Best security advice May 2005. Newt?

[Jaffa]

Helping a friend rebuild her system after a rash of spyware/viri.

 

Installed: Windows (2000) and all patches, Avast antivirus, Zonealarm, adaware, microsofts antispyware, spywareblaster, spybot search and destroy,a zipped copy of hijackthis, firefox and thunderbird.

 

Given that things move fast, and I may be well out of date, anyone see anything I've missed?

 

Cheers, Chris.

[Ian FG]

Jaffa,

 

@Spring@ posted this link a while back:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/securec...ure11152004.asp

 

It explains some security issues about admin rights and is worth a read.

[peterpikefisher]

DONT LET HER USE MS MESSENGER/AOL MESSENGER/KAZZA or anything else like the aforementioned crud.

[Jaffa]

Thanks for that Gobio and @spring@; very interesting read.

 

Cheers Pumphypete. Thakfully she does not use kazza or MSN messenger, though her son does download music so I should check what he's been using for that.

[Guest jay_con]

I keep hearing people say avoid various programs. I now understand msn has been causing various problems and so is best avoided. I dont understand what the problem is with downloading music as long as you follow the same precaustions you would for letting any new files into your pc???