...

If you use Windows 7 or 8, Microsoft.com provides a free anti-virus sofftware software package called Microsoft Security Essentials.

...

Ultimately you will choose which browser you will want to use but we recommend Firefox for web browsing from http://www.mozilla.com/.

If you are on UCSB Connect, we recommend you use Chrome (https://www.google.com/chrome) and the GMail interface UCSB Connect Web Mail App.

Both browsers have Extensions/Add-ons you may want to consider using, especially when you are browsing different websites for security purposes.

For the daring...

There are some extensions/add-ons for Firefox and Chrome that you can use to help you browse a little more securely.

Firefox Multi-Account Containers

Mozilla provides an Add-on called Firefox Multi-Account Containers.

This add-on basically allows you to treat tabs on Firefox to act independently for certain things.

Such as if you wish to have your UCSB Connect Account up Firefox and your personal GMail account, you can use this extension to create a seperate tab that will be color coded and separated from the login information of the other tab.

NoScript

Firefox has an Add-on called NoScript that blocks website scripts by default unless you specify to allow.

NoScript is slightly disruptive in that a lot of websites do rely on various scripts to show off their content, so it does require a user to spend time deciding what to allow and disallow script wise.

This is only recommended to Power Users who is willing to deal with the minutia of allowing or disallowing things.

ScriptSafe

ScriptSafe is an extension you can add to chrome that you can allow or deny running scripts for various websites.

Similar to what NoScript does for Firefox

uMatrix

uMatrix is another Add-on/extension for both Chrome and Firefox that allows users to allow or forbid scripts running on certain web pages.

Always use a firewall

Infections can happen from external sources.

Having a firewall up and configured to only allow what you want to allow will limit the number of issues later.

It is never a good idea to have the firewall off all the time.

Be careful with what you download from your email or from the Internet in general.

...

Some websites may be using content providers that have been recently hacked, inserting trick advertisements to trick you into click on them to install malware.

Related articles

...