Have you ever been in a situation where there are too many people trying to take charge? Let's say you are in charge of purchasing, and there are a couple more people in your company that make purchases without telling you. One day, you notice that you are low on widgets, you order a case and three cases show up. You just found out that two other people ordered a case as well.
This happens in the IT industry way too often. Someone will have an issue with their computer and try to fix it themselves. Little did they know, the setting they changed will not let them open anymore spreadsheets. A couple days later, they try to open a spreadsheet, call the help desk and the IT guy is spending a couple hours trying to figure out what happened.
What should they have done? Call the help desk first! Your IT guy will know how to fix it. If not, he'll do some research to find the fix. He will also research for issues that may arise from applying the fix.
One of the great things about IT guys is that we document everything we do whether right or wrong. This gives the next guy who has the same problem something to go on. I know that when I am trying to find out how to fix something, the first thing I do is try to find someone that has had the same problem and learn what they did to fix it. The professional IT guy will have resources for this information that the general public don't.
The next time something isn't working right, don't try to fix it yourself. Call your IT guy. That's what you pay him for, correct?
Do you need an IT guy? If so, give Networthy Systems a call. We can support you and your staff no matter what kind of network you're running. We have highly trained professionals that will be happy to solve your problems.
Thanks for reading.
Thomas Johnsen - CCNA, MCSE+Security, MCDST, A+, Net+, Security+
Lead Engineer
Networthy Systems
6950 College Street Ste. G
Beaumont, Texas 77707
(409) 861-4450
http://www.networthysystems.com
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Does your login account have admin privileges?
Today's blog is related to the anti virus and firewall blog.
When setting up Windows for the first time, it makes you create your first user account. By default, this account has administrative rights. Most people assume that this is okay and go about their daily business. To tell you the truth, this is NOT a good thing.
In order for the bad guys to get into your system, most of the time, you have to "allow" them to do so. Now, they are not going to come right out and say, "I want to attack your system. Please click here to grant me access." What they will do is entice you to click on a link or open an email that will install bad software on your system. Example: Susan has sent you an online greeting card. Click here to view it. When you click the link, you have given the bad guy permission to do whatever he wants to your system. Be aware, this is just one of the many ways you can be attacked.
The administrator account, or an account that has administrative rights, has full access to everything on your computer. Think about this for a minute. When using your computer as admin, and you are opening all your email, surfing the web discovering new and exciting web pages, downloading and installing new software, file sharing, or any of the other cool things you can do on the internet, you are doing so in a way that says, "whatever happens, it must be okay because I'm an administrator." If you end up going to the wrong website, one that installs viruses on your computer, nothing will stop the virus installation because... well... you're an admin.
How do you keep this from happening? You can create another account on your system that has "user" privileges or "limited use". "User" or "Limited" accounts do not have the right to install or change anything on your system. You can still do everything else; surf the net, send and receive emails, you can even download files to your system.
If you download audio files and documents, they will still work as normal. If you download a program, or anything that involves an installation process, a "user" account will not be able to run it. Only an administrator can install files. This is great because if you are logged in as a user, and the bad guy is trying to install something, it won't run.
So how do you run the program you just downloaded? You could log out of the user account and log in as the admin, then run the program, or, you can right click the file (some may have to hold the SHIFT key while right clicking) and choose "Run As". This will bring up a box that will let you choose the login name and password of someone who has the rights to install software.
*** CAUTION ***
If you are NOT absolutely positive that the file you downloaded is 100% safe, then it's best to do a virus scan on it. Check your anti virus software documentation on how to "quick scan" one file. Also, some websites offer MD5 check sums. This is a number based off of the data in a file. You need a MD5 check sum generator, run it on the file you downloaded, then compare your number with the number on the website you got it from. If the numbers match, then the file received is the exact same file you started to download. If the numbers do not match, then don't open the file. You can try downloading it again or get it from somewhere else.
In summery, whatever access you have while logged in, the bad guy has the same kind of access. You can make your system 1000 times safer by using a "limited" account rather than an administrator account. It may be a little difficult to get used to, and sometimes a pain, but you will keep virtually every bad guy out of your system.
If you need some guidance, or you have multiple computers that you'd like to reconfigure and need some help, give us a call at Networthy Systems. We'll be more than happy to keep your network up and running so you don't have to.
Thanks for reading.
Thomas Johnsen - CCNA, MCSE+Security, MCDST, A+, Net+, Security+
Lead Engineer
Networthy Systems
6950 College Street Ste. G
Beaumont, Texas 77707
(409) 861-4450
http://www.networthysystems.com
When setting up Windows for the first time, it makes you create your first user account. By default, this account has administrative rights. Most people assume that this is okay and go about their daily business. To tell you the truth, this is NOT a good thing.
In order for the bad guys to get into your system, most of the time, you have to "allow" them to do so. Now, they are not going to come right out and say, "I want to attack your system. Please click here to grant me access." What they will do is entice you to click on a link or open an email that will install bad software on your system. Example: Susan has sent you an online greeting card. Click here to view it. When you click the link, you have given the bad guy permission to do whatever he wants to your system. Be aware, this is just one of the many ways you can be attacked.
The administrator account, or an account that has administrative rights, has full access to everything on your computer. Think about this for a minute. When using your computer as admin, and you are opening all your email, surfing the web discovering new and exciting web pages, downloading and installing new software, file sharing, or any of the other cool things you can do on the internet, you are doing so in a way that says, "whatever happens, it must be okay because I'm an administrator." If you end up going to the wrong website, one that installs viruses on your computer, nothing will stop the virus installation because... well... you're an admin.
How do you keep this from happening? You can create another account on your system that has "user" privileges or "limited use". "User" or "Limited" accounts do not have the right to install or change anything on your system. You can still do everything else; surf the net, send and receive emails, you can even download files to your system.
If you download audio files and documents, they will still work as normal. If you download a program, or anything that involves an installation process, a "user" account will not be able to run it. Only an administrator can install files. This is great because if you are logged in as a user, and the bad guy is trying to install something, it won't run.
So how do you run the program you just downloaded? You could log out of the user account and log in as the admin, then run the program, or, you can right click the file (some may have to hold the SHIFT key while right clicking) and choose "Run As". This will bring up a box that will let you choose the login name and password of someone who has the rights to install software.
*** CAUTION ***
If you are NOT absolutely positive that the file you downloaded is 100% safe, then it's best to do a virus scan on it. Check your anti virus software documentation on how to "quick scan" one file. Also, some websites offer MD5 check sums. This is a number based off of the data in a file. You need a MD5 check sum generator, run it on the file you downloaded, then compare your number with the number on the website you got it from. If the numbers match, then the file received is the exact same file you started to download. If the numbers do not match, then don't open the file. You can try downloading it again or get it from somewhere else.
In summery, whatever access you have while logged in, the bad guy has the same kind of access. You can make your system 1000 times safer by using a "limited" account rather than an administrator account. It may be a little difficult to get used to, and sometimes a pain, but you will keep virtually every bad guy out of your system.
If you need some guidance, or you have multiple computers that you'd like to reconfigure and need some help, give us a call at Networthy Systems. We'll be more than happy to keep your network up and running so you don't have to.
Thanks for reading.
Thomas Johnsen - CCNA, MCSE+Security, MCDST, A+, Net+, Security+
Lead Engineer
Networthy Systems
6950 College Street Ste. G
Beaumont, Texas 77707
(409) 861-4450
http://www.networthysystems.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
