What stops a computer from being secure? Switching it on! Fortunately, just like protecting the contents of your home by locking the door, there are some simple things you can do to protect the contents of your computer. This guide tells you how you can protect your important and personal information by following eight sets of suggested actions.
Stop Viruses & Worms:
A virus is a computer program that propagates itself by modifying or exploiting other programs to copy it to other files or systems. They usually move from computer to computer by attaching themselves to files or to disks. The most common method of infection is through e-mail attachments or through files downloaded from the Internet, although viruses can also be transferred via floppy disk or Internet Relay Chat (IRC) communications. Many viruses delete or corrupt a selection of files or the whole file system on computers infected with them. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of network worms detected on the Internet. Worms are like viruses but use network vulnerabilities rather than user actions to propagate themselves from system to system.
Useful Tips:
- Do not open any email attachments or files if you are unsure of suspicious about who sent them.
- Do not open any e-mail attachments or files unless you know what they are, even if you know the sender. Some viruses send themselves automatically to the e-mail addresses in the infected users address book.
- Be very careful about downloading files from the Internet. If your unsure about the source - don't do it.
- If you do not have anti-virus software, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you obtain and install anti-virus software on your computer and set it to check all files as they come into your computer.
- Keep the anti-virus software actively monitoring your computer at all times.
- Update your anti-virus software, every two weeks at a minimum, according to instructions from the vendor. It's important to do this because the vendor's master virus databases are frequently updated to include the unique "signatures" of new viruses.
- Check the hard drive at least every month for viruses that were not detected by the anti-virus monitor.
Install a Personal Firewall:
Whenever you're connected to the Internet you are at risk from hackers attempting to break into your computer. To add to the potential embarrassment, they might also use your computer to attack others. Installing a "personal firewall" makes this a lot less likely. A firewall is a software or hardware device that controls online access to and from a computer.
Useful Tips:
- Disconnect from the Internet when you're not using it.
- Have personal firewall software installed and running on your computer. There are good firewalls available for free on the Internet. To find one, use any search engine to search for "personal firewall".
- If the firewall you choose can, set it to block everything else except services and/or applications you'll be using to communicate over the Internet, for instance your Web browser and e-mail software.
- Keep up to date with software patches for your computer's operating system, any Internet applications and the firewall software.
Protect Your Files:
If other people have access to your computer, consider restricting access to the files you want to keep private.
Useful Tips:
- Turn the computer off when you're not using it.
- Set-up login accounts and file permissions, so only authorised users can access the system. Unix and Windows NT/2000 have these security functions built in. If you run Windows 95/98/Me, you can buy products to provide this protection. Configure the access restrictions to individual files or folders, so other users can only access the files you want them to.
- If you do not need to allow people on other computers to share your directories and printers ensure that those functions are disabled (e.g. Microsoft File Sharing and Printer Sharing).
- For laptop computers, consider setting a BIOS password so only authorised users can start the computer.
- If information privacy is imperative you should also consider using a file- or disk-encryption system on the sensitive files. Alternatively, you could retain the only copies of those files on removable media and store the media in a safe place.
Choose Effective Passwords:
Passwords mean protection. So when you choose a password, don't pick one that other people could easily guess such as your name, your partner's name or the brand name of the monitor.
Useful Tips:
- Select a password at least 8 characters long - a mixture of numbers and letters you can remember - but which has no meaning to anyone else. This is easier than it sounds. Just think of a phrase like "don't forget to lock-up the car" create an abbreviation, including a number for letters such as "d4g2lutc".
- DO NOT use the same password for different systems.
- DO NOT write your passwords down or send them in e-mail messages.
- You should change your password every 2-3 months.
- If you don't like passwords or need a stronger authentication system, consider installing a biometric device (such as one based on your voice or fingerprint), or a physical token system such as smart card or proximity card authentication.
Surf the Web Safely:
Java and ActiveX are programming languages that allow webpages to do all sorts of interactive and interesting things through small pieces of computer code known as 'applets'. Unfortunately, applets can also do damage on your computer if the creator of the webpage you are downloading has a nasty streak. For example, an applet could include code to delete your files, gather and pass back private information, or install a Trojan horse utility to set up a back door communications path into your computer.
Useful Tips:
- The safest option is to set your computer to ignore Java and ActiveX programming languages. Otherwise set your browser to ask you each time it is about to run Java and ActiveX code. Depending on what you know about the site, you will at least have the choice to run it, or not.
- Try to only visit sites that are reputable; do not run code from unknown sites.
Protect the Information You're Sending:
When you send information across the Internet it's possible other people may be able to capture and read it, or even change it. For most communications this probably isn't an issue, but if it is, consider using encryption.
Useful Tips:
- DO NOT send information that is private or sensitive (such as credit card details) to Web sites that do not use encryption between your browser and the site. One way to check for this is to see if "https" is on the address line or look for the key or padlock icon in your browser.
- Check to see if your e-mail program includes an encryption feature. Alternatively, use an encryption program such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) to manage encryption of e-mail amongst a small group of users. Note - if you encrypt your messages, the people you send them to will also need a compatible decryption program and cryptographic keys to read the message when they receive it.
Back It Up:
When you use a computer, there's always a risk of losing the information on it. Most common risks are from a virus, your computer hard drive crashing, or a power failure. To reduce the impact if such an event occurs you should make back-up copies of important data files as soon as possible after they have been created or changed.
Useful Tips:
- Back-up your important files to an external device or some form of reliable media.
- Back-up regularly and check that the back-up has worked properly!
- Protect back-up disks from damage and unauthorised access.
Wipe Out Old Files:
Before you lend or dispose of your computer, or get it serviced, make sure there's no private information left on it.
Useful Tips:
- At the very least DELETE all the files that you don't want others to see, empty all the temporary directories, and then empty the recycling/trash bin.
- OR reformat the hard disk - note that this will also remove the operating system and application software as well as the data files. The software will have to be reinstalled before the system will be usable again.
- Unfortunately, both these methods only modify the file cataloguing system, they don't overwrite the files - many computer buffs could still recover the information. So, for maximum protection, remove or wipe the hard drive using a disk cleaning utility. The most thorough cleaning utilities are those which overwrite every location on the disk. Those which only overwrite sectors of the disk not used by files are less thorough but should be sufficient if you delete all your private files first.
- Wipe or destroy CDs or floppy disks and other information storage tools, before you dispose of them or pass them on. The "MS Format" function can be used for floppy disks (DO NOT use the Quick Format option).