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How to Secure Your Home Computer - STEP 6 - Limited User Accounts & Time Synchronization

Use a Limited User Account for Your Everyday Computing Needs

Cybernoggin recommends that everyone operates as a Limited User rather than an Administrator to do daily tasks such as reading e-mail and browsing the Web. This way, if you download a web site or open an e-mail attachment that contains malicious code, the infected code will have only User rights to execute.

When tasks require more privileges than the User account (e.g., installing new software), log on as Administrator (with Fast User Switching this can be done easily) or use Run As command.

How to Create a Limited User Account

Many users log in as 'Administrators' for every computer session. While administrative privileges are necessary for software installation, viruses and trojans are most harmful when entering via an Administrator Account. We recommend that you always log in with a User Account for everyday use. To create a User Account:

  1. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts.
  2. On the Users tab, click Add.
  3. In the Add New User window:
    • In the User Name field, enter a name, then click Next.
    • For the level of access, select Restricted User, then click Finish.
  4. The new user name should appear under Users for this computer on the User tab.
  5. Log out of the administrator account by hitting CTRL-ALT-DEL and selecting Log Off, then log back in as the new user.

To switch to the Administrator Account, use the Run as... feature:

  1. Press Shift and simultaneously right-click on any application icon.
  2. Select Run as... from the drop-down menu.
  3. In the Run as Other User window, enter your Administrator user name and password. Click OK.

How to Enable Windows XP Time Synchronization

The internal clocks in most PCs are usually fairly accurate but they can drift by a few seconds a week. XP has a useful facility that allows you to synchronize your PC to an atomic clock when you are connected to the Internet. The next time you are online double click on the time display on the taskbar and select the Internet Time tab, check the item 'Automatically Synchronise...' and click the Update Now button. If the time-server web site selected by default is slow to respond, here is a list of alternate internet time servers. If you have problems synchronizing your time, due to possible firewall rules, please follow the directions for accessing the NIST Internet Time Service through a firewall.

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Submitted by cybernoggin on Mon, 05/08/2006 - 9:53pm. categories [ ] login or register to post comments
Evidence - Limited User Account Restrictions Work
Submitted by cybernoggin on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 12:19am.

eWeek performed a spyware study in November of 2005 that showed the danger of using an Administrator or Power User level account  and the damage this practice can bring upon an organization or home computer, but very little damage was done if using a basic or Limited User Account:

eWEEK Labs performed a series of tests to gauge the differences in the severity of spyware infection among users with different local permissions.

Using fully patched Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional clients, we visited a series of less-than-savory Web sites in an effort to install various types of adware and spyware bundlers.

We performed the same tests on separate but identical virtual machines, varying only the user's group membership—with users representing Administrators, Power Users and Users.

After attempting to install the various applications, we rebooted the client, logged in with an approved Administrator account and installed anti-spyware software.

Using this software, Sunbelt Software Inc.'s CounterSpy 1.5, we scanned each system, totaling the number of threats found as well as the grand total of threat instances detected.

We found a vast degree of difference among the three user memberships. On our Windows 2000 Professional client with User permissions only, none of the malware installed completely and two threats actually warned that the user had insufficient privileges.

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A third loaded a malicious process into memory, but the threat did not reappear after reboot. The Sunbelt scan performed after the reboot could find only a single threat, which consisted of one file in the browser cache.

The systems managed by Administrators were not nearly as fortunate: On the Windows 2000-based system, CounterSpy found 19 threats consisting of three memory processes, 503 files and 2,500 registry keys—all of which had installed.

Corporations thinking they have found middle ground with Power User mode will be sorely disappointed. In our tests, the Power User computer registered 19 threats (three memory processes, 503 files and 2,278 registry keys)—nearly identical results to what we found on the Administrator's system.

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