We have been down for nearly a week as a result of a DDoS. We needed to switch providers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

There may be some bugs which occur as a result of the move. Please let us know if you find any.

Thank you --Robin 21:14, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

From CastleCopsWiki

A "system security suite" is one which bundles all the required tools for complete system protection, like anti-virus, firewall, anti-spyware, file cleaners, registry cleaners, etc. But security suites that you find online are usually commercial software.

How about making - or rather "assembling" - your own security suite that contains all the required tools? The tools are very efficient and powerful. But best of all, your security suite is completely FREE!

Read on......

[edit] Anti-Virus

Well, Viruses need no introduction, do they? To battle them you need an AntiVirus!
AVG 7 Free AntiVirus is one of the few full fledged free anti-viruses. Full fledged AV means that it should at least have a real-time scanner, on demand scanner and automatic updates.

AVG satisfies all the above condition and has good virus detection, features set, quick updates, and is also very light on resources. You don't have to worry about any viruses, worms, or Trojans sneaking into your PC because AVG's powerful real-time background scanner will block it.

Other free anti-virus programs which are equally good are AntiVir and Avast Home Edition.

[edit] AntiSpyware

Spyware, Adware, and Hijackers can do major damage to your system. Notorious malware like CoolWebSearch is very hard to remove and is not detected or completely removed by anti-virus program. This calls for a special dedicated tool - anti-spyware!

AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy are very good anti-spyware programs which have a large, frequently-updated malware database. One of the newer but still excellent and highly recommended ones is SUPERAntiSpyware, though like Ad-aware it does not offer resident protection.

SpyBot S&D has one cool tool built into it called TeaTimer'. The TeaTimer monitors the system continuously, protecting system files and the registry from malware. SpyBot S&D also adds a browser helper object (BHO) to Internet Explorer. By using this, SpyBot S&D blocks the bad downloads (like installation of ActiveX components or other BHOs installed by spyware without the user's knowledge) automatically. These two programs are a "must have" on every computer.

Prevx1 will monitor the launch of every program executed on the system and block known malware. It covers a wide range of malware and includes cleanup of the infection. It is free to use until malware is detected thereafter you will need a license to maintain protection.

Another good tool is Windows Defender, which works on Windows 2000 & XP. This is still in its beta, but is based on an established Antispyware program known as Giant Antispyware. Windows Defender (previously Microsoft Antispyware) has an extremely effective realtime protection component which monitors 58 security checkpoints on your computer to prevent unauthorized changes.

SpywareGuard is a small, real-time bad download protection tool. It actively monitors Internet Explorer, and blocks any malicious ActiveX components, BHOs, and tracking cookies.

EULAlyzer Scans through the EULA agreements of downloaded products for words and phrases pertaining to spyware and adware. The program notifies you of any suspicious wording, however you should always read the EULA completly.

[edit] Anti-Trojan

Not all Trojan Horses are detected by anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. So you should have software that specializes in the removal of Trojans. So-called back door Trojans open up your PC from the inside to attackers, which enables the person/website who sent the Trojan to monitor your PC. An even worse variant is the so-called RAT, short for Remote Administration Tool, which enables a hacker to control your PC.

a-squared Free is the one of the best free anti-Trojan (and anti-malware) software available. The free version has only an on-demand scanner, and does not provide real-time protection.

Another good anti-Trojan available for free is AVG antispyware (formerly Ewido). It comes with a 14-day trial period, after which special features (automatic updating,real-time protection and premium support) are disabled, but the basic version can continue to be used for free.

It's advisable to have both these scanners.

[edit] Anti-Malware

A new software, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware"is considered to be the next step in the detection and removal of malware." It contains many functions of AVs, ASs and ATs.

[edit] Immunize!

The above software detects and removes viruses and malware present in the PC, but they can not prevent them from sneaking into your system (except a real-time AVscanner, to a certain extent).

SpywareBlaster prevents the installation of malwares onto your system. SpywareBlaster is a tool that is run once, vs continual running in the background. Its working principle can be described as follows: many spyware and hijackers make certain registry entries and are identified by CLSIDs. SpywareBlaster has a database of these bad CLSIDs. When you run SpywareBlaster once, it sets the kill bit of the bad CLSID as "1". This means the specific CLSID is killed, or not allowed to register, preventing installation of the spyware. SpyBot S&D has a similar feature. Spywareblaster also has a minor feature of importing a list of blacklisted cookies into Firefox.
If you need help understanding how to use SpywareBlaster to protect your computer, please refer to this tutorial

iespyad puts many bad webpages on your restricted zones list. This means that you can still view the "bad" webpages, but the webpages run in your restricted zone and are restricted from carrying out dangerous activities. Spywareblaster also has a similar feature.
If you need help understanding how it works, please refer to the tutorial

