18. Privacy Control
SHIELD DELUXE 2013 monitors dozens of potential “hotspots” in your system where spyware might act, and also checks any changes made to your system and software. It is effective in blocking Trojan horses and other tools installed by hackers, who try to compromise your privacy and send your personal information, like credit card numbers, from your computer to the hacker.
Privacy Control includes these components:
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Identity Control - helps you make sure that your personal information is not sent from your computer without your consent. It scans the e-mail and instant messages sent from your computer, as well as any data sent via web pages, and blocks any piece of information protected by the Identity Control rules you have created.
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Registry Control - asks for your permission whenever a program tries to modify a registry entry in order to be executed at Windows start-up.
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Cookie Control - asks for your permission whenever a new website tries to set a cookie.
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Script Control - asks for your permission whenever a website tries to activate a script or other active content.
By default, only Identity Control is enabled. You must configure appropriate Identity
Control rules to prevent the unauthorized sending of confidential information. For more information, please refer to “Configuring Identity Control” (p. 86) .
The other components of Privacy Control are interactive. If you enable them, you will be prompted, through alert windows, to allow or block specific actions when you browse new web sites or install new software. This is why they are usually used by advanced users.
18.1. Configuring Protection Level
The protection level helps you easily enable or disable the Privacy Control components.
To configure the protection level:
1. Open SHIELD DELUXE 2013, click Options in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Expert View.
2. Go to Privacy Control > Status.
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3. Make sure Privacy Control is enabled.
4. There are two options:
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Drag the slider along the scale to set the appropriate protection level. Click Default
Level to position the slider at the default level.
Use the description on the right side of the scale to choose the protection level that better fits your security needs.
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You can customize the protection level by clicking Custom level. In the window that will appear, select the protection controls you want to enable and click OK.
18.2. Identity Control
Identity Control protects you against the theft of sensitive data when you are online.
Consider a simple example: you have created an Identity Control rule that protects your credit card number. If a spyware software somehow manages to install on your computer, it cannot send your credit card number via e-mail, instant messages or web pages. Moreover, your children cannot use it to buy online or reveal it to people they met on the Internet.
To learn more, please refer to these topics:
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“About Identity Control” (p. 85) .
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“Configuring Identity Control” (p. 86) .
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“Managing Rules” (p. 89) .
18.2.1. About Identity Control
Keeping confidential data safe is an important issue that bothers us all. Data theft has kept pace with the development of Internet communications and it makes use of new methods of fooling people into giving away private information.
Whether it is your e-mail or your credit card number, when they fall into the wrong hands such information may cause you damage: you may find yourself drowning in spam messages or you might be surprised to access an emptied account.
Identity Control protects you against the theft of sensitive data when you are online.
Based on the rules you create, Identity Control scans the web, e-mail and instant messaging traffic leaving your computer for specific character strings (for example, your credit card number). If there is a match, the respective web page, e-mail or instant message is blocked.
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You can create rules to protect any piece of information you might consider personal or confidential, from your phone number or e-mail address to your bank account information. Multiuser support is provided so that users logging on to different Windows user accounts can configure and use their own identity protection rules. If your Windows account is an administrator account, the rules you create can be configured to also apply when other users of the computer are logged on to their Windows user accounts.
Why use Identity Control?
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Identity Control is very effective in blocking keylogger spyware. This type of malicious applications records your keystrokes and sends them over the Internet to a malicious person (hacker). The hacker can find out sensitive information from the stolen data, such as bank account numbers and passwords, and use it to gain personal benefits.
Supposing such an application manages to avoid antivirus detection, it cannot send the stolen data by e-mail, web or instant messages if you have created appropriate identity protection rules.
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Identity Control can protect you from phishing attempts (attempts to steal personal information). The most common phishing attempts make use of a deceiving e-mail to trick you into submitting personal information on a fake web page.
For example, you may receive an e-mail claiming to be from your bank and requesting you to urgently update your bank account information. The e-mail provides you with a link to the web page where you must provide your personal information.
Although they seem to be legitimate, the e-mail and the web page the misleading link directs you to are fake. If you click the link in the e-mail and submit your personal information on the fake web page, you will disclose this information to the malicious persons who organized the phishing attempt.
