Question Making sure I am secure

[shanyin37]

Hello. I use the internet for online shopping, online banking, free video sites 🙁, youtube, facebook, Google Duo video chat, my pc for gaming, and emails. I have a laptop and gaming PC and I want to make sure I am secure for these things.

Back a few years ago I was getting emails saying that people have accepted money from me via E-transfer. Now, I do send e-tranfers alot but the people identified in the emails I did not recognize. This leads me to believe I need some form of internet security.

I am currently using Malware Bytes free Trial and it found 19 files to be quarantined recently. I could get that but it is expensive and I could probably not afford it for more than one device.

Am I good with Windows Defender? How about a VPN?

 

[Hellfire13]

In todays time no application is full proof or guaranteed to keep you secure. Rather than relying explicitly on programs, inculcate some good browsing habits to stay secure online. It should be a mix and match of security software and good security habits, like 2 factor authentication, backup, changing passwords from time to time, etc...
https://security.ucop.edu/resources/security-awareness/habits.html

As for Defender, it is as good as you can get free of cost and is usually sufficient in most cases. Malwarebytes free version doesn't offer anything significant above that. If you want to get additional security layer, you should go for the paid version...
https://www.techradar.com/best/best-antivirus

The Best Antivirus Software for 2023

Without antirivirus, your personal information, your data, and even your bank account are at risk. We've tested more than 40 utilities to help you pick the top antivirus software for your needs.

www.pcmag.com

 

[USAFRet]

Back a few years ago I was getting emails saying that people have accepted money from me via E-transfer. Now, I do send e-tranfers alot but the people identified in the emails I did not recognize.

Your system was fine, those emails were the scam.

The concept is to get you think an erroneous funds transfer was made.
You then click on a link in the email to rectify the problem.
This link takes you to a page that looks very real and official.
You enter your log in credentials.
And THEN you are compromised.
They have the username and password of your money transfer account.

Windows Defender and an occasional scan with MalwareBytes is fine.
The best AV tool lives between your ears.

 

[hotaru.hino]

How about a VPN?

The big myth about a VPN is it makes you more secure. It kinda doesn't. What security it adds at best is that it encrypts the the traffic you were going to send off to the internet and masks which sites you really wanted to connect to, but it's not going to stop you from say falling for a phishing email or protect your computer from downloading something it shouldn't. Also, it's one more third party you'll have to trust with your personal data.

And even then, if you're accessing websites that use HTTPS, the data you send out is encrypted anyway.

 

[NerdyComputerGuy]

Hi,

If you are getting e-mails from people you do not know asking you to input personal information, it is a scam and it has probably happened because of something you have signed up with, with your e-mail address.

If you would like to keep your PC secure and are not very tech savvy, I would advise that you change your DNS to one that blocks Malware, this is pretty simple to do. Cloudflare has a DNS service which blocks Malware and has no other filtering

Use the below IP's for your DNS

Primary DNS: 1.1.1.2
Secondary DNS: 1.0.0.2

Follow this guide on how to change your DNS:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqTUk5GgmQ8


The second thing you can do is install 'uBlock Origin' onto your browser, you can find this in the Firefox Extension store or the Chrome Web store, this will block ads on your PC and has many filters which block phishing and malware.
If you go into the settings of the extension you can find these options here:

The third thing is to be careful what you put online,

it found 19 files to be quarantined recently.

This would indicate that you have malware on your machine, are you able to send a picture of the exact malware that it found?
The only way you would have got malware onto your machine is by downloading something or an ad auto downloading something onto your machine, having uBlock Origin installed in your browser would stop this from happening and allow you to have a better browsing experience.

Am I good with Windows Defender? How about a VPN?

If you are using Windows 10 or Windows 11, the in-built Windows Defender is sufficient in most cases.

A VPN will not help your security, most of the internet is using HTTPS anyway, but there are VPN's that do have malware and tracking filters built into the vpn DNS (ProtonVPN) for example but this can be done easily without a VPN.

A VPN is more for man in the middle attacks where you are on a public wi-fi and prevents the data from being snooped on while in transit, while you are stationary at home on your home broadband network, this is not required.

Additionally, ensure that your broadband network is using WPA2 and that you only share the password with people you trust, ensure that the firewall is also active on the router, usually these things are already active when the router is first installed however if it is an old router then it could have security risks.

I hope this helps,