Limited (Privileges) User Accounts
When the operating system is first installed the manufacturer wants everything to work “out of the box”. So generally they create one account the very first time the computer is run.
The problem is that this first account is typically the “computer administrator's” account. I.e. this account has complete access control over the computer.
Generally most people then carry on using this account for all tasks, e.g. web surfing, word processing, etc.
From a security point of view this is very bad since if an application has a vulnerability that is exploited by an attacker the attacker will take over your machine.
To prevent this you should create “Limited” or “Normal” user accounts with restricted access privileges. You should use this Limited account for your normal activities and only use the administrator account for special task such as reconfiguring your computer system or installing new hardware etc.
This has multiple advantages:
If an attacker exploits say a browser running under a Limited account then they are more restricted in what damage they can do.
The same is true for virus and malware out breaks.
Also if you use limited user accounts different users can use the same computer system and keep their data safe from prying eyes, stop it being accidentally deleted by your children, etc.
So using the Operating System's control panel add some extra “Normal” or “Limited” user accounts which you will use on a day to day basis.
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