If appropriate identity protection rules are in place, you cannot submit personal information (such as your credit card number) on a web page unless you have explicitly defined an exception for the respective web page.
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Using Identity Control rules, you can prevent your children from giving out personal information (such as the home address or phone number) to people they met on the Internet. Moreover, if you create rules to protect your credit card, they cannot use it to buy things online without your consent.
18.2.2. Configuring Identity Control
If you want to use Identity Control, follow these steps:
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1. Open SHIELD DELUXE 2013, click Options in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Expert View.
2. Go to Privacy Control > Identity.
3. Make sure Identity Control is enabled.
Note
If the option cannot be configured, go to the Status tab and enable Privacy Control.
4. Create rules to protect your sensitive data. For more information, please refer to
“Creating Identity Protection Rules” (p. 87) .
5. If needed, define specific exclusions from the rules you have created. For example, if you have created a rule to protect your credit card number, add the web sites where you usually use your credit card to the exclusions list. For more information, please refer to “Defining Exclusions” (p. 88) .
Creating Identity Protection Rules
To create an identity protection rule, click the Add button and follow the configuration wizard. You can navigate through the wizard using the Next and Back buttons. To exit the wizard, click Cancel.
1. Welcome Window
2. Set Rule Type and Data
You must set the following parameters:
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Rule Name - type the name of the rule in this edit field.
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Rule Type - choose the rule type (address, name, credit card, PIN, SSN etc).
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Rule Data - type the data you want to protect in this edit field. For example, if you want to protect your credit card number, type all or part of it here.
Important
If you enter less than three characters, you will be prompted to validate the data.
We recommend you to enter at least three characters in order to avoid the mistaken blocking of messages and web pages.
All of the data you enter is encrypted. For extra safety, do not enter all of the data you wish to protect.
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3. Select Traffic Types and Users a. Select the type of traffic you want SHIELD DELUXE 2013 to scan.
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Scan Web (HTTP traffic) - scans the HTTP (web) traffic and blocks the outgoing data that matches the rule data.
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Scan e-mail (SMTP traffic) - scans the SMTP (mail) traffic and blocks the outgoing e-mail messages that contain the rule data.
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Scan IM (Instant Messaging) traffic - scans the Instant Messaging traffic and blocks the outgoing chat messages that contain the rule data.
You can choose to apply the rule only if the rule data matches whole words or if the rule data and the detected string case match.
b. Specify the users for which the rule applies.
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Only for me (current user) - the rule will apply only to your user account.
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Limited user accounts - the rule will apply to you and all limited Windows accounts.
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All users - the rule will apply to all Windows accounts.
4. Describe Rule
Enter a short description of the rule in the edit field. Since the blocked data (character string) is not displayed in plain text when accessing the rule, the description should help you easily identify it.
Click Finish. The rule will appear in the table.
From now on, any attempt to send the specified data (through e-mail, instant messaging or over a web page) will fail. An alert message will be displayed indicating that
SHIELD DELUXE 2013 has blocked identity specific content from being sent.
Defining Exclusions
There are cases when you need to define exceptions to specific identity rules. Let's consider the case when you create a rule that prevents your credit card number from being sent over HTTP (web). Whenever your credit card number is submitted on a website from your user account, the respective page is blocked. If you want, for example, to buy footwear from an online shop (which you know to be secure), you will have to specify an exception to the respective rule.
To open the window where you can manage exceptions, click Exclusions.
To add an exception, follow these steps:
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1. Click the Add button to add a new entry in the table.
2. Double-click Specify excluded item and provide the web site, the e-mail address or the IM contact that you want to add as exception.
3. Double-click Traffic type and choose from the menu the option corresponding to the type of address previously provided.
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If you have specified a web address, select HTTP.
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If you have specified an e-mail address, select E-mail (SMTP).
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If you have specified an IM contact, select IM.
To remove an exception from the list, select it and click the Remove button.
Click OK to save the changes.
18.2.3. Managing Rules
To manage the Identity Control rules:
1. Open SHIELD DELUXE 2013, click Options in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Expert View.
2. Go to Privacy Control > Identity.
You can see the rules created so far listed in the table.
To delete a rule, select it and click the Delete button.
To edit a rule select it and click the Edit button or double-click it. A new window will appear. Here you can change the name, description and parameters of the rule (type, data and traffic). Click OK to save the changes.
