How to prevent Drive-by attacks

Published on March 2, 2014 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

They happen to you because the website you visited was infected. This can happen to even the best of websites, but usually doesn’t if it’s well maintained.

You didn’t attempt to download anything…it happened through vulnerabilities. These are “Drive-by” downloads.

Once the malicious code is injected into the website, it will exploit vulnerabilities in your browser, Adobe reader, Adobe Flash or Java.

So, how do you prevent this from happening to you (remembering nothing’s 100% certain)?

Make sure your Windows operating system and web browser is fully up-to-date.
Use a good security software and again ensure that it has the latest definitions always.
Use minimum browser addons as they often get compromised.
Using a URL Scanner addons for your browser might also be an option you may want to consider.
If you are using Internet Explorer make sure your SmartScreen is turned on.
Develop a habit of safe browsing and be selective about which sites you browse regularly.
Strongly consider turning Java off.
Use an OS with a non-integrated browser.
Browse from a ‘guest’ account, and use a VPN.
Keep your drivers and other software updated.

I strongly recommend changing your PDF reader to Nitro PDF reader, as it has the fewest number of vulnerabilities. Adobe’s reader has the most.

As for browsers, there was an overall 18.6% decrease in vulnerabilities through 2013. IE had the fewest unpatched vulnerabilities (12%), while Opera had the most (39%). Surprisingly, Firefox had 33% unpatched, with 270 vulnerabilities. Not good.

As for OSs?

“Data reveals that the dip in the number of vulnerabilities recorded in Windows 7 and Windows XP in 2012 (50 and 49) has been reversed, with the number rising back up to 102 and 99 vulnerabilities respectively in 2013, almost on par with 2011 figures.” – Secunia

So, I hope this helped.

Sources:

http://news.thewindowsclub.com/secunia-vulnerability-review-2014-67648/

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/drive-by-downloads

secunia.com/?action=fetch&filename=secunia_vulnerability_review_2014.pdf

Comments

Daiwa

on Mar 02, 2014

Always good to be reminded. Thx, Doc.

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