Facebook is a great website for sharing information – but it’s easy to forget to change the privacy settings to only allow your friends to see your info.
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As we said in our three options to secure your home, it’s now common consensus that your home has never been more at risk from burglary and break-in.
It doesn’t take expensive equipment and complicated software to make some steps in the right direction, however. Here, we’ll show you in five steps how to get updates from your webcam throughout the day.
1. Keep ‘em peeled
Install the WebCam Looker software and ensure that current drivers for the webcam are also set up. When you plug in your camera, start WebCam Looker and dismiss the wizard box. You should now see a live image feed of the area you want to monitor.
2. Get set
Choose the Settings menu on the bottom of the viewing area. From this menu you can set destinations for images taken on your PC and set up web servers. To set up your email alerts to keep you posted while you’re away click Use Motion Detector.
3. Feed Me
Click Detector settings to set the preferences for WebCam Looker’s motion sensors. Next select Destinations to choose the place your feed images will be sent. You can choose from email, web, FTP, HTTP and local network. Next select Add new destination.
4. Mail Man
Choose Send e-mail from the drop-down list then select Mail Setup. Input the outgoing and incoming email addresses as well as your message text. You may have to set up the SMTP settings with details of your incoming and outgoing email servers.
5. You’ve been framed
When the camera detects movement you’ll be emailed a picture of the intruder. You can personalise your email subject line and text so it grabs your attention. When you open it an image file will be attached, hopefully capturing the face of your hapless intruder.
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Considering that it’s said that a home is burgled every 35 seconds in the UK (according to Halifax Home Insurance) it’s not surprising that people are more worried about their precious belongings than ever before.
Security systems are an obvious option, but due to the high degree of false alarms, they are seldom paid much attention. The best solution is to monitor your house yourself, using your computer to keep an eye on your own property. Here’s three options to consider:
Option 1: The Internet Camera
If you have a broadband connection, you can install a camera and use it for security monitoring purposes. Many of these cameras allow you to jump online and check the status of your home from anywhere in the world. You can also link more than one camera up to the system at a time.
There’s also a program that links the camera to selected 3G phones, enabling you to view stills and check the camera status. If you receive one of these alerts you can log on, view the camera remotely and decide whether you want to raise the alarm.
Option Two: Home Security Package
If you require a more complete solution, home security packages might be for you. They link motion sensors to a control box plugged into the phone line, so in the event of an alert details are sent via email, phone and SMS. Again, the status of your home can be checked online from anywhere. You can also set up a number of people to be notified of any alert, such as neighbours, relatives or friends.
Option Three: Security Software
The alternative ‘DIY’ option is to use downloadable software from the internet to turn an existing webcam into a security system, such as Surveillizcam Lite from download.com.
With minimal fuss you can configure the camera to send stills of any movement detected in your house to your email account. Another great option is WebCam Looker, which enables you to set up a monitoring system and have motion-capture still images sent to your email inbox. You can even have an SMS alert sent to your mobile.
Stills can also be viewed from the internet by setting up free hosting with FTP upload facilities. You can even set the page to save a still every second, building up a range of pictures where you can choose the best mug shot of your oblivious intruder.
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Windows Vista is the most secure operating system Microsoft has ever released, but this isn’t to say that you should take your security for granted. Even with the new security features, viruses and spyware can still be a threat. To be completely safe, we’d recommend getting some security software. Here’s our selection.
At 5… F-Secure Internet Security 2007
Efficient and fast security software. Not as many bells or whistles of Norton or McAfee but it offers low-cost multiple user licences.
At 4… Panda Internet Security 2007
A fast, system-light suite that may not offer as many features as others, but excels at the core anti-virus and firewall protection.
At 3… Norton Internet Security 2007
Complete antivirus and firewall protection. An enhanced all-new interface makes Norton more efficient and faster to use.
At 2… Microsoft Live OneCare
Integrated protection against virus attacks, spyware, hackers and phishing. From the company that makes your operating system.
And at 1… McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007
With a breadth of protection ranging from the usual firewall and virus scanning tools all the way to automatic back-ups and web site analysis, McAfee has your safety covered from every angle – and with top notch detection rates. Includes spyware protection, online image analysis, network monitor and performance tools.
