" Technology is not a panacea, " says one of the 10 immutable cyber security laws. This means that even with the best antivirus programs to arm your PC as well as possible, if you don't pay attention to how you use a computer, you can always be attacked by viruses or external hackers.
Unfortunately, most Windows users do not know how to defend their computer and become succulent prey for companies specializing in security programs that always try to sell products to avoid and stop viruses.
Even if a free antivirus is always essential to be more calm and keep your PC safe, as written in another post, it is also possible to keep Windows without antivirus, using only the internal security tools.
A stable solution has been designed by Microsoft labs to protect your PC from insecure software, that is, from the security vulnerabilities that all programs have.
EMET (Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit) (now in 2013 to the EMET 4 version) is an innovative security tool that needs no updates, does not detect viruses and does not even attempt to predict harmful behavior; it simply stiffens the system and makes it impervious to vulnerable spots .
EMET, now in version 5.5, can be downloaded from the Microsoft website .
NOTE: EMET is still downloadable for Windows 7 and Windows 8.
On Windows 10 EMET has been replaced with Exploit protection in Windows Defender, already integrated in the system and only to be activated.
In a nutshell, EMET validates a program by preventing possible holes from being exploited.
"Holes" are those security problems that force program developers to release security updates and patches.
Generally, a program is considered safe until some hackers discover the vulnerability.
Programs such as Windows, Adobe, Chrome, Firefox, iTunes and others are frequently updated to cover these flaws while other software instead remain stuck with updates.
With EMET, programs will run in a protected mode and any unexpected or insecure operation will be blocked .
Consequence of this is that, if a program has been written badly or intentionally in a bad way, so that, in order to work, it also requires to perform operations that are dangerous for the safety of the PC, if these operations are blocked, this program will crash and it won't work.
Difficult to explain it better with simple words therefore, those who feel in the mood for experiments and those who want to find a way to defend their computers from older and less secure programs (for example Emule), can use Emet to secure them.
This innovative approach is different both from creating a protected environment or a sandbox, and from ways to automatically download critical updates and program security patches .
EMET is a program for every version of Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) dedicated to IT professionals, which can be used by any user both because it is free and because it is very easy to use (much less to understand).
EMET presents an intuitive and simple interface, where the only thing to do is to configure a program for protected execution.
The main interface simply shows the active processes of the task manager with an indication of whether or not they are protected with EMET.
What I recommend to do to all those who want maximum security on their PC, is to enable DEP protection for all processes and programs active on the computer.
Then click on Configure System and select from the drop-down menu " maximum security ".
Restarting the computer the changes will be active and EMET does not need to be running, the protection will remain active anyway.
Click the Configure button at the bottom to add another program that is not present in the task manager (which therefore has not been executed) indicating the path of the .exe file (typically located in the programs folder).
For a program to be protected, all possible protections can be enabled.
After protecting a program, launch it to check that the protection does not affect its correct functioning.
Otherwise, that software may have malicious code (but not necessarily effective) and you can decide whether to remove one or all the various protections or uninstall it.
How useful is EMET?
For this question it is rather difficult to give a dry answer.
If you often use programs in old versions or not updated for some time, it would probably be the case to protect them.
Even if you run an unpatched, vulnerable program that carries malicious pieces of code that can compromise your computer's security, there is a good chance that EMET will neutralize that code.
Otherwise, theoretically EMET would be superfluous even if it could bring additional protection against known and unknown threats, without needing to keep other security programs.
If you use a computer without browsing on risky sites, EMET may also be enough to protect Windows programs, without the need to install an antivirus or other type of software.
The tool is also excellent for those who install many programs to do tests and tests.
