Ten Tips To Secure Your Personal Computer

"Ten Tips To Secure Your Personal Computer"

1. Use “anti-virus software” and keep it up-to-date. Anti-virus software is designed to protect

your computer against known viruses. But with new viruses emerging daily, anti-virus programs

need regular updates. Check with the web site of your anti-virus software company to

see some sample descriptions of viruses and to get regular updates for your software.

2. Don’t open emails or attachments from unknown sources. Be suspicious of any unexpected

email attachments even if they appear to be from someone you know. Should you

receive a suspicious email, the best thing to do is to delete the entire message, including

any attachment.

3. Protect your computer from Internet intruders—use “firewalls.” Firewalls create a

protective wall between your computer and the outside world. They come in two forms,

software firewalls that run on your personal computer and hardware firewalls that protect

a number of computers at the same time. Firewalls also ensure that unauthorized

persons can’t gain access to your computer while you’re connected to the Internet.

4. Regularly download security updates and “patches” for operating systems and other software.

Most major software companies today release updates and patches to close newly

discovered vulnerabilities in their software. Check your software vendors’ web sites regularly

for new security patches or use the automated patching features that some companies

offer.

5. Use hard-to-guess passwords. Mix upper case, lower case, numbers, or other characters

not easy to find in a dictionary, and make sure they are at least eight characters long.

Don’t share your password, and don’t use the same password in more than one place.

6. Back up your computer data on disks or CDs regularly. Back up small amounts of data

on floppy disks and larger amounts on CDs. If you have access to a network, save copies

of your data on another computer in the network.

7. Don’t share access to your computers with strangers. Learn about file sharing risks. Your

computer operating system may allow other computers on a network, including the Internet,

to access the hard-drive of your computer in order to “share files.” This ability to share

files can be used to infect your computer or look at the files on your computer. Check

your operating system and your other program help files to learn how to disable file sharing.

8. Disconnect your computer from the Internet when not in use. Disconnecting from the

Internet when you’re not online lessens the chance that someone will be able to access

your computer. And if you haven’t kept your anti-virus software up-to-date, or don’t have

a firewall in place, someone could infect your computer or use it to harm someone else

on the Internet.

9. Check your security on a regular basis. You should evaluate your computer security at

least twice a year—do it when you change the clocks for daylight savings! Make sure you

have the security level appropriate for you.

10. Make sure your family members and/or your employees know what to do if your

computer becomes infected. People should know how to update virus protection

software, how to download security patches from software vendors, and how to

create a proper password.