With PC gaming bigger than ever, thanks in part to digital distribution services like Steam and GOG, it?s a good time to be a PC gamer. As long as you have the rig to run the games, they tend to be cheaper, better looking and much more flexible. However, you can run into problems with your machine that generally won?t bother console owners that much. Due to the multi-purpose nature of PCs, you probably do a good deal of web browsing on your gaming machine. Chances are good that you?re reading this article using the very same device as you play all your PC titles on.
The internet is a wonderful place, but it is also dangerous. Every day, you?re at risk of being infected with some nasty piece of malware. We all like to think ?it won?t happen to me?, but it can (and probably will) unless you?re protected. If your gaming PC is compromised, it could have dire consequences, especially if you play MMOs ? accounts being ?hacked? are a common occurrence nowadays. But even without a subscription-based game to worry about, a virus could harvest your saved passwords ? your email, bank details and more would all be at risk. Let?s see how we can minimise the possibility of this happening to you.
People actually fall for this.
First of all, you need to understand that software alone isn?t enough. No anti-virus package is going to protect you from every risk. The same goes for hardware; it doesn?t matter if you have the best router with an impenetrable firewall and security, because it all eventually comes down to you. You, the operator, are the first and last line of defence against malware. If it all goes wrong, you are also the only thing that?s going to be able to save your computer. Hardware and software are all just tools for you to use. What?s good about these tools is that you don?t need all that many to keep yourself safe. Even better is that most of them are completely free. What?s troubling is how many of them you really want to avoid.
We?ll start with a really simple thing that everyone can do to vastly improve their PC?s security ? un-install Java. That?s right, get rid of it entirely. Unless you use it to play Minecraft or some other Java-based game, you?re better off without it. Most web browsers disable it by default nowadays, since the software is so vulnerable to zero-day exploits that can let some pretty nasty viruses into your system. If you must keep it, then make sure you keep it up to date. Java is set to check for updates once per month, but this is far too infrequent ? change this to every day (at a sensible time) to ensure you get the latest security updates ASAP. Also, despite it being immensely annoying, do not ignore the little orange icon in your system tray if Java wants to update ? your security is not worth the risk.
Firefox or Chrome. Never Safari.
Speaking of web browsers and annoying pop-ups, chances are good that everyone reading this has seen the ?Browser Choice? screen at some point or another. This was forced upon Microsoft when people started complaining that Internet Explorer was monopolising the browser market. It?s an excellent way of getting a better browser, because despite improvements made in IE9 and 10, Internet Explorer is still a browser to be avoided. This is because of one, simple problem: it doesn?t have the ability to block adverts.
You know those banners you see dotted around websites? ?This one weird shocking trick that doctors are furious about and don?t want you to know!? and suchlike. Also, those stupid adverts that run at the start of YouTube videos (?You can skip this ad in 5??)? All of those can be gone within 5 minutes if you change your browser to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, because they both support the use of a wonderful add-on called ?Adblock Plus?. This tiny piece of code will obliterate just about every advert on every webpage on the internet. Not only will web browsing become less annoying, it will be quicker (since the stupid adverts don?t have to load) and safer.
That?s right ? no adverts means you?re safer online. Most malware nowadays is distributed through infected adverts. You don?t have to be visiting dodgy websites to see an infected advert, either: they can be anywhere. If you block them, you don?t have to worry about them any more; another huge potential hole in your security will have been plugged. Personally, I would recommend Firefox over Chrome, since the latter seems to be forced down your throat at every turn and can do horrible things to your file associations should you dare to un-install it. Firefox is much more customisable as well, but choose whichever you prefer, since both are free and miles better than Internet Explorer. Once you?ve installed one (and imported all of your settings, bookmarks and passwords from IE), you can go to the Firefox menu, Add-ons and then choose Get Add-ons to search for Adblock Plus. Chrome has a similar method of acquisition, except they call them Extensions.
Next up is a big one ? your security software. Now some of you will probably have something terrible as your internet security package. Listen well: if you have Norton or McAfee (or anything that is ?powered? by them, such as BT NetProtect), you are being ripped off. Not only are you probably paying a subscription for them, they are prone to slowing down your computer and offering poor protection from viruses. Put bluntly, they?re rubbish and you shouldn?t be using them.
Quite a lot more of you may be using ?free? anti-virus packages like AVG. However, many of these packages share a lot of the same drawbacks as Norton et al. ? namely, they make your PC sluggish. What?s more, they often go to great lengths to promote their paid versions with ?free trials? that make you feel like you?re losing out on much-needed protection should you ever decide to go back to the free version. I?m not saying that these packages are necessarily bad, but I wouldn?t recommend using any of them.
