Last time, I promised to look deeper into how to monitor what info your computer might be sending to the Internet when you aren’t using it. That is, whether some program might be phoning home to its evil masters with ill intent.
No easy monitoring – but a good firewall helps
Turns out that outbound communications are hard to catch “in the act”. They are usually quite brief – so by the time you fire up a monitoring tool it’s probably all over. Of course security experts have geeky expert tools, but what about tools for the average Windows user?
Seems the best tool for most Windows users is the firewall that every Windows user already has, either the one built into windows or one which comes with most modern anti-virus programs. Nowadays, if you buy the full security program, not just the anti-virus one, these have anti-virus, firewall, Internet security and maybe anti-spyware too.
I especially like the firewall in Grisoft’s AVG Internet Security. Like other good firewalls, it catches outbound communication you have not previously approved and asks you to approve it – with options for just this time or forever. While it’s true that many users won’t understand the technical info provided in that firewall message, info about which program or process wants to communicate with whom, a quick Google search on that info will enlighten them.
Please feel free to comment below…
‘Till next time – happy computing!
_jim coe
Tags: anti-virus, firewall, security
