrain theme.

After a year or so of growling "I hate Vista" (more colorful words omitted) a dozen times a night I finally switched this laptop (Acer 17" wide screen) to Ubuntu 9.10 a while back... I no longer yell at my laptop.

I just run a regular Linux firewall. I have tried more than a dozen distributions (versions) of linux and really like this Ubuntu. I now have this laptop setup to do all of the jobs I needed to do before but this time everything I have running is totally free.
I had used Zone Alarm as a firewall on all of the Windows computers for years but there was a known compatibility problem with it, Vista and some other program (I forget which one) and I had to dump it. I don't believe the Windows firewall was nearly as good as Zone Alarm. I rarely get on-line with the old iMac and I don't run anything on it.
I do still have #$%& Vista but it is a dual-boot setup and it just sits there "just in case".
I really love the fact that when I am not doing something the hard drive isn't either. Vista was "always" putzing around with something...
I don't run an anti-virus on any Linux box but it will probably be necessary one of these days if it ever becomes more of a target.

swampgator · Post by **swampgator** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:36 pm

I'm running Vista (yes, it's not as good as XP) with Bitdefender for firewall and anti-virus. I am running Uniblue for registry cleanup. That is a real problem with Vista. You get all this stuff for trials and clogs up the registry and it takes so long to boot up. After running Uniblue, registry is clean, all my desired programs work well, boot up is quick. It's amazing. Oh, I use all Microsoft as that is what I finally grew up with. Not loyal to anything.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:25 am

Here is the series (Borroughs B300) I started on in the mid 1960's. No screen, no keyboard. I found these pictures at museum sites...

Our computer room was a little bigger and much better organized. The unit in the left foreground is a MICR check sorter. Sorts 1200 checks a minute. If it jammed (not uncommon) it would destroy 1200 checks a minute.

This particular system (in some bank) has 2 CPU's at the far end.
[ATTACH]8580[/ATTACH]
This is the face of the CPU. The small buttons in the outlined squares above the switches were "touch on / touch off" lighted switches showing status in binary code. With those you could access any single memory location and change its contents by hand entering code one bit (7 bits to a byte) at a time.
[ATTACH]8581[/ATTACH]
That was several worlds ago...

At least it didn't run on #$%& VISTA.

swampgator · Post by **swampgator** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:35 pm

First of these, I remember pictures in txtbooks before Nam. Then while stationed here at NAS Pensacola, I actually saw the Burroughs, keypunch machines and sorting machines. They were used to track accounting of equipment and finances, repair and maintenance, logistics and some other stuff in a code of Uniform Automated Data Processing (UADPS). Then in 1989, was placed in a systems control unit with Tandem banks just as large as Burrough but with tapes that looked like 8 track cartridges. By that time we used monitors. In 1990 and 1991, we moved all processing and data from the Burroughs to IBM 3090 which was 3 times faster than the Tandem. In 1993, the 1980's BRAC caught us in closure and I watched all that machinery go out as scrap. From that we went to servers and smaller networks. We had the gestapo to make sure that you didn't do anything that they didn't want you to know. If you went to a website searching for something, if they decided it wasn't job related, they copied the pages and forwarded to the supervisors. But, it was from 1993 that I began to play with PC's with Z-Dos, Peachtree DOS, IBM DOS and MS DOS. What a nightmare to get something done. While MS DOS and its succesive operating systems are far from perfect, they work for most of us. I don't like many things like all the portals, constant upgrades and similar restrictions on what I can accomplish. That's just my experience and some of my opinions on this. Hope all have a super day.

acruise · Post by **acruise** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:29 pm

swampgator wrote:I'm running Vista (yes, it's not as good as XP) with Bitdefender for firewall and anti-virus. I am running Uniblue for registry cleanup. That is a real problem with Vista. You get all this stuff for trials and clogs up the registry and it takes so long to boot up. After running Uniblue, registry is clean, all my desired programs work well, boot up is quick. It's amazing. Oh, I use all Microsoft as that is what I finally grew up with. Not loyal to anything.

yeah Vista is not so good as XP. I suggest you to use Norton anti-virus and firewall. Some of the anti-virus not support Vista. Make sure to clean up your recent and templates daily.

Thanks

Regards
acruise