Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 11/9/2005

Question
When you read this you may think that we are paranoid.  We saw a program on TV some years ago about someone using a laptop in a house across the road from someone using their computer.  The man with the laptop typed in some kind of command and was able to view what the other chap was doing on his computer and was able to see his desktop.  The advice was when not using your computer it is always safer to unplug your computer from the telephone socket.
Can you advise me if I should unplug my broadband cable from the socket when I am not using the internet?
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you in anticipation.

Answer
It sounds as if that demonstration was of a remote administration Trojan. You are right, disconnecting your computer from the Internet when you aren't using it is a good idea. An easier way to do this than plugging and unplugging the connection is to get a firewall such as Zone Alarm from Zonelabs.com that allows you to click something to make the firewall disconnect your computer without physically removing the plug.

However, more importantly, you need to keep the bad guys from breaking into your computer in the first place. A good firewall (the XP one isn't "good", in my humble opinion) will let you set a high security level. Also you need a good antivirus and a safer browser, for often they break in just by downloading something through your browser. Firefox, free from Mozilla.org, is safer. They can also break in through email. Thunderbird, also free from Mozilla, is a safer email program.

Finally, you need to run antispyware software to catch everything your antivirus misses. For instant free help, try Ad-aware, http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware or Spybot Search and Destroy, free from http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/ You can use both together if you wish because they are compatible.