Which security utilities in W 7

Corrine · 02 Jan 2010

hackerman1 said:

hi !

manhunter2826: ".....Adobe I choose not to use (I use the excellent and light-weight Foxit Reader instead)..."

i think you misunderstood Corinne, she is talking about Adobe Flash Player, not PDF-reader.

That's ok. I prefer not to use Adobe Reader either and have been using Sumatra PDF. I don't use Foxit due to the toolbar. There are a number of open source readers available from PDFreaders.org - Get a Free Software PDF reader!.

hackerman1 said:

hi !

Corinne: what about the rest of the Adobe Flash Player settings fx. Global Security Settings Panel,
any recommendations ?

Although from 2008, I believe the recommendations in this old post still correspond with the Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager. Cyber Security Awareness Tip of the Day: October 19 ~ Security Garden

Edit to add from Computer Security Research - McAfee Labs Blog

Speaking of ubiquity: McAfee Labs predicts that Adobe will overtake Microsoft as the No. 1 target for cybercriminals in 2010. Adobe products—in particular Acrobat Reader and Flash—have become two of the most widely used apps in the world, and cybercriminals go where the masses go. Cybercriminals will have a field day preying on people using Adobe software.

hackerman1 · 02 Jan 2010

hi !

are there no safe alternatives to adobe flash player ?

logicearth · 03 Jan 2010

hackerman1 said:

hi !

are there no safe alternatives to adobe flash player ?

Silverlight is safe, but it is not Flash.

manhunter2826 · 03 Jan 2010

jav said:

manhunter2826 said:

(Like most, I dislike Flash: shame sites such as YouTube have to rely on it. Thought: why does Flash not have any competition whereas most other software apps do.

)

Actually it has competition.
Sliverlight: Home : The Official Microsoft Silverlight Site by Microsoft
Quick Time: Apple - QuickTime - Download by Apple

But I personally dislike them more then Adobe Flash.

Especially when both Microsoft and Apple tries to make us you their own players on their sites.

EDIT: And now most online video sites use Divx instead of Flash.

Thanks jav.

Corrine MVP said:

manhunter2826 said:

(I love your posts)

Awe, thank you. That means a lot to me.

I also dislike Flash and QuickTime even more. The reason I like Silverlight is because of the amazing things I have seen developers do with the program.

Not a prob. :)

hackerman1 said:

hi !

manhunter2826: ".....Adobe I choose not to use (I use the excellent and light-weight Foxit Reader instead)..."

i think you misunderstood Corinne, she is talking about Adobe Flash Player, not PDF-reader.

Ah, sorry, yes. Thanks for the clarification hack :)

manhunter2826 · 03 Jan 2010

hackerman1 said:

hi !

are there no safe alternatives to adobe flash player ?

I'd like to know too! But even if there were, does it matter given that Flash is embedded in sites such as YouTube, so one is 'forced' to use it?

jav · 03 Jan 2010

hackerman1 said:

hi !

are there no safe alternatives to adobe flash player ?

manhunter2826 said:

I'd like to know too! But even if there were, does it matter given that Flash is embedded in sites such as YouTube, so one is 'forced' to use it?

Hi, Hackerman and manhunter.

Actually you can replace Youtube flash videos with HTML 5 format.
Haven't tried it personally yet.
For Google Chrome beta versions:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions...gplihnenhgeipf
https://chrome.google.com/extensions...aahjcdpdjdpfco

This extensions contains a simple content script which replaces the standard Flash-based YouTube video player with HTML5's new video tag which natively supports video. Video played this way will be more efficient and require less CPU.

I belive that there are similar extensions for Mozilla Firefox aswell.
But I am not sure as I don't use it.

Will try it when have some time and report back.

manhunter2826 · 03 Jan 2010

^Thanks for that jav; I'm using Firefox, but hopefully an alternative for FF soon? What is it about Flash that (understandably) really grates? Lol.

Anderson2 · 03 Jan 2010

Corrine MVP said:

Obviously, manhunter2826, you are taking good care of your laptop since you have absolutely no problems with it. Congratulations!

I think you will appreciate the added value that WinPatrol can provide. The other suggestion I would make is to ensure that the other software (i.e., Adobe Reader, Flash, SunJava, etc.) on your computer is up to date. The easiest way to do this is with Secunia Software Inspector. You can do an online scan at Scan Now - Online (OSI) - Vulnerability Scanning - Secunia.com or download Secunia Personal Software Inspector from Download - Personal (PSI) - Vulnerability Scanning - Secunia.com .

Another step you can take is to protect your privacy by removing the "Flash Cookies" and changing the Adobe Flash settings (Information about Flash Cookies is available in Bill Mullins article, LSO (Flash Cookies) – A Serious Attack on Your Privacy):

Note: If you use Quicken, do NOT use this program at this time as Quicken stores information in Flash cookies.

Download Flush Flash Cookies by Bobbi Flekman.
Select the Windows version and save flushflash.exe to your Desktop.
Double-click flushflash.exe to run it.
Select Everything.
Click Make it so!.
When the "Killed off all Flash cookies" window opens, click OK.
Close Flush Flash Cookies.

Next, go to the Adobe - Flash Player : Settings Manager and make the following settings:

-- Select the Second Tab from the left (Global Storage Settings)
-- Set the Storage Settings slider to None
-- Uncheck “Allow Third Party Flash Content to store data on your computer

Since you use Firefox, you may want to consider the add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623

When you are ready to purchase that Windows 7 laptop, be sure to check the Tutorials here at Seven Forums.

Corinne, you are wonderful. I'm following this thread waiting for my new W 7 laptop to arrive. On my trusty XP laptop I too used Zone Alarm, Avast free, Firefox whenever possible, Secunia, intermittent Ad-Aware and Spybot,A Squared, frequent defrag and backups, etc. and my XP laptop has been trouble free till the screen display went (something to do with the cable). which is why I am forced into a new laptop.
I was unaware that Quicken - which I also use - uses flash cookies! Does it delete them when it shuts down? In your note do you mean do not use Quicken at this time or the LSo deleting utility while Quicken is running? My Quicken data files are kept encrypted in a TrueCrypt volume (though I know that in XP (and probably W 7) the data is still theoretically retrievable till I reboot the computer). Any security advice for Quicken users?
I use Foxit instead of Adobe but will check Adobe's flash settings as you indicate. I will also try WinPatrol when my new W 7 laptop arrives.
Thanks Corinne.

Anderson2 · 03 Jan 2010

Just realized you meant Adobe Flash Player plugin, not the pdf reader. How do I access the settings on my Adobe Flash Player in both XP and W 7?
Thanks.

Anderson2 · 03 Jan 2010

Another security measure I would like to add to the mix concerns the use of search engines. It is well known that Google and others keep records of all your searches. That bothers me. For years I've used IxQuick instead of Google, etc. It has the advantage of not recording your searches and its search results are just fine.

I was recently touring in Turkey and discovered that Turkey blocks access to sites like YouTube. I was shown the work around: the use of a free VPN Software (Hotspot Shield AnchorFree ) Worked like a charm. Could also be useful for those who access the web in insecure hotspots.