Independent Thief on 13/8/2013 at 10:20
I'm about to get back on hi-speed internet soon after being trapped in dialup hell for the last few months, but I had a couple of questions.
1. I've checked a website called (
www.pcflank.com) and while I seem to do well in the various tests-it seems like a browser that I've used for a long time-Mozillia Firefox to be exact, reveals a lot of info and isn't very stealthy-are there ways to fix those issues or should I consider another browser? I've heard that Comodo has a couple of new browsers out called Dragon (Chrome based) and Ice Dragon (Firefox based) that claim to be more secure-does anyone know if those claims are true or not?
2. About firewalls, using the site I previously mentioned-I discovered that Zone Alarm isn't as great of a firewall as I thought it was, I'm currently using an older version of Comodo Firewall that seems to do a better job-but I would like to upgrade to the current version, the problem with that is the fact that the last time I tried, it slowed down my computer's restart to almost a crawl (with a duo core cpu and 4 gigs of memory!) Is there a way to fix that? I'm using XP right now-but plan to jump back to windows 7 soon.
Briareos H on 13/8/2013 at 11:55
Computer security is first and foremost a question of trusting the sources of programs you install and not letting people physically access your computer without knowing. That's the first thing to address. Once this is done, if you plan on switching to Windows 7, then you have no need for a third-party antivirus and firewall: Windows Defender and Windows' built-in firewall are weak but adequate defenses against external attacks.
As for browser security, most browsers provide the following information to servers: platform, browser type and version. Through additional scripting, more information is exposed: language, time zone, screen resolution and currently running browser plugins, cookie policy and access to cookies, available fonts. Short of completely disabling Javascript and Flash (which can be done in all browsers), you'll be hard pressed to find a browser that doesn't give this information. Short of completely disabling cookies (which can be done in all browsers), websites will always be able to track you.
The only thing that Dragon does is prevent some minor tracking by Google and double-check certificates for secure websites, I personally don't think it's worth it.
If you like Firefox, continue using it. If you really are concerned about privacy, consider disabling cookies and javascript altogether or using extensions (such as (
http://www.ghostery.com/) Ghostery) that allow you to disable cookies and scripts on a case-by-case basis. Also enable "Do Not Track", which is a built-in feature in Firefox and Chrome.
EDIT: Still, I can't stress enough that the best return-on-investment policy for security is to never install something from an untrusted source, physically secure your computer and use strong passwords which should be different on every website. Antivirus, anti-spyware, firewalls, security extensions all come second to that if not negligible.
