How Concerned Are You About Privacy & Security (1 Viewer)

[Chu Gai]

Do you have your PC secured with things like ZoneAlarm, run an antivirus periodically, are careful with scripts and downloads, etc. What about your home? Do you have insurance, good locks, alarms, have the newspaper stopped if you're on vacation, and all that?

 

[Christ Reynolds]

for my computer, i got a really nasty spyware infection and switched to linux about a year ago. i consider linux my antivirus and spyware suite, because i dont even have to think about scanning anymore, and it feels great.

in my home, i'm not too security paranoid. our neighbor sleeps with a baseball bat under his bed. he's about 6'6", and pretty well built. it's funny, we live in a nice neighborhood. i can understand being careful, but if i was looking to rob a house, as soon as i saw that guy during my research, i'd go right on to the next one. my house?

CJ

 

[chris_everett]

PC security -- I have a (hardware) firewall on my system (or, rather, home network). I don't actually have any anti-virus packages, I'm just careful. (and I've never gotten a virus on my home systems).
Home security -- Good locks, and an alarm system. A light timer (one of the astronomical clocks that turns on the lights when it gets dark) I don't subscribe to a newspaper. I pay most of my bills on-line so stuff won't get stolen out of my mailbox Good visiblity of my home and it's entry points from the street. The most valuable thing in my house is probably my DVD collection. It's behind a seperate locked door in my theater. Homeowners insurance is required by my mortgage. Also other measures that I won't talk about on a public forum.

 

[Chu Gai]

The reason I asked the question had to do with the willingness of people (not all...some) on various audio forums to not only give an itemized description of what they own, which for some is considerable, but to also openly state when they'll be on vacation and so forth. You couple that with fact that they post their real names, addresses, along with the ability of people to search the web and pick up phone numbers and it seems to me that you've got a ready made situation for them to get robbed. So, it seems kind of counterproductive on the one hand to take practical measures to secure yourself and your property while on the other hand advertising what you've got and where you'll be. It's like reading in the society papers that Mr. & Mrs. Lardass will be vacationing in Paris the first two weeks of February.

 

[Mort Corey]

I hear ya Chu Gai. Same thing on some of the firearm related sites I visit....amazing what people will reveal on a forum.

Mort

 

[JeremyErwin]

'Gentlemen, we have the perfect opportunity.'

'But that place is locked up tighter than a drum! How will disable the alarms? Even if you could get in, it could take days to drill into the Lardass safe.'

'I have a cunning plan.'

 

[BrianW]

Same here. I've been using Gnu/Linux for three years, and I like the fact that virus scares are something that "other people" need to worry about.

At home, I'm as secure as I need to be.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I use msntv service, so i'm pretty much at the mercy of whatever they have in place to protect my receiver, i've had it for 4 years with no problem.

As for my apartment, we have three locks on our two entry door's, the doorknob, a deadbolt and a chain.

I have no real weapons to speak of to protect the place, although being a Star Wars fan, I do own three lightsabers, anyone who tries to get in while i'm here will get one right up the ass.

 

[Ravi K]

There are some people who like that. I'm not sure if you want them in your home either

 

[Dan Lindley]

I'm paranoid, with decent protection for both home and computer, tho SBC DSL security levels are still opaque to me. I wish I knew more what was being protected against, where, and how.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I'm the same way... my home computer is basically online for a few minutes each day to read email (careful not to open any suspicious attachments) and play a little Quake3. I will occasionally do a free scan on Symantec's website. I think once I found a worm... years ago. My desktop was strangely sending more data than receiving. I did a search on the internet, found a removal tool, and that was it.

 

[Joe Szott]

I've experimented with some different programs over the years and this combo gives the maximum bang for the buck IMHO:

* A hardware firewall. Mine is built into our D-Link wireless router that all the house's traffic passes through. The software firewalls (like Zonealarm) just don't stack up to an actual piece of hardware providing a firewall. This is #1

* A good anti-viral piece of software that auto-updates and checks all imcoming files for problems. AVG is a great one to use at home with a small footprint on your PC and it is free. Norton is OK but not as good as AVG.

* A good anti-adware program. Ad-Aware from Lavasoft is probably the most popular and one of the best choices. It is also free like AVG and high quality.

* Last is not needed but useful. I like using the Google Toolbar that provides instant access to a google search and blocks annoying pop-ups. It's free from Google and easier than falling off a log to use.

So really a harware firewall is thing to buy, everything else can be found for free and easily installed. I would avoid anything that say Norton on it with a 10 ft pole, but that's IMHO...