Spinal, it seems to me that the implications of your post are that an internet security programme - probably the best free one recommended by Which?; that is how I ended up with MSE in the first place - will not provide the same sort of level of protection as MSE has been doing. Am I correct in thatassumption, or am I reading too much into it?
Yes and no. An alternative antivirus (free or paid; e.g. AVG, Norton, McAfee NOD32, etc) will meet the requirements that MSE has been meeting. If you listen to the various reports, (eg. VB100) a different one "beats" the other every month depending on the tests.
That said, an antivirus isn't a silver bullet - we tend to advocate defense in depth approaches, to mitigate multiple threat vectors.
Where on a maintained, patched, operating system, the ingress methods are more limited (e.g. files you download, vulnerable software, drive-by-downloads, etc)*; on an operating system that is not maintained and not patched you will be exposed to things like remote code execution, where the attacker doesn't need you do to anything other than have the computer on. They then target your IP address (a set of numbers or numbers/letters that is your virtual address on the net) on a specific port (like a door to a house) and can run arbitrary code.
This is where people usually say "why would they target me?" I don't have any national secrets on my machine. I answer that with two answers:
1- every computer is a target, and every individual is a target. Computers for raw processing power (from which you can launch further attacks, sell the computer to others, or do something as simple as mine bitcoins). Every individual is a target (symantec publish a report every 6 months with a price-list for personal data on the black market. This is data that gets bought and sold after being harvested from systems).
2- You may not be a
specific target, but automated systems are constantly scanning random/sequential IP addresses, and looking for vulnerable systems. Many of these tools will also have a library of automated attacks, so once kicked off - will scan and attack large batches of computers. When one is found, more often than not, these tools copy over a remote control utility, turning your machine into what is known as a "zombie". I.e. your computer continues to work almost as normal for you, but when the remote attacker needs your computer (usually along with thousands of others in a "zombie botnet") they can do so.
It's not all doom and gloom. If I were in your shoes I would do one of two things.
- get a good firewall. Ideally not host-based, but installed behind/on your router. Depending on your router, you can flash/install something like DD-WRT (a linux distribution that gives you a few almost-enterprise class features on cheaper home routers). Lock down windows XP's firewall. Do not use the admin account, but a second account with as few privileges as possible. Install something that does content scanning of websites as well as downloads (I think AVG does this, but is slow from what I remember). Swap to a new browser, and ensure the security settings there are a bit higher than normal. Be a lot more cautious of the sites you visit (avoid anything adult or warez/download in nature). Potentially manually restrict your router firewall ports to 80/443 (http/https) if that is all you use (happy to help with more info here). Don't do any online shopping/banking on that machine. Make sure you have a current backup of any files. I'm sure there are more, but it is Sunday morning and I haven't had any caffeine yet - and a lot of these you should be doing anyhow
- Alternatively, I would move to windows 7 and give it a try. (the transition from XP to 7 isn't that bad, in fact it's quite a pleasant one. Just don't try 8...) If I really did like it, I would look at XP skins. This makes windows 7/8 (or even linux/mac in some cases) look almost identical to windows XP. Be weary though, there are a lot of trojan-laden fakes. The catch is, some of my old software may not work on a newer OS. Windows 7 does have an XP compatibility mode, which sometimes works. Pop into your local PC world type store (or friends house), and have a play on a Windows7 machine (if they still have any - sadly, I think they may only have 8 now) and see what you think. The change may pleasantly surprise you. I know I tried using an XP machine the other day, and found that I had gotten so used to hitting start and typing the first three letters of a program, that using a mouse to open a program felt slow and clunky.
M.
EDIT: Forgot to say - the key problem with giving any advice as to XP security is that we are trying to secure it against unknown potential threats which will appear. Whereby previously someone (Microsoft) kept an eye on new threats, fixed them and issued patches for these, now no-one is doing that. Undoubtedly as vulnerabilities are discovered CVE and the like will keep track of them, but no-one will be patching them. So one thing you will need to do is be on the lookout for new vulnerabilities, and then find ways to mitigate each threat every time.
