I am not sure where to begin.  There are so many ways that you need to protect yourself when it comes to your computer and your information that it really should be an instruction or user manual that everyone is required to read.

My point is this.... if you don't protect yourself with your computer or information device (any computer related device that holds personal or important information), you are opening yourself to attack from so many directions that can't even be counted on my hands and my toes.

Lets start from the top.  I will cover a few of the things you should do but the rest is up to you.  The first way you can protect yourself is your password.  There is a list of the top 500 most used passwords that came out and can easily be found by doing a search on Google.  The problem with the list is that those passwords are used by more people than you would probably think.  The sad thing about it is that there are a lot of viruses, worms and malware that use those passwords in a list and along with a few more (thousands actually) to hack into peoples accounts.

This gives them either a starting point to access your computer and launch an attack on your computer or if you have administrator rights, it gives them full control to use your computer for anything they can possibly think of and I can tell you for sure, there are many uses that get the owner of the computer in a lot of trouble that has to be worked out over time, with a lot of effort and more importantly, expense.  Its easy for them to mask themselves as you, the user of the computer making all that they do seem like it was done by you.

One way to protect yourself is to use a tough password that uses atleast 3 of the 4 character groups.  When you make your password, use lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers and special characters.  This will help prevent attackers from hacking your password.  Other things to remember about your password, don't give it out.  Its yours.  The more you share, the more you open yourself up to attack.  Also, try to change your password on a regular basis.  This keeps everyone on their toes and you as safe as you possibly can be.

Another way to protect yourself is to patch your computer as fast as a patch is released.  They are created for a reason.  Those reasons are mostly because holes are found in computer software that allow attackers a way into your computer.

Start with your operating system.  If you are running Windows, Linux, Macintosh OSX or any other type of operating system, they all have issues with security holes that are found at one point in time or another.  Most of the operating systems have built in mechanisms for updating its software.  If they have the ability to automatically update, make sure they are all set to that feature.  This will ensure that your operating system is protected as best as it can be as far as security holes go.

Next is to have a good antivirus software program installed on your computer AND have it patched and updated just as your would your operating system.  Keep in mind, what you pay for is what you get.  If you are using a free program, you are getting something that isn't worth much more than what you paid for it.  If I had a choice, I would choose, at the time of this writing, Norton Antivirus 2009 for Windows and the same for Macintosh.  Linux and Unix flavors or operating systems do not have antivirus programs but they do release patches for their programs on a regular basis.  Patch them when they are released.

Another thing to do is patch your applications.  There are many applications that open holes in your system no matter how hard you have tried to do the previous things I have talked about.  Office products, Flash products, Video Editing products and so many more can allow access to areas of your computer that you didn't intend or even realize so make sure that you go to the manufacturers websites to check for updates and patches for each of the programs.  A lot of well built applications will have a built in update program.  If yours has it, please, please, use it.

There are more things than you can do to lock down your computer, like disconnect the internet cable, turn off the power and put chains on your computer with locks but that just isn't practical.  The general idea is to protect yourself as best your can.  If you have personal information like passwords saved in a file, find a way to encrypt the files so that if you are hacked, your password file may not be and all of your accounts along with your computer either.  Any personal information or any file that you don't want to loose, be modified or stolen, find a way to protect it.

If you need more specific help with locking down your computer, feel free to contact us.  We will help you do whatever you can to protect yourself.  Good luck and GOD bless.

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