Sandboxing is a concept every domain name investor should familiarize himself with. Viruses, trojans, keyloggers, and other malware which is the enemy of every computer user (and especially domain name investors or anyone else doing monetary transactions online) can often be prevented by using a sandbox. What is a sandbox and how can sandboxing protect me from malware you ask? We’ll talk about that  and even mention a free sandboxing application you can use to make browsing the web and conducting domain name transactions a safer experience.  We’ll cover the pros and cons of sandboxing and mention what sandboxing can and can’t do. Is it right for you as a domain name investor? Read on to find out.

The problem with most malware detection software is that they’re largely reactive rather than proactive. In short, a program designed to detect malware operating off a malware signature-based database is always going to be playing “catch-up” with malware writers who create new malware which is undetectable using the current database. If you’ve ever done a virus scan before and after downloading new virus definitions, you probably have a good idea of how this works. While malware detection software is getting better at detecting malware and in recent years has been expanding beyond solely signature-based detection, malware writers aren’t standing still either.

When I refer to Sandboxing in this article, I’m referring to a computer security measure, not the “Google Sandbox” some SEOs like to talk about.

Sandboxing has many applications in the software and web development fields, however in this article we’re going to focus solely on how Sandboxing can increase the security of web browsing, email, and privacy. A shareware product I’ve tried which does an excellent job at Sandboxing is Sandboxie.

Sandboxie and other sandboxing products allow select applications to be run in a virtual environment which reduces the likelihood of malware being permanently written to your hard drive or other attached media. By using a sandbox, cookies, new registry entries, and cached or downloaded files will be written to this virtual environment, being deleted (along with malware) once the Sandbox is closed or emptied. In short, “What happens in the Sandbox stays in the Sandbox“.

While sandboxes are a great way to increase your security and privacy when browsing the web and reading emails, a few limitations to remember when using Sandboxes follow:

* Sandboxes provide limited protection from many social engineering scams, such as phishing and pharming.
* Sandboxing software doesn’t disable all keyloggers immediately. You must close or empty the sandbox to remove any keyloggers you’ve acquired while browsing the web, prior to it being safe to enter passwords and other confidential information. Sandboxie recommends first stopping all activity within the Sandboxes prior to closing them for maximum protection against keyloggers.
* Sandboxes cannot protect you from malware already residing on your computer

Like all other security-related suggestions made on Domain Name Scams, Sandboxes are an important component I recommend adding to your domain name security arsenal. 

Related posts:

1. Stolen Domains: Don’t Let It Happen To You!
2. Domain Name Security
3. Don’t Trust Me