Danger silver0190's PC Security Config

PC Setup Configuration Help & Showcase
22 Replies 4,437 Views
Original forum configuration · expand details
Last updated
Oct 5, 2023
Main use of this computer
For home and private use
Operating system
Windows 10
OS version and support details
No
On-device encryption
Not applicable
Device sign-in security
    • Automatic sign-in / no sign-in required
Security updates
Check for updates and Notify
Update channels
Allow stable updates only
User Account Control (UAC)
Always notify
Smart App Control
Off
Network firewall
Enabled
Router and network details
The password is made up of about ten uppercase characters and numbers.
Real-time protection
Bitdefender Total Security (real-time), Malwarebytes (no-real time)
Device firewall
Other - Internet Security (3rd-party)
Custom security settings
No
Periodic malware scanners
Real-time protection regarding Bitdefender, regarding Malwarebytes scan every week
Malware sample testing
I do not participate in malware testing
Environment for malware testing
I am not participating in any malware testing.
Browsers and extensions
Firefox + Ublock Origin
Secure DNS
No
Desktop VPN
No
Password and passkey manager
No
Maintenance tools
Bitdefender Total Security
File and photo backups
Yes
System recovery
Yes
Usage and exposure
    • Visiting familiar websites
    • Working from home
    • Online shopping and card payments
    • Logging into my bank account
Computer specs
HP Pavilion dv6
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz 2.30 GHz
12 GB RAM
SSD 500GB
(I know, my notebook is old, but I plan to buy it in the next few months)
Notable changes
No
Feedback preference

Detailed suggestions and alternatives welcome

harlan4096 said:
@silver0190 :
  • Set UAC to Always Notify
  • FireWall Security Disabled?
  • Secure DNS is always welcome.
  • No PassWord Manager?
  • No File and Photo backup? Nor System recovery?
Click to expand...
1) Ok, i do
2) I have FireWall in Bitdefender, do I have to activate the Windows one too? Doesn't this create conflict?
3) What are these DNS? Are they useful for privacy or security? Are they some kind of VPN?
4) No, I don't use any Password Manager. I prefer the good old "pen and paper"
5) No, everything is off. Should I do cryptography?
 
silver0190 said:
1) Ok, i do
2) I have FireWall in Bitdefender, do I have to activate the Windows one too? Doesn't this create conflict?
3) What are these DNS? Are they useful for privacy or security? Are they some kind of VPN?
4) No, I don't use any Password Manager. I prefer the good old "pen and paper"
5) No, everything is off. Should I do cryptography?
Click to expand...

1. Good. UAC is very useful for preventing changes to Windows made by yourself or by malware.
2. If you’re using Bitdefender, keep Bitdefender’s firewall. Just update your topic by selecting that your security suite includes a firewall.
3. No, it’s not a VPN! A secure DNS will prevent your internet service provider from reading your DNS queries. This adds privacy, and some DNS servers can also protect you from phishing or block ads. I recommend NextDNS, Cloudflare, or Quad9.
4. It’s a choice, but I still recommend a password manager that can generate secure passwords for you. Bitwarden is a reliable option.
5. Nothing to do with cryptography. Backing up your OS or your data is always strongly recommended, especially if you ever fall victim to a Ransomware CryptoLocker attack or experience a hard drive failure. There are free utilities like Aomei or Macrium Reflect for this purpose.
 
Shadowra said:
1. Good. UAC is very useful for preventing changes to Windows made by yourself or by malware.
2. If you’re using Bitdefender, keep Bitdefender’s firewall. Just update your topic by selecting that your security suite includes a firewall.
3. No, it’s not a VPN! A secure DNS will prevent your internet service provider from reading your DNS queries. This adds privacy, and some DNS servers can also protect you from phishing or block ads. I recommend NextDNS, Cloudflare, or Quad9.
4. It’s a choice, but I still recommend a password manager that can generate secure passwords for you. Bitwarden is a reliable option.
5. Nothing to do with cryptography. Backing up your OS or your data is always strongly recommended, especially if you ever fall victim to a Ransomware CryptoLocker attack or experience a hard drive failure. There are free utilities like Aomei or Macrium Reflect for this purpose.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your advice. What else would you improve? That is, being able to actually say that I have my computer protected from any type of attack, what am I missing?
 
silver0190 said:
Thanks for your advice. What else would you improve? That is, being able to actually say that I have my computer protected from any type of attack, what am I missing?
Click to expand...

First, UAC set to Always Notify.
Next, use secure DNS; it is highly recommended.
Also, use backup software; I recommend doing backups once a month.
Additionally, use a second scanning software like Malwarebytes or Kaspersky and scan your computer once a month.
In Bitdefender, check if you have enabled Ransomware remediation :)
 
@Shadowra, Macrium Reflect is no longer free. And in my opinion only doing backups once a month is too long. Lets say you are working on a school assignment, if your hard drive malfunctions, you could lose a week or two worth of work. I would say to do a drive image backup once a month, and do weekly backups of only your data. Corporations do daily backups of the servers holding everybody's work, we should try our best to imitate them. Their employee's work cost money to duplicate. Our personal work takes valuable time to re-create - and sometimes it may not even be possible to recreate.
 
