10 Computer Security Tips
These days, security becomes a problem to more and more people. I am not talking about terrorism as we all know it, but you can consider this a form of terrorism too, because computer viruses are surely a tool of terror. Why do I say this? Well, the less you know about computer security, the more likely you’ll get frightened when your antivirus will detect “something,” or when your operating system will display error messages. Since knowledge is power, today I’ll provide you some valuable computer security advice, because that’s what you need, before anything else.
While most of you are probably using Windows, most of these tips apply to other operating systems, and some of them are also useful in real life situations, like interacting with people your don’t know if you can trust or not. All right, these being said, let’s see today’s 10 security tips, shall we?
1. Don’t rely on suppositions, and don’t EVER say “that can’t happen to me.” Try to find at least 10 minutes per week to find out more about latest threats and to get some computer security advice.
2. Use a good antivirus, and don’t rely on your friend’s advice regarding this matter. Go visit Checkmark, AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives to see for yourselves that the program you’re going to spend some money for is really worth it…or not!
3. If your antivirus is not an all-in-one package, try using a firewall. My personal suggestion is Comodo Firewall Pro, one of the best out there, and also a free product! Obviously, you don’t have to take my word for granted, so feel free to check some of the many firewall test results available on the Internet.
4. Be careful with incoming email, especially when your antivirus is not capable of scanning incoming messages, or you have disabled this feature. Even friends can send viruses without knowing it, so always double check strange attachments.
5. Don’t use passwords easy to guess. Your phone number or your birth date can be easily found through trial-and-error, while a password like “7yhfX_8dh7z_1sZ3″ is not something one would guess. Try to make your passwords as complicated as needed so you won’t remember them, and store them in a safe location, like a USB drive.
6. Getting back to emails, don’t answer spam. If someone you don’t know sends you a message without sufficient identification data, better avoid answering too, although it may not look like spam.
7. Avoid sharing your personal documents on the network, as well as installing useless toolbars, programs you don’t need, and those coming from sources you can’t fully trust.
8. Keep your operating system and applications up to date, but don’t use automatic updates. Why? Some updates proved to do more damage than the threats they were supposed to fix, so my advice is to wait a few days after an update is issued, and check user feedback before taking that step.
9. Avoid Warez sites, because these are obvious sources of Trojans/spyware/viruses. I don’t have to say that using files you get from such sites is illegal in most cases, but sometimes only by accessing a Warez site you can end up with a virus.
10. Backup, backup, backup! USB drives are extremely cheap these days, and so are DVD discs. Spare at least 30 minutes per week to save your latest documents on a disc or a USB drive, and keep the backups in a safe place. Your data is far more valuable than the hardware used to store it, so don’t suppose your hard drive won’t crash. The warranty can replace the dead drive, but won’t bring back your data!
This is it. I know some of the computer security advice above may seem obvious, but this is like learning to write, especially for beginners. The key is to repeat it all until you’ll find the security measures above to be as natural as breathing. If you have some computer security advice I missed and you’d like to share with the rest of us, please drop your comment below, your effort will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Tags: AntiVir, antivirus, Avoid, backup, Computer, computer security, error, ETW, firewall, incoming email, install, Internet, knowledge, problem, program, Security, security advice, security tips, Spyware, Windows
Varg on 14 Jul 2008 at 1:04 am #
i would like to point out a little tip with virus removal that my college teacher mentioned. once your anti-virus has told you the threat has been contained/removed, as the computer is shutting down, remove the plug from the wall. this will stop all flow of current going to the RAM where the virus may have copied itself to to escape being completely deleted. it has worked for me in the past.