Home Computer Safety Tips
Practicing the principles of home computer safety tips has become a must for anyone and everyone who is online today. The world wide web/internet is filled with malicious and dangerous threats everywhere we visit online today. These home computer safety tips can and should also be applied to your office computer as well as if you’re using public terminals such as a library, café, and even an airport. There are some basic safeguards to protect yourself from danger that you need to be aware of when surfing the web today. One of those basic computer safety tips being that you make sure that your computer and your browsing session is being protected at all times.
A simple approach to home computer safety tips is twofold. The first one being that you want to make sure you protect your computer itself. You can accomplish this through the use of safety tools such as anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall protection applications. The second computer safety tip is to make sure you safeguard your actions whenever you are online whether you’re using Facebook, paying bills online, using your email, or just surfing the web.
For the best home computer safety tips I will list what kind of self-defense measures that your computer should be armed with for your protection below:
1. Firewall Software:
At any given time that you are online your computer is receiving data and sending data both at the same time. To protect you against incoming and outgoing threats from spyware, viruses, trojans, and hackers you will need some kind of firewall software applications to keep you safe. For the most part if you are using a Microsoft Windows operating system then you for the most part are safe because Windows has built-in firewalls installed already for you. There are third party applications available for your protection if you have some other type of operating system. You can usually purchase third party software applications in bundles that will include firewall software, anti-virus software, and anti-spyware all in one. Using one of the “bundles” applications are found to be the easiest way to install and manage this software for the average computer user.
2. Anti-Spyware/Anti-Virus Software:
Any time you have Anti-virus software and Anti-Spyware software installed on your computer these programs scan and search your computer for any kind of known spyware and viruses so that when found you can disable or remove any threat to create any harm to your computer and software applications that you may have installed. When you have purchased any type of “bundled” applications for anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall software they have the ability to set up automatic updates and automatic scans as set by yourself or you can simply use the build in recommendations for these types of automatic updates and scans. The purpose for the automatic updating and scanning is to make sure that your computer is safe against any kind of new threats that may have surfaced on the internet. Typically the most common type of computer problems/infections comes through the form of email. When this happens the viral infections will try to spread and reproduce itself by using your email application and whatever contacts you have stored inside. The noticeable problem with this is usually once the infection has started it consumes most of all your computer’s resources to keep it spreading continually and therefore the end result is crashing your computer. Spyware on the other hand is a little bit different. As the name spyware implies it invisibly gathers and transmits data/information back to the person or group of people who created the spyware. This information that is gathered usually is used to capture personal information like email addresses, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords and so on. Sometimes spyware is simply used for the use of tracking internet statistical use.
To help increase your home computer safety there are personal actions that you can make sure you’re aware of that will help lower any threat against you also. Below are some basic do’s and don’ts to increase your computer safety:
3. Passwords and personal information:
Whenever you’re online and you are creating a new password always make sure that your passwords are passwords that “cannot” be found in a dictionary. Also mix it up using numbers, letters, and symbols as because these passwords are a lot harder to crack. When possible also try and make sure to use a minimum of six characters (the more the better whenever it’s possible). Once you have created your passwords and if you must have them written down to remember them make sure that they are kept in an absolutely secure location. The same goes for any personal information. Always keep your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank accounts, date of birth and social security number in a secure location that “nobody” else can get to accept for you. Lastly when it comes to your personal information online make sure you only deal with reputable companies that are online and that are using secure web sites when entering your personal information. The easiest and fastest way to tell is by making sure you see the “https” in your web browser “not” simply the http. By ensuring that you see the https instead of the http you can be sure that you are using a secure web site.
4. Email and attachments:
Anytime you are using your email and receive an attachment inside of it never ever open any attachment that you are not expecting to get. If the email attachment you receive is from a company and/or an individual that you know and are not expecting an attachment from them always contact the sender first to verify that they themselves did in fact send you the attachment themselves. The reason for this is as mentioned above there are viruses and malware that are sent using peoples email addresses that you may know, but the person didn’t send you the attachment themselves but instead is sent to you because they are infected with a virus and do not know it.
We live in a great time today with the technology that is available at our fingertips today, with that unfortunately there are hazards that we must be aware of and protect ourselves from to ensure that we are able to have computer safety.
