20 September 2006
Tips to protect yourself and your computer
For people who want to protect their computers from online attacks that seem to be popular again here are some tips.
- Of course using anti-virus software is one of the easiest. Updates should be installed regularly, preferably before you run it every time. Scanning your system should take place at least once a week as well.
- When receiving email attachments you should always scan them for viruses and if you are not familiar with the person who sent you the attachment, don't download it.
- Firewalls of course are a necessity. The best is to have a dedicated firewall, but running a firewall on your computer such as ZoneAlarm is better than nothing.
- Passwords as always are important. Creating a secure password is a necessity and changing them is also important. You should also avoid using the same password for every account as if one is cracked all of them are then known.
- Update your system regularly as well to keep every known bug patched. This will make it harder for someone to attack your system.
- Backing up your data is also very important. This is more of a protection from corrupt files or hard drive failures, but will still protect your data just the same.
- Also logging off the network when you are done using your computer is important to keep people from being able to attack your computer. Leaving your computer on allows people more time to try to break into your computer.
Labels: firewall, internet, password, security
