Security Focus on Home Users

Since  I am in school most people that find out that I am a computer major person they come to me when they have some problems.  I love to mess with computers and troubleshoot (don't know why), but it does aggrevate me when its the problems that could be easily prevented if they would just take some simple steps for their comptuers.  This is what I am talking about:

The first thing I ask is, What is the problem?? Usually the answer comes back I am getting these weird pop ups and my computer is just acting funny.

The second thing I ask is, What Operating System are you running?? Just to be sure they are at least running XP, they usualy don't know nad you have to say the one with the green Start button. 

The third thing I ask is, Are you running Antivirus?? This ususally comes back with either mine expired, I am using some website that checks my computer, or what is antivirus

The fourth thinkg I ask is, Are you running anti-adware or spyware untilities? This is usually a blank stare.

Finally I ask what Browswer are you using?? This is usually Interenet Explorer

Every once in a while I will ask when was the last time you updated?? This answer is, I thought it does it on its own.

I usually take a piece of paper and write out the instructions they should try first:

Step 1: GET Antivirus, I usually send them to AVG which is one of the best free antivirus providers.
Step 2: GET Updates, its the most fundamental thing in computing if your comptuer is up to date it is better protected from nasty stuff on the web. Even your programs should be patched vulnerabilities are found al the time.
STep 3: Get Anti-adware, Anti-Spyware, the best I have found are Spybot, Adware, and Windows DEfender (realtime)
STep4:  Update Antivirus, Antiadware, Antispyware programs because only updated programs are going to help the user
Step5: Switch to a different browser or change the security settings to the highest level in order to help in defense against the code.

Those are the basic first steps I alwasy suggest to people.  Now does that mean their computer is totally safe, no.  When is a computer totally safe, when it is in the closet turned off and unconnected from everything.

Hardening a box takes a little bit of effort.  For the average home user this is an inconvience, I don't really know what you have to do to make people see the huge threat.

Passwords most of the time are not present on home user boxes because of the inconvience, Firewalls on the computer are ignored because they pop up to much, and IE is used because it is default.

Home users need to be aware of the dangers of the web or not having these basic steps in place will have consequences.  Yes, there is so much more to be done on the computer but hell just updating and getting antivirus on a computer helps.