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Your kids want to use your PC. You want your kids to use your PC. But mixing sticky young fingers and inquisitive minds with cutting-edge consumer electronics can be like a school science experiment – the one where you mix baking powder with vinegar in a sealed container. Not tried it recently? Your kids probably have – it’s an explosive mix.
No matter what the age of the children, you can expect your peripherals to take a beating. Ideally, we would all invest in superstrong industrial kit, such as the T2000 keyboard from Terralogic (www.terralogic.co.uk), which can handle up to four inches of rain (or more likely, juice). Or the Durapoint industrial mouse (www.steadlands.com), which can safely be thrown off a five-storey building, run over by an 18-wheel truck and beaten with a hammer. Unfortunately, sourcing these items is just about impossible, unless you’re prepared to buy in bulk. So if you aren’t setting up a retail franchise…
The real worry for us parents, though, is what children use the computer for. It’s bad enough that they’ve already borrowed Soldier Trainer 3 from the cool kids in the playground, and are now learning marksmanship behind your back, without the added worry of what web sites they’re visiting and who they’re talking to.
Breathe Easier
There’s no substitute for sitting with your kids and teaching them to use a PC responsibly, but in the longer term, when you can’t always be in the room with them, Windows Vista will let you breathe a bit more easily. In Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate editions, you can set up monitored accounts for every youngster in your family from the Control Panel, using the Parental Controls button.
From here you can create user accounts within which your child can fully personalise their desktop and settings. But what they can view, read and play is controlled by filters for games and web content.
Be sure – Restricting access to sites you know are suitable is a great solution for those with small kids
The Web Filter option is particularly useful for very young children, because you can make an exclusive access list of sites you know are suitable, and limit your child’s browsing to these. I recommend CBeebies (www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies) as a good starting point. If you go to the Grownups section on that web site, there are some helpful guidelines about how to give your kids computing time responsibly.
Be safe – Work with older children to build a list of allowed sites that keeps everyone happy
Tamsin MacKay contributes to Windows Vista: The Official Magazine, and works as a freelance journalist.
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Windows Vista is the most secure operating system Microsoft has ever produced. It does a lot to counter online menaces through the Windows Firewall and improved prevention of access to the core of the system.
The Security Center has been improved, while User Account Control makes sure it’s you tinkering with your system, rather than a bit of software that has sneaked in unannounced and is trying to reset your home page. And on top of this, Windows Defender helps protect you against pop-ups, slow performance and threats caused by spyware.
Windows Defender protects against spyware threats
There are only two flies in this otherwise soothing ointment. First, as a pop-up window in the corner of your screen will warn you a few minutes after installing Windows Vista, there is no anti-virus software included in these formidable defences – so you need to install extra software to improve the security of your PC. Furthermore, all those security improvements mean that any security package you have already bought for use in Windows XP probably won’t work in your new Windows Vista installation.
There are a number of software options available, many of which are full-blown security suites encompassing everything from anti-virus to a robust firewall and spam prevention. While the latter are features already provided in Windows Vista, they shouldn’t be overlooked. Third-party software invariably gives far more comprehensive protection, blocking more problems caused by people using your PC – opening infected email, for example.
Alternatively there are more focused packages which cover only one area, such as virus prevention. At around £20, they’re a little cheaper to buy than full suites – integrated products such as McAfee (uk.mcafee.com) and Symantec’s Norton Internet Security Suites (www.symantec.com) cost around £40.
Microsoft has even announced plans to launch its own full security suite, Windows Live OneCare, which will add an extra layer of security to Windows Vista. By the time you read this a 90-day free trial beta should be available for UK users. See get.live.co.uk for the latest details. If you’re not sure which brand to choose, most manufacturers offer free trials, which can be downloaded from their websites
If you’ve already purchased a security package for Windows XP, then all is not lost. Most security packages include a year’s subscription to any updates that become available during that period, so you are probably due a free upgrade to a compatible version. The upgrades will be issued either through regular, routine updates or a specific download from the software. If you are not so blessed, there are free programs available from www.grisoft.com and www.avast.com, although the level of protection they offer isn’t quite as advanced as paid-for products.
