Home Computer Security
Just What IT Security Set Up Do You Need?
With the popularity of the Web by almost the entire world population (a full one in five people on the planet have high-speed Internet access), it's a brave new world available to you at the literal click of a mouse button. The Web is great -- you can buy literally anything now without ever going to a shop or store. You can surf the web on every topic conceivable. You can play networked games online. Do genealogy research. You can even get a degree online (I did). The researching aspect of the Net may actually replace libraries in time. But there is a dark side. Viruses, spyware, hackers, and system hijackers. So, let me ask the question right now: how safe and secure is your home computer?
Malware is an unfortunate reality that goes along with the advent of the Internet. With the open, untamed nature of the Web, you are going to get the ill willed. Fortunately, it isn't that expensive or troublesome to adequately protect your home machines. With the continued growth of the Internet and the dependency of virtually all professionals, both governmental and private for-profit organizations, upon the Web for various purposes, security is even more important than ever before.
Are you a home computer user? Then you need to make sure that your computer is safe from any form of malicious online attack, including unscruplous hacking. You might have important data in your system that can be used for identity fraug. Intruders can potentially access it. I once saw a presentation at Symantec by a product marketing manager where he co-opted the system of another person without the other person even knowing it. He was able to record the keystrokes of a purchase including credit card number, card codes, etc.
If it had been real, the person would've had their credit card account emptied. Corporations and governmental agencies have rigid network and system intrusion systems in place -- because they know they have to. So, it is imperative for you to find out just how safe your computer is from potential attacks.
Don't worry. You don't need computer security professional training to safeguard your system. But you should have early computer security programs of some kind. Remember, there are many aspects of computer security. Everything from computer email login passcode security as well as a laptop computer security alarm to a computer security malicious software code breaker.
Unlike for corporations , you don't need a computer security vulnerability rating per se, for you can do it yourself. You can get your computer security vulnerability rating by asking yourself, "just what security do I have for this computer?" Okay. The ground work is laid.
Now, the first step before actually bolstering your computer is finding out the motive of intruders and why they would target home computer afficionados. These cyber criminals do this because the typical home computer users don't usually have security measures installed to counter their activities the way businesses or governmental agencies would do. This makes them easier targets. Secondly, home users many times have valuable information stored. Like information that could result in identity theft. Trust me, you will be a target in time if you are not already one.
With that said, you have to know what types of attack you can expect. Start first with your online habits. The first attacks usually come by way of email or by clicking an ad-banner on a website (that's how I got a worm in my system). Opening an unknown,email or clicking on an ad-banner will sometimes put you at risk. Next, never buy anything online without having being assured the site is secured with buying encryption. A minimum key length should be 128k, not 56k. Look for sites that have the "hacker safe" symbol.
Just remember, once hackers are in, they're painful to get rid of. Worry about such things as computer email login passcode security later. If you're at work, your computer security is probably already taken care of by your organization's IT department. For now, remember: your home computer security should start with the careful surfiing of sites.
Don't click on those false positive ads; avoid banner ads; don't open unknown emails nor should you respond to such emails for then they have your email address. Remember what Confucius said, "the cautious seldom err." He was right. I hope this page has been useful to you.
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