Cis Intro Paper

QUESTION 1

The first step for any computer user with a new system is to install updates, especially security updates, when they become available for your operating system. When operating systems are developed, bugs and/or programming errors are created that can cause security vulnerabilities. It does not matter what operating system we are talking about, bugs are always introduced. Companies will regularly release updates and patches to fix any security vulnerabilities or errors as they are discovered. Security and other system updates can be setup to run automatically and with little effort from you, the end user. To install the latest software updates on your new Mac computer please follow these steps. Click on the Apple menu in the upper left hand corner and then select the Software Update menu option. Your Mac will now check for any new software updates as shown by the image on the left. After checking for new updates, if there are no updates available it will display a messages stating that Your Software is up to date. If you see this message, you can click on the Quit button to exit the software update procedure. On the other hand, if updates are available you will be shown a dialog box, similar to the one below, asking what you would like to do.

You should now click on the Show Details button to see what updates are going to be installed on your system. This will display a screen, as shown above, that displays all the updates that will be installed. You can scroll through the list of updates and uncheck those that you do not wish to install. Once you have reviewed the available updates, click on the Install button to start the update process. The OS will now install all of the updates that were checked in the list. When the updates are finished installing, your Mac will prompt you to reboot your computer. Please allow the computer to reboot and the updates will now have been successfully installed. Software Update can be configured so that updates are automatically downloaded on a regular basis. Click on the Apple menu in the upper left hand corner and then select the System Preferences menu option. The System Preferences window should now open as shown in the image below.

This will open the Software Update configuration screen to the above, right. In this screen you configure some basic options as to how Software Update will work on your computer. The Check Now button will allow you to instantly perform a search for new updates. The Check for updates checkbox allows you to specify if you want to check for updates automatically and how frequently you wish to do so. The Download updates automatically button specifies if you would like software updates to be automatically downloaded to your Mac so that they are ready to be installed. Keep both' Check for updates' and 'Download updates automatically' checked and to perform these checks daily. This ensures that you are notified of new updates as they occur in the event that there is a critical one that needs to be installed for the safety of your Mac.

The Installed Software screen will show the name of all the applications, and their updates, and when they were installed on your Mac. With this information you can now determine if you are using the latest version of your system and installed software.

It is very important to use a different password at every site where you have an account and this can be accomplished by using a password management program to help you store your account information for each site you login to. If you would rather not store your passwords in a program, then creating a standard password format is better than using the same password at each site. For example, for each site you visit you can create a password in the format that ends with !89. So, if you are registering an account at CNET and you were born in 1989, you could use the password 1989Cnet!89. Then at apple you could have an account 1989Apple!89. You are using a combination of Alphabetic, Numeric, and Special characters which will satisfy nearly every set of website password requirements and have an easy to remember pattern that you can use every time to remember the password.

Antivirus software is essential to have running on your machine. This way, files and emails will be scanned as you use them, download them, or open them. If a virus is found in one of the items you are about to use, the antivirus program will stop you from being able to run that program and infect yourself. There is no point in running an antivirus program if it doesn't have the latest updates installed. If you do not update the software, it will not know about new viruses, Trojans, worms or other malware that have been developed since you installed the program. It is imperative that you update your Antivirus software at least once a week so that you are protected from all the latest threats. Then, install a free anti-malware scanner in addition to your normal anti-virus program. These free anti-malware scanners do not usually offer real-time protection unless you upgrade to the commercial version, but they do offer excellent detections when scanning with them periodically. Common methods that computer infections use to infect your computer are security vulnerabilities in your installed programs. Common programs that are targeted due to their widespread use are MS Office, Adobe Product Suite, and Java. To make your computer as secure as possible, you need to make sure these programs are updated when new security fixes are released. There are also many tech-tracking tools available that will help you stay on top of program updates like CNET's TechTracker. Don't ignore alerts about new updates because these updates fix security issues that may allow hackers into your computer. If you are prompted by a known application that you commonly use stating that there is a new update, just click the button to allow it to be updated. There are many Anti-Virus, Malware, and Spyware programs available. I would install one that I trust: VirusBarrierX6, Norton, or WebRoot for both virus and malware protection and set it up for automatic updating on a daily basis.

The importance of using a Firewall on your computer or on your network cannot be stressed enough. Just because you have all the latest security updates, you are still susceptible to unreported, unpatched, or unknown vulnerabilities. Sometimes hackers discover new security holes in software or operating system well before the software company does and many people get hacked before a patch is released, even on the MAC OS. By using a firewall the majority of these security holes will not be accessible as the firewall