Windows Defender
Windows Defender is basically a built-in antivirus that Microsoft provides and already pre-installed since Windows 8. It equips your PC with real-time protection against all kinds of threats such as viruses and malwares. One of the benefits is that Windows Defender is easy to use and doesn’t really distract your system as it is working in the background. Windows Defender will also provide regular updates to enhance its protection.
The protection will eliminate immediate threats that are targeting your system. A user can set a scheduled scan at times the computer is not heavily used for those who may be a distracted with its process. Custom and full scan options are also available for those who wanted more depth in their scan. You can also add exclusion folders for Windows Defender though keep it mind that it would increase the exposure of a malware attack. It is a reliable security software that is optimized for Windows operating system.
Online Anti-malware scanner
Microsoft Safety Scanner can be downloaded for free with great functionality in it. It eliminates malwares throughout your system efficiently with simple scanning options. This anti-malware scanner provides quick and simple system check by ignoring folders which are rare for cyber threats to be placed in. You would want to use this feature only if you want a fast and easy check on your system which might have no security software installed or an outdated one.
The only disadvantage is that it doesn’t get updated regularly and doesn’t provide a real-time protection. The update is not performed automatically and only updated by Microsoft every 10 days. Thus, user who uses this has to download and install it again to get the recent security update of the scanner.
Internet Explorer Browser Security
Tracking Protection
There are usually third party sites that take advantage and track user’s activity in the browser. These data will then be used for advertisements related to your preferences. Some consider these as a breach of privacy to their browsing experience. Internet explorer provides a feature where it can block a list of third party sites to stop tracking the user’s activity. These lists can be found and provided from third party sources which mainly consists of advertisement sites.
By using this feature, it can help block data collection so user has more privacy in browsing. Other than that, with less data collected means there will be less advertisements displayed in websites that we visit, and that also means those sites will load much faster.
Pop-up Blocker
Advertisement pop-ups would probably be the most annoying thing a user could experience while browsing, especially with some of them that might contain links to malwares. Pop-up blocker is a feature that do as what the name says, it blocks sites that are popping up. There is an allow options where user can list some websites that will be allowed to display pop-ups for certain purposes. Users are recommended to turn this feature on as some sites displays unsafe pop-up links and also not in a small number.
SmartScreen Filter
This feature equips your browser with a more safer way of browsing by analysing the sites that you browse and the file that you download to make sure none of them came from a reported unsafe source. SmartScreen has an expanding list of malicious sites and can determine which page that might be dangerous for users and blocks them if user are trying to access them. User might also access a suspicious source and SmartScreen will give a warning about the source. We, as users, could also participate in helping the list grow by reporting unsafe website that user might find.
ActiveX Filtering
ActiveX controls facilitate your browsing with better experiences like videos or games. Due to many ActiveX controls that are made by third parties, users might be suspectible to various attacks from malwares to tracking of your system. That is where ActiveX Filtering comes in, sites that uses ActiveX controls are by default turned off. Thus, user can manually turn it on if the user trusts the source. It provides user a safer security while browsing, though users could still adjust the filtering settings.
InPrivate Browsing
It is one of the browser feature where users can browse in a more private way where datas like cookies and browser history are not saved in their system. It also provides different session with the normal browser. Every trace of your browsing data will be deleted after you close the InPrivate browser. User would want to use this feature if they are just trying to not leave trace of their activity in the most standard way, such as searching for a family member’s birthday gifts.
To say that InPrivate feature is the most secure way of browsing would be false. Certain programs would still be able to track your online activity. For example, a network administrator could still track and log their employees’ browsing movements. Though at least user still get a sense of privacy if they are browsing sensitive informations.
SSL certificates
We could all see in most sites that besides the URL is a padlock icon. This padlock represents a secure connection with the website. An SSL certificate is the main reason why we could trust a website or not. SSL certificate is published by Certificate Authorities which job is to make sure a server is to be trusted or not. Browser will automatically check whether a website has a valid certificate or not by checking the it in a list of trusted Certificate Authorities that is already included in browsers.
Users probably won’t take this into account too much beacuse the one who are supposed to be maintaining it is the server and browser. Users just have to make sure that before every process of sending sensitive data is happening, check the padlock and the https on the URL. If it is not a secure connection, then do not trust the website and send any sensitive data through that website.
Critical Thinking and Analysis
Nowadays, Windows Defender is getting better and better, even equipped with ransomware and zero-day attack protection. It is getting improved and optimized for protecting the Windows system. Its simple features make Windows Defender a good choice compared to third party security software which has complex and often unused features.
However, threat landscape is evolving by the minutes. It would sometimes be a better option to just add an extra layer of security in your PC. Though with third party security software, you might see a bit of distraction since it has different kinds of security measures that would just reduce your system’s performance. At the end of the day, it all goes back to the user’s decision of how much security should the have in their system and what manner do they have in their browsing activity.
Browsers have greatly improved in terms of their privacy and security. By default, browser security is set to its most secure and best functioning state. Although privacy is still a debatable from now and then, some users would be helped by certain browsing data collected, such as search engine related suggestion.
The important feature that users need to be aware about is the password auto-fill information. A malware could easily steal this information that is stored on your browser. For a safer way of browsing experience, it would be best to turn off the feature as it might be dangerous.
These days, on most popular browsers, to add more privacy in your browsing experience, you could access your Privacy & Security settings in yout browser and use turn on the “Send Do Not Track requests” or “Do Not Track” option. This feature will send a do not track requests to the site you visit and the third party sites that are hosted on the site.
However, these days users preferences and activity are commonly used for better browsing experiences like search engine and site suggestions or advertisements that is compatible with the user needs. Other reason is that most sites don’t agree to this feature as it just won’t be profitable for them. Thus, the Do Not Track feature is by default set to off.
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