I always seem to be “that guy” who is tapped to fix a computer for friends and family. Unfortunately, I always end up getting overly frustrated… I realize that not everyone understands the importance of network security, but there are a few things that you MUST do to protect yourself and MY sanity!
If you have a home computer on a network and you DON’T want your bank passwords stolen, you DON’T want people stealing your connection, you DO want your computer to run reliably, there are five simple things you can do to keep you safe and help folks like me not lose their minds!
1. Software Patches
This is perhaps the simplest of them all. Run Windows Update, no exceptions. When it asks you to reboot, DO IT as soon as you have a minute. This extends beyond Windows Updates to other software such as Adobe and Office Products. Adobe (like the Acrobat PDF reader) is notorious for taking a few months to fix security issues. When they say there’ s an update to install, they mean it!
2. AntiVirus
I don’t care what game you play or how much you complain, if you don’t run a virus scanner, you’re asking for trouble! There are many free solutions for virus scanning including AVAST and Comodo, both of which are great. If you DO take a performance “hit”, then try a different scanner. I’ll also lump-in spyware applications like AdAware and SpyBot here. I would call those bonus applications…
3. Firewall
This is probably the simplest of them all. For the average user, just enable Windows Firewall! If you want something more advanced, Comodo has a great (Free) solution that I use which lets you customize things much further than the average user would (should) care about.
4. Stop Using Questionable Software!
If you still use applications like Limewire, STOP! If you just blindly click “Yes” to every box you see, STOP! Realize that when you do this you are opening the door to all kinds of problems, including malware, viruses, password stealing, and SO MUCH MORE. Be smart about what you install…and remember, uninstall doesn’t always work!
5. Wireless Protection
If your access point is called “linksys” and your password is “admin”, you’re asking for trouble. First, change the router password and SSID. Next, enable encryption (AES or TKIP, WEP is useless, nowadays). That’s it! Just those two things will make you’re network MUCH more secure than before!
6. BONUS – Disable Admin
This is a crazy one, but one I practice. Create an administrator account, and take away admin privileges on your user account! You can still install software, you’ll just need a seperate password. If I can do it, so can you! Ask a techie-friend to help with this. It’s REALLY worth it, I promise!
These are all things that take just a few minutes to set up ONCE and you’re done. Everything I’ve written here is very well known and easy to implement. Security shouldn’t consume your life, but if you don’t “practice safe computing”, it just might!
Lee-
Came to your site via Linked In with the post about getting your MBA. Liked the post and I like what I see in your site. I started a blog of my own where I try to apply what I “learned” in MBA school to make sense in my IT world.
I share in your frustrations being the local tech head. Unfortunately, with as busy as I have been lately, I have not had enough time to dedicate to tinkering around with my home PCs. I had a friend who went somewhere they should not have and I suspect that they got caught by the “Click Cancel if you want to install this” trick. I took 2 hours to run the usual tricks and finally advised my friend to take it to a reputable local PC shop. I hated to do that, but I am so paranoid and overprotective of my own systems, I get stumped when trying to solve a real virus/malware attack.
Best wishes for success!