Well here we are discussing home computer security. Most don’t think about it much others it’s at the back of your mind “when is it going to happen to me”. What do you expect to happen? Yes you hear about hackers, viruses, malware, spyware, keyloggers, identity theft and a host of other nefarious things. Heck, why do we go onto the Internet at all? Our whole life can be at risk.
We know that we need home computer security, yes we have virus software installed (I hope) we have windows firewall enabled we may even have anti spyware installed. But is this enough? No! we also need a home computer security mindset. By this I mean we need to be aware of what we do on our computers not just what we install.
What do I mean by this? Well for example you may do a lot of purchasing on the Internet. There you are to have decided to buy that beautiful whimsical thing or whatever and blithely key in your credit card details and probably feel very secure because you have all those good things installed that will prevent those nasties from seeing your info. Think again the nasties just haven’t got round to targeting your computer. Your home computer security safeguards are not always 100% secure.
There are three ways that your info can be stolen.
1. Your PC has been compromised.
2. You info has been picked up on your Internet connection medium. (dialup, ethernet lan, wireless etc.)
3. The site you have sent your information to has been compromised.
So what do we do to protect oneself even if we have been compromised? Well for Number 1 we need to instil in ourself home computer security best practices by denying the availability of information lying are for someone to pick up. So what can we do?
I will tell you what I do and this is the main thing other things I discuss in more detail in a further article.
I use a program called “Keepass” “Keepass” is a free opensource program that lets you put all your passwords and information (like credit cards and bank details) in a secure encrypted database one your PC or on a memory stick.
There are two versions one that can be installed directly on your PC or a portable version that can be installed on a memory stick. Guess which one I use? The portable version for the simple reason I only need to plug it in when I need to use it. This makes it unavailable for any nasty to get at it. You can get “Keepass” by going to “Password Keeper” clicking on “downloads” and then select the portable classic edition.. In another article I will explain how you should use “Keepass” to make the usage even more secure as part of your home computer security best practices.
For number 2 where most people fall down is if they use a wireless connection. Time and time again when moving around with my laptop which is wireless capable I find heaps of “unsecured” wireless signals when I could connect to and actually use another persons connection to do my surfing. Apart from that a hacker could actually connect to your computer and steal all your information. I will again be covering this in another article.
Now what about number 3? First if you go to a site that wants you to buy from them the site should be a “secure” site. By this the URL should start with “HTTPS” not “HTTP”. “HTTP” signifies an insecure site where the data transfers are not encrypted. You should bear in mind that even a “secure site” may have been hacked and you do not have any control over this. All you can hope for is that the site is using computer security best practices. But again there are ways to protect a bit more that I will be discussing in another article.
So start your home computer security best practices by getting “Keepass“. Now go to “Password Keeper” and find how to use best practices with it.
