Windows 7 Annoyances

Secure Your Networked PC

Some people spend their whole lives working to improve security for individuals and corporations alike, and they spend much of that time patching holes in Windows. Windows is the main conduit for malware that creates zombies (bots), explained in Chapter 6, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To be fair, the overwhelming popularity of Windows is largely to blame, but there are enough holes in Windows 7 to make you wonder whether anyone in Redmond, WA, is taking this seriously.

There are three basic categories of security threats. First, there’s the deliberate, targeted attack by a human being trying to break into your computer over a network connection. Then there’s the targeted attack by a human sitting at your keyboard. And finally, there’s the automated attack perpetrated by a worm or other kind of malware.

Windows 7, and Vista before it, includes User Account Control to help stem the tide of unintentional and unwanted software installations—this is covered in Chapter 8, along with passwords and encryption—but your network connection is where most of this stuff comes from in the first place, so it’s a good place to start securing your PC.

Windows 7 includes several features that will enable you to implement a reasonable level of security without purchasing additional software or hardware. Unfortunately, few of these features are in effect by default. The following are backdoors that you shouldn’t overlook:

UPnP bad

Another feature, called Universal Plug-and-Play ...