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For companies, data security is a big headache: a lost or stolen PC might contain sensitive information that, in the wrong hands, could be very damaging. BitLocker is designed to eliminate this threat, and you’ll find it in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista. So what is it, and how does it work?
The idea behind BitLocker is a simple one: it uses a technique called encryption to scramble the data on your hard disk, and once the data is encrypted it can’t be accessed by other people – even if they use hacking tools or run a different operating system. You can still access your data, but other people can’t.
BitLocker has been designed to work with PCs that include a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip, and if your PC has such hardware then you’ll be able to log on normally when BitLocker is running. If you don’t have a TPM chip you can still use BitLocker, but you’ll need a USB flash drive. Your BitLocker password will be installed on this drive, and you’ll need to insert the drive every time you boot your PC.
Although many firms now offer TPM-enabled hardware, such PCs are still relatively rare – so in this tutorial we’ll show you how to use BitLocker with a USB flash drive. Before you start, make sure you’re logged on as the system administrator.
Missing chip
Because we’re not using a TPM-enabled PC, we need to make a few changes to Windows Vista before we can use BitLocker. Click on Start and in the search box, type gpedit.msc. Press Enter and then click Continue if the User Account Control dialog pops up.
Change the policy
Click on Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Windows Components and double-click on BitLocker Drive Encryption.
Enable advanced options
Click on Control Panel Setup: Enable advanced startup options. This will display the advanced startup dialog box.
Enable the USB
Click on Enabled and make sure Allow BitLocker without a compatible TPM. This means you’ll be able to use BitLocker with your USB flash drive. Click on OK.
Apply the changes
Click on the Start menu and then type gpupdate.exe in the Search box. Press Enter and wait for the “User Policy update has completed successfully” message. BitLocker is now ready to use.
Click on Start > Control Panel > Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption. You’ll see that BitLocker is currently switched off; to turn it on, simply click on Turn On BitLocker.
The BitLocker preferences screen will now pop up. Put your USB drive into a spare port and then click on Require Startup USB key at every start-up.
BitLocker will now ask you to select the appropriate drive; on our PC, it’s drive F. Click on Save.
You’ll now be asked where BitLocker should save the recovery password – you’ll need this if changes are ever made to the system start-up settings, or if the drive is moved to another computer. The more copies of the password you have, the better.
There’s one final step, which is a system check that makes sure BitLocker can read your keys – if it can’t, you could lock yourself out of your own system. Make sure Run BitLocker System Check is ticked and then click Continue. Your PC will now restart and check your USB key – if everything’s OK you’ll see the “remove storage media” message and Windows Vista will load normally.
Once you’ve logged in, click Start > Control Panel > Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption and you’ll see that BitLocker is busily scrambling your data. From now on, you’ll need to plug in your USB key every time you boot your PC. If you don’t, you’ll be locked out – so make sure you don’t lose your flash drive!
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Once you’ve secured your system against malicious software and online attacks, it’s time to think of the children. There might be content on your computer that you don’t want them to see, such as details of the family finances; you might enjoy the odd game of Doom 3 but want to make sure your seven-year-old doesn’t play it; you might want to make sure your children don’t see unsuitable Internet sites; or you might just want to prevent the kids from spending all day every day in front of the computer. The parental controls in Windows Vista cover all of these issues, and they couldn’t be easier to use.
Share your system
To create a new account, so that someone else can access your PC, simply launch the Control Panel, click on User Accounts and Family Safety, and then click on User Accounts. You’ll see a list of all the accounts on your PC – yours, and a guest account (which is disabled by default).
It’s a good idea to have a separate user account for everyone who will be using your PC.
Set the limits
Click on Create a New Account and enter the name of the person who will be using it. As you can see from the screenshot you now have a choice: you can give that person a standard user account, or you can give them an administrator account. Unless you want to give the person the power to uninstall software and change your Windows Vista settings, stick with the Standard account.
Edit the account
Congratulations – you’ve created a new account. The next step is to set a password – so that nobody else can use the account. To do this, click on the new account name and then click Create a Password. Once you’ve done this, nobody will be able to log on to your computer using that account if they don’t know the password.
Complete control
Now you’ve created the account and given it a password, you can use Parental Controls to limit what the user can and can’t do with your computer. Click on Set up Parental Controls to continue.
