Improperly configured home PCs are one of the biggest risks to the Internet. At any given time there are hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of home PCs infected with viruses, worms, adware, spybots, or spambots. These users are causing a large volume of malicious traffic, which at the very least is a nuisance, and at the worst is infecting other PCs on the Internet. In the days where everyone connected using dialup, the impact of these infected PCs was minimal. But today when most home PCs are connected via an always-on high-speed connection, these machines are causing a significant impact to the Internet and the users on it. There is no reason for your machine to be one of these. A few basic security steps can virtually ensure a home PC will never be infected.
This document details the strategy I use when securing a home computer. I am a security professional by trade, but nothing in this document is difficult, or requires any special security knowledge. Anyone who can turn on a computer and surf the Internet is more than capable of performing the steps in this document. Infosecwriters.com
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