Tips for avoiding getting viruses/malware through files and stuff

[XProtocol]

 

Hello, I'll be soon joining the university and will be living in dormitory for a while. There may be some notorious kids as well, who will intentionally try to infect my pc for their own good. My main concern is to avoid getting infected when they insert pendrive or share some file via e-mail.

 

I remember watching a video which i'm not able to find  (dont remember if it was made by LTT) where he told to use some softwares like sandbox/virtual machine to open files which you suspect to have virus/malware. So if you know please tell. 

 

I rely on just Microsoft Essential for protection, should I consider getting anti-virus/anti-malware software?  

 

LTT forums have many advanced users so you guys would know what all I should do...so please help.

 

Thanks. 

 

 

[3 Lions]

Get Malwarebytes

[desertcomputer]

Sandboxie, personally just don't run any exe.

 

Malwarebytes is good for pdf/Microsoft office exploit. 

[AskTJ]

Don't take anything from people.

[D13H4RD]

Just be weary of getting anything from people whom you've only just met or don't know at all. 

 

[XProtocol]

1 minute ago, AskTJ said:

Don't take anything from people.

Umm that's actually isn't an option cause previous sem question papers/tutorials/subject materials/slides are required for studying and preparing for exams. 

[Br3tt96]

Could always plug a usb into a school pc as well. My class mates generally work on everything in google drive. Google docs, slides, excel, and so forth

[DimasRMDO]

Pairing your antivirus with Malwarebytes doesn't hurt, I personally like avast! for free AV or something like Kaspersky for paid AV but that's your choice. Microsoft Security Essential is decent already. Bitdefender Free is like "set it and forget it type of AV", you can also go with that. Going back to the basic, setting a password for your user is already a good start.

You need to make sure that everything is up-to-date, some updates may have some security patches which is critical.

When you receive an email with a link, hover the link and you there should be a site where it'll direct you in the bottom left corner, if the link seems fishy just ignore it. If you really want to make sure that the email is valid (assuming you use gmail). You can do this...

Make sure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are all "Pass", but still common sense plays a big role here. If one of them says "FAIL" then you really need to be careful.

If you don't know a person and he/she wishes to send you something just ignore it. Better to block him/her too.

[DeafeningSilence]

 

I can understand your concern, as I am currently attending university. Here are some tips for protecting yourself in my opinion:

 

1) To protect against pendrives, ensure that your computer has a login with a secure password and additionally do not leave your computer laying around in public or easily accessible places. I know this is isn't exactly the answer you may be looking for, but physical attacks are immensely more difficult to prevent due to physical accessibility to your device.

 

2) Do not download/open email attachments or other files sent to you unless you know who it is from and you are expecting said document or file. Double checking the email contents such as the senders email and verifying with the person are two methods to ensure it is not a malicious impostor. 

 

3) Download an antivirus software. AVG has a free version that includes file scanning through right-click, and LTT recently did a video on BitDefender. You can find the video here: 

 

Lastly, think.edu is a website that offers huge student discounts when you purchase software/items through your school-registered email address. While I'm not sure that all universities support the site (although I think it would) you can certainly check the website, as a year subscription to full BitDefender protection was $15.99. 

 

Hope this helps, cheers.

 

EDIT: The price is currently $14.95 for 1 year protection with VPN, and available for both mac and windows OS. Additionally there is an option for 2-year total protection for 5 devices plus VPN for $39.95. 

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by DeafeningSilence

[Shally]

I'd say your chances of someone maliciously attacking your computer is way too low to consider spending money on things when you'll likely be in debt anyways. Just be smart, don't open any silly files and don't open any phishy emails.

[Beef Boss]

Disable all ports and don't open mail you don't know. 

[captain_to_fire]

10 minutes ago, aki adaki said:

Disable all ports and don't open mail you don't know. 

Uhm how will OP connect to the internet by disabling all ports? He might as well turn on airplane mode.

45 minutes ago, XProtocol said:

I rely on just Microsoft Essential for protection, should I consider getting anti-virus/anti-malware software?  

I'm guessing you're still with Windows 7 because you're using Security Essentials. If you can't get Windows 10 just yet, you may want to try free AVs from Bitdefender or Kaspersky. For better protection, you may want to get their paid options with better protection components like default deny. Always keep Windows and other programs up to date.

[YedZed]

Hide in a cave.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Sandboxie is a good choice. You could also run a Windows 10 VM since Windows 10 doesn't need a license key to run. Also be weary if something triggers the UAC prompt when it doesn't seem like it shouldn't. That's usually a bad sign.

 

You could also set up a local user account, used only for internet browsing, with standard privileges or assign its user group to Guests. That way even if malware kicks off, it'll run as that user which has access to almost nothing except what's in its user folder.

[davrosG5]

Make sure you have a separate user and admin account with different passwords - makes it a bit harder for people to install stuff from you user account.

I use Windows Defender in Windows 10 and as far as I can tell it's perfectly adequate provided you aren't doing anything too risky.

The main advice though is to be vigilant - if something looks suspicious it probably is and further checking is required before proceeding.

[DimasRMDO]

10 hours ago, davrosG5 said:

Make sure you have a separate user and admin account with different passwords - makes it a bit harder for people to install stuff from you user account.

I use Windows Defender in Windows 10 and as far as I can tell it's perfectly adequate provided you aren't doing anything too risky.

The main advice though is to be vigilant - if something looks suspicious it probably is and further checking is required before proceeding.

I forgot this one, this is really good as well.

When you do this, when someone wants to install something in your PC they need to input your admin password instead of just "Yes" and "No" as if you just use your admin account.

[davrosG5]

I'd also add, make sure you back your stuff up regularly. That way even if a virus or other malicious gubbins get through you've not lost too much.

 

As a minimum get an external hard drive that you can backup your stuff to and then put somewhere safe, preferably in a different location from your computer (for example put it in a locker if you've got one or lodge it with someone you trust). My brother found out the hard way that a backup is useless if it's next to your computer and the flat gets burgled (they took the laptop and the external drive).

If you can afford it get two hard drives so you can alternate them - google 3-2-1 backup.

 

I backup my PC onto one of three removable hard drives that I store at my work in a locked drawer - if my PC gets infected with a virus, stolen or otherwise destroyed I've still got all my data.

 

Also investigate insurance. How would you replace your computer if it was irreparably damaged or stolen while you were at university?

[DimasRMDO]

24 minutes ago, davrosG5 said:

I'd also add, make sure you back your stuff up regularly. That way even if a virus or other malicious gubbins get through you've not lost too much.

 

As a minimum get an external hard drive that you can backup your stuff to and then put somewhere safe, preferably in a different location from your computer (for example put it in a locker if you've got one or lodge it with someone you trust). My brother found out the hard way that a backup is useless if it's next to your computer and the flat gets burgled (they took the laptop and the external drive).

If you can afford it get two hard drives so you can alternate them - google 3-2-1 backup.

 

I backup my PC onto one of three removable hard drives that I store at my work in a locked drawer - if my PC gets infected with a virus, stolen or otherwise destroyed I've still got all my data.

 

Also investigate insurance. How would you replace your computer if it was irreparably damaged or stolen while you were at university?

Also make sure to scan your backed up files/soon to be backed up files with AV, you never know that you might have been backing up infected files.

Just so when you recover your PC you don't put those malicious backed up files back to your fresh PC.

I always backup my files to cloud storage (Google Drive) and an external drive, cloud storage is more convenient, but requires internet access. So your call, don't rely on one.