Part II. Batten Down the Security Hatches
In the very early years of personal computers, nobody gave much thought to computer security. After all, why would someone need high security on a computer that they alone use? The Internet changed all that. Suddenly, personal computers were connected to an enormous public network fraught with all forms of malicious software. People have suffered many security breaches ever since, ranging from minor annoyances to true data disasters.
Windows Vista was designed, built, and tested from the ground up to be the most secure Windows ever created, and Windows 7 builds on that design. But ask any security professional whether there is such a thing as a 100-percent secure computer, and you'll surely get "No" as your answer. You simply cannot create a machine that's totally programmable and also 100-percent secure. The best you can do is to minimize the likelihood of security breaches.
Virtually everyone today uses his or her computer to access the Internet. You want to make your computer as secure as possible as soon as possible. Part II takes you through the "big three" elements of doing that. Chapter 7 covers the built-in Windows Firewall. Chapter 8 covers tools and techniques for warding off malicious software, including Windows Defender, which comes free with Windows 7. Chapter 9 covers automatic updates, an important ...
Get Windows® 7 Bible now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