Last edited:
Victor M said:
@Shadowra, Macrium Reflect is no longer free. And in my opinion only doing backups once a month is too long. Lets say you are working on a school assignment, if your hard drive malfunctions, you could lose a week or two worth of work. I would say to do a drive image backup once a month, and do weekly backups of only your data. Corporations do daily backups of the servers holding everybody's work, we should try our best to imitate them. Their employee's work cost money to duplicate. Our personal work takes valuable time to re-create - and sometimes it may not even be possible to recreate.
Click to expand...
It depends on the user and what they use their computer for, I do backups about 2 or 3 times a year. I don't install programs frequently or use my computer for any work related tasks nor do I have a bunch of data that needs to be updated/saved. Regular computer user here who has no desire to update more frequently as it would be useless. Your mileage may vary or course.
 
Digmor Crusher said:
It depends on the user and what they use their computer for, I do backups about 2 or 3 times a year. I don't install programs frequently or use my computer for any work related tasks nor do I have a bunch of data that needs to be updated/saved. Regular computer user here who has no desire to update more frequently as it would be useless. Your mileage may vary or course.
Click to expand...
Same here, i love clean installs and my data is in the cloud.
 
  • Install Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool and Norton Power Eraser
  • Remove Malwarebytes and replace it with the browser extension
  • Whenever you download a Suspicious file, utilize online sandboxes such as Kaspersky Opentip or Sophos Intelix. These analyze files deeply, monitoring behavior and structure, and determines if they are malicious or not. Also use VirusTotal.
 
Hi everyone, I've made some slight changes.
I actually did a complete formatting, waiting to change my laptop around the Christmas period.

- Installation of Windows 10 with the respective updates (unfortunately my computer is too old to accept Windows 11);
- Confirmation of Bitdefener Total Security, taking advantage of the 180-day free trial (when I change PC, I will probably switch to Kaspersky Plus);
- Confirmation of Malwarebytes in offline mode to avoid conflicts;
- Firefox confirmed with the addition of uBlock Origin and Malwarebytes Browser Guard.
- Added Chrome browser where I installed uBlock Origin, Malwarebytes Browser Guard and Windscribe VPN extensions. Windscribe VPN seems to me to be the best free browser VPN of all. Even though I'm not very convinced about VPNs, I could use it in exceptional cases (for example it came in handy for downloading the 180 days version of Bitdefender). Oh, unfortunately I noticed that UBlock Origin no longer works with Youtube, I hope a new version comes out to solve this problem.
I don't know if this can make me 100% safe from external attacks, but I think it can be a good starting point.
Is it improvable? Probably yes, but I also have to deal with a computer that is no longer very young.

At the moment I was thinking of adding some other "portable" anti-malware, light ones that can still make their contribution without weighing down the system.
I was also thinking about citgraphy, but I have no experience with that.
Is encryption only useful in case of physical theft or also when a hacker has remote access to the device?
And if so, by encrypting the disk the hacker has no chance of stealing my data?

One important thing: the hardware-level firewall!
Unfortunately I have a router-modem assigned by the ISP, so I don't know how effective it can be.
Also during the Christmas period I would like to change, I have seen that many speak well of ASUS and FritzBox. These are devices that can cost up to $300, I hope they are excellent shields.
 
silver0190 said:
Hi everyone, I've made some slight changes.
I actually did a complete formatting, waiting to change my laptop around the Christmas period.

- Installation of Windows 10 with the respective updates (unfortunately my computer is too old to accept Windows 11);
- Confirmation of Bitdefener Total Security, taking advantage of the 180-day free trial (when I change PC, I will probably switch to Kaspersky Plus);
- Confirmation of Malwarebytes in offline mode to avoid conflicts;
- Firefox confirmed with the addition of uBlock Origin and Malwarebytes Browser Guard.
- Added Chrome browser where I installed uBlock Origin, Malwarebytes Browser Guard and Windscribe VPN extensions. Windscribe VPN seems to me to be the best free browser VPN of all. Even though I'm not very convinced about VPNs, I could use it in exceptional cases (for example it came in handy for downloading the 180 days version of Bitdefender). Oh, unfortunately I noticed that UBlock Origin no longer works with Youtube, I hope a new version comes out to solve this problem.
I don't know if this can make me 100% safe from external attacks, but I think it can be a good starting point.
Is it improvable? Probably yes, but I also have to deal with a computer that is no longer very young.

At the moment I was thinking of adding some other "portable" anti-malware, light ones that can still make their contribution without weighing down the system.
I was also thinking about citgraphy, but I have no experience with that.
Is encryption only useful in case of physical theft or also when a hacker has remote access to the device?
And if so, by encrypting the disk the hacker has no chance of stealing my data?

One important thing: the hardware-level firewall!
Unfortunately I have a router-modem assigned by the ISP, so I don't know how effective it can be.
Also during the Christmas period I would like to change, I have seen that many speak well of ASUS and FritzBox. These are devices that can cost up to $300, I hope they are excellent shields.
Click to expand...
Invest in a 1TB external hdd for offline backup. You can use free backup software like aomei free backupper or minitool shadow maker free.
 
SumTingWong said:
Invest in a 1TB external hdd for offline backup. You can use free backup software like aomei free backupper or minitool shadow maker free.
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for your input. Offline backup is useful in case my computer gets infected without losing data, right?

For the rest, based on my requests, do you have any other suggestions? Thanks again.
 
harlan4096 said:
Check these ones :)
Click to expand...
Hi Harland, yes i did number 1 and number 2 (Bitdefender Total Security has got Firewall too).

Regarding DNS, some people have told me that I can avoid it unless I want to access sites banned by my government. Fortunately I don't have these problems in my country.
Is DNS an extra layer of protection against hacker attacks? If yes then I might change my mind.

Regarding the Password Manager, as I said last time, I continue to use my old agenda (it's true, it's a bit inconvenient, but at least I know that my passwords are safe inside the drawer).
 

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