There's a mildly security related app on GOTD today, Abylon Logon, & I found personally it was hard to comment on anything security related without going nuts trying to sound all sorts of alarms to maybe shock folks into paying more attention to the basics.
Fact is there's no way you can ensure absolutely 100% your PC or laptop is secure, & that's on the day you 1st turn it on. There are potential problems where something might be stuck in the firmware for many of the chipsets on-board [yes, many of the chips can have their own firmware]. The EUFI bios might be buggy or insecure or already exploited while on the company's servers. There have been cases where buggy & insecure code was added by the manufacturer to the bios, that then downloads questionable software from the manufacturer. And that's before you get to the OS like Windows, & it's updates, patches, & vulnerabilities.
Just as bad if not worse, most anything else that connects on-line can provide an open doorway to your network & thus your laptops & PCs. Network routers & modems have been around a long time, we know that they are a security concern, yet few update them, when it's even possible because manufacturers don't always stay on top of that stuff, & when they do, it's often only for current products.
Consider tablets, with maybe 50% of those running Android unsecured because of an older version of Android. Or smart watches designed without security in mind, or the Internet of Things where the response when you ask about security is usually "Huh?".
The good news is that all that potentially scary stuff is for the most part AFAIK in the realm of the potential. Bad guys that might someday want to hurt the country or community where you live are busy compromising systems running infrastructure & companies. Bad guys that want to steal money are going after the more than plentiful low hanging fruit. [I was shocked to read that most American who file their taxes on-line will do so over unsecured Wi-Fi.] The exceptions seem to be ransomware & bot collections with propagation & running/control more or less automated -- they hit anyone they can because often there is no value judgement made. Hopefully by following the rules, doing the stuff you're supposed to do, you might avoid them.
Number one is update -- The 2015 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) says: "99.9 percent of exploited vulnerabilities had been compromised more than a year after a CVE was published and patched. Older vulnerabilities, some going back to 1999, were exploited in breaches in 2014, with a steady diet of CVEs from 2007, 2010 and 2011 at the forefront of breaches.". Verizon doesn't deal with small fry like you & I.
Run an ad blocker. Web sites often sell space to ad networks. Ad networks sell space to the highest bidder. Bad guys make the highest bids for placement on targeted sites because they provide the mostest bestest victims. Their ads are not checked -- if they were they'd find exploits that work the same as malware code injected into a hacked site's web pages. Any site running ads could be as bad potentially as the worst sites your browser might not let you load.
Check your router & modem -- Google/Bing the make/model looking for updates And exploits. You might be very unpleasantly surprised. Don't re-use passwords, don't use something found on those Worst Password Lists, run good security [anti virus etc.] software, keeping it up to date & turned on. Do Not ignore security warnings -- one big problem browser developers face is most people do in fact ignore stuff like invalid certificate warnings.
It is OK, even preferred, to be a bit paranoid. It is OK to check the message source for an e-mail, & it is OK to not trust Any link in Any e-mail, visiting the site directly instead. It's cool to visit a site & use their search, or preferably their index or site links -- bad guys buy Google rankings, so searching for info about taxes for example is likely to bring up legitimate looking but bogus sites with scams &/or malware. Windows 10's Task Mgr shows network activity per process -- Process Explorer does the same. You might want to check every so often to see what's running, & what's connecting, though it's not fool proof by any means since better malware can hide from that sort of easy detection.
Above all do not become complacent. It is possible for a system to be compromised & for that compromise to be virtually undetectable. Malware may turn off Windows defenses, &/or break security software to stay hidden -- if you want to run a scan, consider one of the site-based or downloadable apps or tools from security software companies. Don't just look for files -- malware code can be written to, stored in the registry. If you act as if your system has been breached, you'll likely be more careful, proactive in how you store & handle the stuff you want to keep secure, and that can be a good thing.
