Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

advice on security setup for my elderly inlaws

(1/5) > >>

Target:
looking for some advice on how best to secure my mother in laws laptop, and I know a lot of others here are well versed so I'm hoping someone can come up with a relatively simple solution (I'll have to maintain it, and most likely over the phone - meh...). 

I already use a firewall (comodo) and AV (AVG free) but she got hit with an apparent ransomware attack sometime last week (she didn't tell us till sometime after, and we still don't know exactly what happened).  She doesn't have a network of any sort, so that's not a consideration.

I'm looking for some sort of proxy/hosts solution that will hopefully block a lot of the dodgy domains, and maybe a better AV (payware if necessary).  I know there are plenty of options available, but given that securities never been a strong point for me being able to pick a good solution is difficult

Of course I can't beat the user (hopefully this has frightened her enough to be a bit more circumspect), but if I can cover off at least some of the other vectors it's got to be an improvement

eleman:
Make her use the guest account on windows, rather than an ordinary account or administrator. Make the machine start with guest account, and it will be a more effective security solution than any "firewall" or antivirus can ever hope to be. You can convert her account to a guest, if you don't want to mess up with the way she is used to.

And make her understand that never ever should she give her credit card number or similar sensitive information on the web.

I did these with dad, and he's happy ever since. Every now and then he wants to order a few books online, but I do that for him. It takes less time compared to handling the mess his credit card info would cause on sites of ill-repute.

Target:
I did all that when we got the machine, but as I said, you just can't beat the user

This was reasonably serious as she's done pretty much everything she was warned against (many times), including handing over the guest & admin passwords and personal info on the basis of a popup <sigh...>

As a rule I run light on security but heavy on common sense, and now I need to go the other way

eleman:
This was reasonably serious as she's done pretty much everything she was warned against (many times), including handing over the guest & admin passwords and personal info on the basis of a popup <sigh...>
-Target (May 09, 2016, 01:57 AM)
--- End quote ---

I know I'll sound like a wise-ass after the fact, but why does she know her password, let alone the admin password?

Make her machine login right into the guest account, without any password etc.

dr_andus:
Or get her a Chromebook. No more viruses or ransomware, no more support requests. The thing just works.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page