INLS187 spring 2003
Assignment 4
Li Chen
System Evaluation
System Information
I bought a Dell Inspiron 2650 Laptop last November. Using this laptop, I have done most of my assignments. In addition I saved most of my assignments, program, and a lot of data in my laptop, so this assignment provides me a good opportunity to evaluation my laptop system. The following is my laptop system information:
Pentium4 CPU 1.7GHz;
256 MB of RAM;
30 GB Hard Disk;
CD-ROM ;
56 K modem;
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002.
Test
Criteria and Results
Anti-virus
program—McAfee
Currently, viruses can be spread in several ways to access to computer such as floppy disks, email attachments, and download files, so it is really necessary to install anti-virus in system. I choose installed the McAfee Virus Scan version 4.51 SPI in my system since this version McAfee includes system scan, e-mail scan, download scan and internet filter. I set all scan function to enable status and set this software to load on startup. Therefore, McAfee can scan most of viruses when I use my laptop. But I still always scan the floppies when I used them. Because I set virus scan for the all email attachments, I am not scan the email attachments when I opened them. So McAfee let me more convenient and save my time. By testing this software for my download files, email attachments, and floppy, I found that it scanned all files and documents and did not find any virus in these files. But its weaknesses are:
1) McAfee does not set the CD scan, so I still need to scan CD when I used it;
2) McAfee cannot update automatically, so I must remain myself to update it.
Firewall
Actually, after token INLS187, I know that firewall is another important security method for protecting my system, especially during network connecting. Unfortunately, my system does not install firewall to check incoming traffic form the network. Although my system is an individual system, I also need to protect it from hackers because I really do not want lost my record and data saved in this system. Since firewall can set an important layer to protect my computer from the network, I will choose an firewall to install.
System
Security
Currently, my system sets
two users and both of them are administrators. Both users should use their
password, which is protected by the system, to log in this system. But my
password is not very good, since it just contains four characters, so I think
it is easy to figure out by others. Therefore, I should design a longer one. In
addition, my system set the guest account “off” in order to locking guest to
log in my system and . However this system has not install security patches. I
should make more attention about this point.
Physical
Security
I always bring my laptop to
Recommendations
After evaluation, I found that I should pay more attention to my laptop. First, in order to keep from hacking, I should install a firewall in this system; second I should install security patches for this system for solving the program bugs of the products; third, I should change my password with the purpose of my password not easy to figure out by others; in addition, I should update my Anit-virus software regularly so as to anti new type virus; finally maybe I should purchase a cable lock for my laptop to avoid my laptop stolen .