18.3. Registry Control
A very important part of the Windows operating system is called the Registry. This is where Windows keeps its settings, installed programs, user information and so on.
The Registry is also used to define which programs should be launched automatically when Windows is started. Viruses often use this in order to be automatically launched when the user restarts his computer.
Registry Control keeps an eye on the Windows Registry - this is again useful for detecting Trojan horses. It will alert you whenever a program will try to modify a registry entry in order to be executed at Windows start-up. For more information, please refer to “Registry Alerts” (p. 35) .
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To configure Registry Control:
1. Open SHIELD DELUXE 2013, click Options in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Expert View.
2. Go to Privacy Control > Registry.
3. Select the corresponding check box to enable Registry Control.
Note
If the option cannot be configured, go to the Status tab and enable Privacy Control.
Managing Rules
To delete a rule, select it and click the Delete button.
18.4. Cookie Control
Cookies are a very common occurrence on the Internet. They are small files stored on your computer. Websites create these cookies in order to keep track of specific information about you.
Cookies are generally made to make your life easier. For example they can help the website remember your name and preferences, so that you don't have to enter them on every visit.
But cookies can also be used to compromise your privacy, by tracking your surfing patterns.
This is where Cookie Control helps. When enabled, Cookie Control will prompt you for permission whenever a new web site tries to set or request a cookie. For more information, please refer to “Cookie Alerts” (p. 36) .
To configure Cookie Control:
1. Open SHIELD DELUXE 2013, click Options in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Expert View.
2. Go to Privacy Control > Cookie.
3. Select the corresponding check box to enable Cookie Control.
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Note
If the option cannot be configured, go to the Status tab and enable Privacy Control.
4. You can configure rules for the web sites you visit regularly, but it is not really necessary. Rules are automatically created through the alert window, based on your answer.
Note
Because of the great number of cookies used on the Internet today, Cookie Control can be quite bothersome to begin with. At first, it will ask a lot of questions about sites trying to place cookies on your computer. As soon as you add your regular sites to the rule-list, surfing will become as easy as before.
Creating Rules Manually
To manually create a rule, click the Add button and configure the rule parameters in the configuration window. You can set the parameters:
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Domain address - type in the domain on which the rule should apply.
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Action - select the action of the rule.
Action
Allow
Deny
Description
The cookies on that domain will execute.
The cookies on that domain will not execute.
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Direction - select the traffic direction.
Type Description
Outgoing
The rule applies only for the cookies that are sent out back to the connected site.
Incoming
The rule applies only for the cookies that are received from the connected site.
Both The rule applies in both directions.
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You can accept cookies but never return them by setting the action to Deny and the direction to Outgoing.
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Click Finish.
Managing Rules
To delete a rule, select it and click the Delete button. To modify the rule parameters, select the rule and click the Edit button or double-click it. Make the desired changes in the configuration window.
18.5. Script Control
Scripts and other codes such as ActiveX controls and Java applets , which are used to create interactive web pages, can be programmed to have harmful effects. ActiveX elements, for example, can gain total access to your data and they can read data from your computer, delete information, capture passwords and intercept messages while you're online. You should only accept active content from sites you fully know and trust.
If you enable Script Control, you will be prompted for permission whenever a new web site tries to run a script or other active content. For more information, please refer to
“Script Alerts” (p. 36) .
To configure Script Control:
1. Open SHIELD DELUXE 2013, click Options in the upper-right corner of the window and choose Expert View.
2. Go to Privacy Control > Script.
3. Select the corresponding check box to enable Script Control.
Note
If the option cannot be configured, go to the Status tab and enable Privacy Control.
4. You can configure rules for the web sites you visit regularly, but it is not really necessary. Rules are automatically created through the alert window, based on your answer.
Creating Rules Manually
To manually create a rule, click the Add button and configure the rule parameters in the configuration window. You can set the parameters:
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Domain address - type in the domain on which the rule should apply.
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Action - select the action of the rule.
Action
Allow
Deny
Description
The scripts on that domain will execute.
The scripts on that domain will not execute.
Click Finish.
Managing Rules
To delete a rule, select it and click the Delete button. To modify the rule parameters, select the rule and click the Edit button or double-click it. Make the desired changes in the configuration window.
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