I’ve heard it said that the safest computer is turned off, unplugged, and locked in the closet; it’s also the least useful.

So if you’re going to use a computer at all, it’s wise to take the most practical steps to protect it. One such practical step is to run anti-virus software. For those of you who don’t already know, viruses are malicious programs that can take control of your system, damage files, and spread themselves to any other computer system you exchange files with. Trojans are another variety of malicious programs. Some trojans do their damage as soon as they are run. Others exist quietly on your system until a hacker attempts to connect. Then the trojan gives the hacker complete access to your system.

This is pretty scary stuff. And believe me, these threats are real, and I’ve had my scares. I was recently lead to believe that somebody had stolen my password for my ISP. That’s why I downloaded Norton Internet Security 2001 for Windows 2000 Pro/NT WS/Me/98/95 B.

Norton Internet Security has three key features to protect you: Norton AntiVirus, Norton Personal Firewall, and Norton Privacy Control.

Norton AntiVirus

This is the basic virus scanner. It will scan the files on your computer for known viruses and trojans. If an infected file is found, Norton can either attempt to clean the virus from the file, delete the infected file, or quarantine it to a special folder on your system.

Although Norton's Bloodhound feature can look for unknown viruses by monitoring for "virus like activity," your best line of defense is still scanning for known viruses. Therefore, it’s important to keep Norton’s virus definition files up to date. This task is easy with Norton’s Live Update. Live Update will automatically download the new virus definitions when you’re connected to the internet. Typically, the downloads take only 3 or 4 minutes. Currently, with the latest updates, Norton scans for 49002 known viruses.

However, I have one important note about Live Update. It’s a subscription service. When you buy Norton Internet Security 2001, you can get updates for one year. After that, you will have to order another subscription. The good news is that the 1 year subscription is only USD 3.95 (at least as I write this. It may change of course).

Another very important feature of Norton AntiVirus is e-mail scanning. It seems that most viruses and trojans are spread by e-mail these days. If you tell Norton to protect your e-mail, it will make some changes to the settings in your e-mail software. The changes just tell your e-mail program to use the e-mail virus scanner, POProxy, when e-mail is received.

Some people may see POProxy running on their system, and not knowing what it is, shut it down. Then, when they attempt to check their e-mail, they will get an error message. I was surprised that the Norton Installation didn’t attempt to explain what POProxy is for. I think anybody concerned about security would want to know what this little program is doing on their system.

Norton Personal Firewall

A firewall is a program that isolates your computer from the internet by inspecting all data that passes to or from the internet. The firewall decides what should be blocked and what should be allowed to pass through.

Well, actually, the firewall doesn’t “decide.” You decide by configuring the access rules. Although known Trojans are automatically blocked by the firewall, you’ll have to decide which programs are allowed to pass through

The first time you attempt to run a program that connects to the internet, Norton Personal Firewall will display a warning message and give you options for configuring the firewall. For the most popular internet programs, Norton knows what rules are best and can automatically configure itself. For the less popular programs, you’ll have to decide what access you want the program to have.

For example, the first time you try to run Internet Explorer, Norton will ask you if you want it to automatically configure rules for this program, always block this program, block this communication just this one time, or allow this communication just this one time. You would pick “automatically configure.” The firewall shouldn’t warn you again about this program.

But then let’s say you use a less popular program. For example, I have a program MediaForge that uploads pictures to my site on www.myfamily.com. To use this software, you have to tell the Firewall what protocols (TCP, UDP, ICMP) MediaForge is allowed to use. Then you tell it where it is allowed to connect to. Since I only use it for www.myfamily.com, this is the only access I give it.

If this sounds too complicated to you, then you’re not going to like having a personal firewall. But do you even need a personal firewall? You most definitely need one if you are:

* Running any kind of internet server such as Personal Web Server.

* Running any kind of PC remote access software like Laplink or PC Anywhere.

You most definitely want a personal firewall if you:

* Want to monitor your computer for intrusion attempts.

* Want to know exactly which programs are attempting to send information over the internet.

Personally, I like having the firewall for those last two reasons. I was amazed how many times I’m probed for SubSeven, Back Orifice and other trojans. The firewall logs will tell you every time you’ve been probed by hackers. Does this mean you have the trojan? NO. It just means somebody out there is checking if you have a certain trojan.

Unfortunately, Norton Personal Firewall gives you these probe messages without explaining what exactly they mean. I have read numerous desperate messages on Usenet from people assuming a probe means they are infected. They’re not infected. The firewall log message should provide a little more information so people don’t go into a panic!

Norton Privacy Control

Privacy control is another part of the firewall. I guess it’s not my major concern, so I haven’t played with it too much.

Basically, Norton blocks personal information from being sent through non-encrypted web forms. This way, you never accidentally submit confidential information over a non-secure web site.

You configure the privacy section of Norton with the last portion of personal information: the last 4 digits of your phone number, social security number, credit card numbers, and maybe your last name, street name, or anything else you wouldn’t want a stranger to have. If any of this information is being submitted unencrypted over the web, Norton will pop up a warning message. You can choose to block the protected information or allow it to pass through.

There is one big problem with false warnings though. Let’s just say your phone number is 555-1234, and so you decide to block 1234. This series of digits may appear for any valid reason on any form! Look at the URL for any epinion and there is a number. There are similar codes on many web pages that have nothing to do with your personal info.

I get a lot of false warnings when I enable this privacy feature. I haven’t turned it off yet, but it’s tempting!

In Action

So like I said earlier, I installed Norton Internet Security 2001 because my ISP password had probably been stolen. Norton AntiVirus found no viruses or trojans. Norton Personal Firewall didn’t show any suspicious programs accessing the internet. It was a relief to know that my computer was clean and now protected. But how did somebody get my password?

Well I had only been with this ISP (who I won’t name) for 2 months. I remembered that shortly after I signed up, they sent me some booklets and CD-ROMs along with a piece of paper with my username and password clearly written. Could anybody packaging or handling these items have read the paper and remembered my name and password? Probably.

I also found out that the ISP itself was hacked just 2 days before I had problems with my account. Could somebody have stolen my password then? Possibly. I know my ISP will never give me any answers.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it’s that software can’t protect you from everything. There are basic actions and precautions that we all should take:

* If there’s a possibility that somebody could have one of your passwords or PINs, then change it. Change it regularly just to be safe anyway.

* Make sure your virus scanner, whichever one you choose to use, is updated frequently.

* Run Windows Update and make sure you get all the newest critical updates.

* Run your e-mail program with the highest security settings enabled.

* If you download shareware programs, get them straight from the company’s web page or a respected download site.

* And most importantly, don’t open all the “fun” stuff your friends and relatives forward to you as e-mail attachments. Even if they don’t mean you harm, they may be unknowingly sending you a virus.

Luckily, I didn’t have any viruses or trojans when I first installed Norton Internet Security 2001. However, just two weeks later, the Norton e-mail scanner caught WScript.KakWorm.dr. It came in a forwarded message from a friend. She didn’t even know the e-mail had the virus.

I am happy with Norton Internet Security 2001. I definitely feel safer with it running. However, I’m reluctant to recommend it to most of my friends. The firewall is just too complicated for the average user. They will probably be confused with configuring firewall rules, and alarmed when they see they are probed for trojans. For the average user, I really can only recommend the basic virus and e-mail scanner.



Recommended: Yes