I assume you are talking about a home user computer situation here where a
limited amount of "trusted" users have access to your computer. If that is
so, you are on the right track. Keeping your virus definitions and Windows
critical updates current is a must - at least weekly, and use auto update
features on both if your system supports it. W2K needs SP3 at least for auto
update at Windows Update. Your anti virus needs to scan emails also, this is
very important. Periodically go to
http://scan.sygatetech.com/ to check your
basic firewall configuration. I would also suggest considering setting your
Web Content Zone "internet" zone security to high and then add your often
visited safe sites to the trusted zone where you set security to medium. I
do the same for privacly/cookies also and add my often visited sies to the
exempt rule for privacy/cookies. Keep in mind that you may occasionaly visit
a new site that does not seem to work right, and you may have to temporarily
move security/privacy to medium or add that site to the trused zone and
exempt zone for privacy/cookies. Be sure to always back up your important
files [including emails] and computer configuration such as tcp/ip settings
and email/newsgroup account settings. Back up your data files to at least a
separate partition on your hard drive, different from the one Windows is
installed on and much better yet burn to a cdrom or use a separate hard
drive in your computer. That way WHEN [and it will someday] disaster
strikes, you will not be in a panic and can reinstall your operating system,
applications, and data. My other suggestion is to use a difficult to guess
password for your administrator account. If you do have a trojan attack,
many try a short dictionary attack against that account to do their damage.
It is also a good idea to not log on with an account that has administrator
priviliges if you do not need to for every day computer operation. However
the risk with that is that you may eventually forget your administrator
password until you need it, so always keep it written down in a couple of
safe places. --- Steve
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/