Windows 8 Bible

Wrap-Up

When it comes to general computer security, the “big three” items are a firewall, malware protection, and automatic updates. Chapters 9, 10, and this chapter cover those topics. But don’t forget that running under a standard user account (see Chapter 5) counts, too. Furthermore, you have less technical “social” threats to consider, such as phishing scams and pop-up ads.

The main points for this chapter are as follows:

• Automatic updates provide a quick and simple way to protect your computer against current software exploitation malware.
• Unless you have some compelling reason to do otherwise, you should allow Windows 8 to automatically download and install updates daily.
• Data Execution Prevention (DEP) offers yet another layer of protection against threats that work by sneaking errant code into sensitive parts of system memory.