The only package I can personally endorse is Microsoft Security Essentials, which is a free piece of software directly from Microsoft. If you have Windows 8, you already have it installed ? they just renamed it Windows Defender for some reason. It?s lightweight, simple to use and provides adequate protection against viruses, spyware and the like. No, it doesn?t have a toolbar that sits at the top of your browser to add little green ticks to the end of search results to make you feel safer. It simply monitors your PC in real-time, meaning the instant a threat rears its head, MSE stops it in its tracks. There?s very little that MSE doesn?t stop, unless you make the mistake of letting it through yourself? but we?ll come to that in a moment.
Don?t let anyone tell you differently: you don?t need an all-singing, all-dancing ?Internet Security? package to keep you safe online. MSE and Windows Firewall (coupled with the hardware firewall in just about every consumer router in existence) is more than enough to keep the nasties at bay. You might consider keeping a secondary, on-demand scanning tool on standby (such as Malwarebytes) in case of a virus scare, but on no account should you have more than one anti-virus package running at the same time. In all likelihood, the two programs will end up butting heads and leaving you vulnerable to attacks.
SEEMS LEGIT.
Lastly, we come to the most important defence against viruses: instinct. You need to learn how to act when confronted with viruses; how to recognise them, how to avoid them and ? should all else fail ? how to counteract them. The one common factor about all viruses, spyware and malware is that ? without exception, in my experience ? none of them understand basic grammar. You see it in email scams where they?re phishing for your details; ?Your internet banking is requiring a secure logins to confirm the detail? it might read. While some viruses might not be as blatant as that, they?re no less subtle in other ways.
A virus running rampant at the moment claims to be from the ?Metropolitan Police?. It completely takes over your computer, snaps a photo of you if you have a webcam attached, then claims to have caught you browsing for very, very illegal content. It demands that you pay them ?100 via untraceable cash-card system to return control of your PC. It sometimes even has a picture of a grumpy policeman in the corner of the screen. Reading this, you might think to yourself that it?s completely ridiculous and that you?d never fall for it? but people do. In a panic, people rarely think straight. It?s important to keep your cool and react in the right way.
If you see the tell-tale signs of a virus (grammar failure, ridiculous claims, popups demanding immediate action or else the world will end), you need to stop everything you?re doing. Don?t click a thing. Don?t even try to close any popups, because chances are that the virus creators have made the ?X? button do the same thing as clicking the ?OK? button. Take a few seconds to calm yourself down and come at the situation rationally. If they want to mess with your gaming machine, then they?re going to have to try harder than this.
Don?t press it.
First, try to go to Task Manager (i.e. Ctrl-Alt-Del) and forcibly close your internet browser, since there?s a 90% chance the virus is trying to get in via there. Ignore any warnings about losing data. If you catch it early, you might avoid getting infected at all. Once the browser is closed, run a full scan using MSE (and then optionally Malwarebytes) to check if anything got in. If the scans turn out OK, try to restart your web browser, but do NOT resume the previous session / recover tabs. In a best case scenario, you have just avoided a mini-disaster. Do not visit that website or click on those stupid bloody Facebook links again.
If you?re unable to close your web browser for any reason, don?t try anything else ? reset your machine. I don?t mean try to restart it via the Start Menu either; if your PC has a reset button, use it. If not, hold down the power button until it turns off. This is drastic and runs the risk of causing anything you were working on to be lost, but it also drastically reduces the chance of the virus getting a hold of your system. Run a full scan with MSE when back in Windows to see if everything?s OK.
Should all else fail and you get infected, turn your PC off. Try to Shut Down normally if you can, but do not use your PC ? it?s not safe at the moment. Chances are that if you?ve let it in, not even MSE will be able to help at this point. Unless you?re very confident with PC software and virus removal, now is the point where you should really consider getting a professional to step in. Your local PC repair shop will likely have seen your virus a hundred times and have a solution to get rid of it for you. Most places will be able to get your machine squeaky clean for less than ?50 (depending on your area), but take a look a customer reviews and compare prices with other locations to make sure you?re not getting fleeced.
Like it or not, we?re all going to encounter viruses at some point in our PC gaming lives. The best you can do is be prepared for it. Keep regular backups of your crucial files in case you need to re-install. If you can afford it, keep all of your personal files (and your Steam library) on a secondary hard drive so that you can just re-install Windows on your main HDD if need be, with no loss of data. Keep your PC up to date with the latest Windows Updates and virus definitions. Be wary of emails that look suspicious (remember the grammar!) and in the name of all that is good, don?t click anything on Facebook that you?re not 100% sure of. Get a decent browser and don?t look back.
Develop your instincts and soon you?ll be prepared for anything.
Source: http://www.zero1gaming.com/2013/07/19/safe-gaming-on-your-pc/
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