Pick a password
The first time you attempt to run parental controls, you may see this warning. Click on the yellow box and enter your administrator password to continue. When you’ve done this, you’ll be returned to the Set Up Parental Controls screen and this time, the warning will have disappeared.
Set the standards
When we created our new user account, we chose a standard account – that’s because you can only set parental controls for standard accounts, not administrator ones. To see the available parental controls for your new account, click on the account name (in this example, Dylan).
No limits
As you can see, parental controls are switched off by default. Switching them on is simple: just click on the “On, enforce current settings button”.
Watching the action
Immediately below the Parental Controls button you’ll see that Activity Reporting is now on. This means that Windows Vista will keep an eye on this user – whenever they’re logged in it will record what programs they’ve used, what games they’ve played and whether they’ve attempted to do things you’ve blocked them from doing. If you’d rather not record such details, just click on the “Off” button.
Stop the clock
One of the best parental controls are time limits, which enable you to specify when the kids can use your PC and when they can’t. If you click on Time Limits you’ll see an empty grid, which you can colour in using the mouse: if the user attempts to log on to your PC during a blocked period of time, Windows will politely but firmly turn them away. Click on OK to return to the Parental Controls screen.
Safe surfing
Now we’ll make sure that the Internet is safe for our little ‘uns. Click on Windows Vista Web Filter and you can specify whether this user can access the entire Internet, or if Windows Vista should block potentially dodgy sites and downloads. For maximum security you can create an “allow list” of safe sites – if you do this, the user won’t be able to access any websites that aren’t on the list.
Safe software
You can also prevent users from launching specific programs, which is handy if you don’t want family members to see your finances in Microsoft Money (or if you’ve banned your grumpy teenager from using chat software for a week). Simply click on Allow and Block Specific Programs to see a list of the software on your PC.
Essentials only
You now have two options: let the user launch any program, or restrict them to specific software. If you choose the latter option, any programs you don’t tick in th
e list won’t be available to that user. If he or she tries to load a program you haven’t approved, Windows Vista will say no unless you come along and provide your administrator password.
Gore-free gaming
The parental controls mean you don’t need to worry about young children playing gory games such as Doom 3 or F.E.A.R. From the parental controls menu click on Games and you’ll see this screen. You can block games altogether – good for very young children – or take a more flexible approach by blocking or allowing specific games, or by limiting games by age rating.
Age appropriate
Restricting games according to age ratings is one of the easiest ways to ensure that children don’t play unsuitable games. Simply click on Set Game Ratings and then choose the appropriate classification, so for example you might allow games rated 3+, Universal, 7+ and Parental Guidance. Not all games are rated in this way, though, so make sure you also tick the “Block games with no rating” box.
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In Windows Vista, you’ll find the most important security tools in a single place: the Windows Security Center. If Windows Vista thinks there’s a potential security issue it will warn you by placing an icon in the system tray and popping up a message, but you can check the Security Center at any time by clicking on Start > Control Panel > Security > Security Center. Knowing what each section in the Security Center is and how it works is essential to keep your computer safe. We’ll talk you through exactly what each bit means.
Windows Security Center
Click on Start > Control Panel > Security > SecurityCenter. You’ll now see an overview of your PC’s security settings, which uses a traffic light-style colour code: green is good, yellow means ‘needs attention’ and red means ‘needs urgent attention’.
In this example you’ll see we’ve got a yellow code because while Windows Defender is scanning our system, we haven’t installed anti-virus software yet.
Expand to explain
To see more information about a particular category, click on the down arrow at the right. In this screenshot we’ve expanded Automatic Updating to see what the current settings are.
Safety First
The settings you see here are Windows Vista’s defaults, and that means – anti-virus aside – all Windows’ safety features are turned on. If you want to change individual security options, click on the links on the left-hand side of the window. We’ll do that now – click on Windows Update to continue.
Essential updates
Windows Update will automatically check with Microsoft to see if any system updates are available, but it will only download essential ones such as Windows Defender updates or key security updates. From time to time Microsoft will also provide optional updates, which aren’t key security updates but which might be useful; to see them, click on View Available Updates to load the Windows Update service in your Web browser.
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