Browsing as User or Administrator?

[Rod]

A question for the experienced users out there, do you usually browse
the web when logged in on your administrator account or on a normal
user account. I've nomally been logged in as admin but would using
another user help prevent hackers gaining system entry?
What are the other pros/cons?

Thanks.

 

[Kerry Brown]

A question for the experienced users out there, do you usually browse
the web when logged in on your administrator account or on a normal
user account. I've nomally been logged in as admin but would using
another user help prevent hackers gaining system entry?
What are the other pros/cons?

Thanks.

It will help stop some malware. Some it will mitigate the effects so it is
easier to remove. Most will still come in if you don't practice safe
computing.

Kerry

 

[Frankster]

A question for the experienced users out there, do you usually browse
the web when logged in on your administrator account or on a normal
user account. I've nomally been logged in as admin but would using
another user help prevent hackers gaining system entry?
What are the other pros/cons?

Thanks.

This is really two questions. One: Should I use the Administrator account
for routine logons? And two: Should the user account I use have
administrator privileges? Answer: No to both. Two main reasons are this: 1)
If you get hacked, and someone gains control of your logon, you don't want
them to have administrator privileges on your system. 2) You don't want to
use the "Administrator" account because the Administrator "profile" (your
individual logon session preferences) are handled differently as
Administrator verses User.

Having said all that, the recommended action is to set yourself up with a
user account, with the privileges you need for normal day to day activity,
and reserve the Administrator account for Admin duties.

-Frank

 

[Bruce Chambers]

A question for the experienced users out there, do you usually browse
the web when logged in on your administrator account or on a normal
user account. I've nomally been logged in as admin but would using
another user help prevent hackers gaining system entry?
What are the other pros/cons?

Thanks.

Routinely using a computer with administrative privileges is not
without some risk. You will be much more susceptible to some types of
malware, particularly adware and spyware. While using a computer with
limited privileges isn't the cure-all, silver bullet that some claim it
to be, any experienced IT professional will verify that doing so
definitely reduces that amount of damage and depth of penetration by the
malware. If you get infected/infested while running as an
administrator, the odds are much greater that any malware will be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove with formating the
hard drive and starting anew. The intruding malware will have the same
privileges to all of the files on your hard drive that you do.

A technically competent user who is aware of the risks and knows
how to take proper precautions can usually safely operate with
administrative privileges; I do so myself. I simply don't recommend it
for the average computer user.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Alias]

Routinely using a computer with administrative privileges is not
without some risk. You will be much more susceptible to some types of
malware, particularly adware and spyware. While using a computer with
limited privileges isn't the cure-all, silver bullet that some claim it
to be, any experienced IT professional will verify that doing so
definitely reduces that amount of damage and depth of penetration by the
malware. If you get infected/infested while running as an
administrator, the odds are much greater that any malware will be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove with formating the
hard drive and starting anew. The intruding malware will have the same
privileges to all of the files on your hard drive that you do.

A technically competent user who is aware of the risks and knows how
to take proper precautions can usually safely operate with
administrative privileges; I do so myself. I simply don't recommend it
for the average computer user.

I just cleaned up a computer that was made by HP. It had only one
account, the default Administrator without a password. It had over 300
viruses and thousands of scumware.

Alias

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