The bad guys on the Internet are organized, smart, sophisticated, tech-savvy and well funded. And they’re out to steal your identity, your money and to control your computer remotely to commit crimes. If you don’t pay serious attention to your own protection, they’ll get exactly what they want.
It seems fitting that the first post on this blog is about Internet security. It’s the biggest, baddest, most serious problem currently facing the Internet. Yet few people seem to be fully aware of the variety and scope of threats facing them today.
Other posts and articles on this blog will talk in depth about each different threat and various options available to protect yourself, but for now here are the basic things you can do to stay safe.
The most important thing you can do is to educate yourself. All the software and hardware in the world can’t protect you from yourself. Very few of the current safeguards can help if you fall for a phishing scam, or click on a malicious attachment, or click on a bad le-mail link. Or maybe you download a “free” program before you check it out, or use a password that’s easily guessed or broken. The best protection you can have is an active and skeptical mind. We can provide you with the information you need to make good decisions.
Use multiple layers of security. No single tool is capable of protecting you from the number and scope of the existing threats. You need several tools to be adequately protected. Several of the most important are listed below. It’s important that you don’t try to do everything at once and get overwhelmed. Take it one step at a time.
Keep your operating system and your applications up to date. This step is more important than ever as the hackers are targeting applications more frequently.
Use a firewall. Whether it’s a software firewall, a hardware firewall or both, this is your first layer of protection.
Use an anti-virus product. More on that later.
Use an anti-spyware product. There are good free products.
Backup your data or your entire system on a regular basis. I know it’s inconvenient. But you never really understand inconvenience until you loose your data and have to recreate it from scratch or learn to live without it forever.
Use strong passwords when money or sensitive information are at risk. There’s that inconvenience factor again.
Treat all your computers and mobile devices as though they were your wallet or purse.
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Hi Dave,
It would be helpful to add some specific names of products to help with computer security, or info about how to create good passwords, etc. This is a great teaser for wanting to find out more though, if that was your intent.
I thought your class was great!
Yes, the sample newsletter I sent to Extension faculty and staff was just that – a sample – and the newsletter is intended as a teaser. If I put very many full blown articles in it, it would end up at a dozen pages or more. By the way, I’m still working on the first real newsletter issue, but it’s almost done.
Check out the ‘Articles’ tab at the top of the page. It has an A-Z listing of useful publications and resources.
I do have one post on passwords here: http://techteachtoo.com/tips-and-tricks/strong-password/.
Thanks for the suggestion about specific products. I just did a class in Sarasota and the questions I got both in class and by e-mail made me realize the same thing. Look forward to more specifics shortly.
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