Make your Internet Explorer more secure

This can be done by following these simple instructions:

1. From within Internet Explorer click on the Tools menu and then click on Options.
   
2. Click once on the Security tab
   
3. Click once on the Internet icon so it becomes highlighted.
   
4. Click once on the Custom Level button.
   
5. Change the Download signed ActiveX controls to Prompt
   
6. Change the Download unsigned ActiveX controls to Disable
   
7. Change the Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe to Disable
   
8. Change the Installation of desktop items to Prompt
   
9. Change the Launching programs and files in an IFRAME to Prompt
   
10. Change the Navigate sub-frames across different domains to Prompt
    
11. Change the allow paste operations via script to Disable
    
12. When all these settings have been made, click on the OK button.
    
13. If it prompts you as to whether or not you want to save the settings, press the Yes button.
    
14. Next press the Apply button and then the OK to exit the Internet Properties page.
    

hosts file:

• All windows systems include an empty host file.
  
• They were originally meant to speed up mapping of domain names (eg www.hotmail.com) to ip addresses (eg. 208.173.208.133])
  
• We can customize a hosts file so that it blocks certain webpages by giving it an illegal address (actually by sending it to your loopback) so the page doesn't load.
  
• However, it can slow down slower computers if the list is large. Users of Windows 2000 and XP should follow the instructions below to avoid slow downs.
  

HOSTS File Download Sources: here. or here.Make sure you read the instructions on how to install the hosts file. There is a good tutorial:here. If you decide to download the hosts file, the slowdown problems can usually be avoided by following these steps:

1. Click the start button (at the lower left hand corner of your screen)
   
2. Click run
   
3. In the dialog box, type services.msc
   
4. hit enter, then locate dns client
   
5. Highlight it, then double-click it.
   
6. On the dropdown box, change the setting from automatic to manual.
   
7. Click ok

[edit] Firewall

There are many (65535!) virtual ports in a computer. These ports are either open, closed, or filtered (often called blocked or stealthed). Ports are generally open because they are held open by an application that is listening on that port. Most of these programs are servers. While most home users have little reason to run servers, by default Windows 2000 and XP runs several services which keep ports open.It must also be noted that to run some programs like P2P sharing, some IM services or online gaming ports will also often have to be open. When such ports are open with applications listening behind them, a hacker has an opportunity to exploit weaknesses in the application to cause damage to your system. Similarly worms like Sasser exploit weaknesses found in windows services to spread by port scanning vulnerable machines on TCP 445.

To prevent these port scanning and other malicious attacks, a firewall should be installed. Firewalls act as a barrier between your PC and the Internet. They filter the data that is being transmitted and received. Also, unless otherwise configured, firewalls block all the open ports so that port scanning will be unsuccessful.

A popular free firewall is ZoneAlarm. It is considered one of the easiest to use firewalls.Other free firewalls available are Sunbelt Kerio Personal, Sygate Personal, and OutPost Personal Firewall.

[edit] Clean that junk!

After some time of PC usage, junk/temp files accumulate. They use up necessary space. So it's necessary to clean them up regularly. CleanUp! and CCleaner are very good free cleaners. They clean every bit of junk out of system. Run them before shutting down your PC or on boot. Another good junk cleaner is GLock Temp Cleaner. Along with cleaning junk files, this one has an extra feature - it lists all the archives present in the system, and can delete unwanted archives.

[edit] Registry Cleaner

When most software is installed on a PC, it makes registry entries. Registry entries are often created to remember the user's preferences, like recently opened files. These entries should be removed when its associated software is removed. But often this doesn't happen, which leads to the accumulation of a large amount of junk entries in the registry. This degrades system performance. This is where registry cleaners come into the picture.

RegCleaner is one of the best free registry cleaners available. Apart from cleaning, it has plenty of other features like startup information, file type editing etc.

[edit] Advanced tools

Besides the standard antivirus, antispyware etc tools which are mainly but not completely based on signature based methods and corresponding heuristics , there are other types of security software, that provide even more protection, but can be somewhat difficult to use. Most of these can be classified as behaviorial blockers , Sandboxing software , or Virtualization . Please refer to HIPS FAQ and HIPS comparison for more information.

The selections on this list are the most popular and mainstream freeware security programs, there are other freeware of course which are less popular for various reasons. Some for example are suitable only for advanced users such as antirootkits. Refer to Lists_of_Freeware_Security_Software for more choices.