Protecting yourself is very challenging in the hostile environment of the internet. Imagine a global environment where an unscrupulous person from the other side of the planet can probe your computer for weaknesses, and exploit them to gain access to your most sensitive secrets.
They can even use your computer to store data like stolen credit-card numbers or child pornography, or to attack another innocent home user or business from your system.
Here's my Top 10 list of steps you should take to protect your information and your computing resources from the bad boys and girls of cyberspace.
Back up everything! You are not invulnerable. Catastrophic data loss can happen to you -- one worm or Trojan is all it takes.
Choose passwords that are reasonably hard to guess -- don't just append a few numbers to a no-brainer. Always change default passwords.
Use an antivirus product like AVG or Norton, and set it to update daily.
Update your OS religiously and be vigilant in applying all security patches released by the software manufacturer.
Avoid hacker-bait apps like Internet Explorer and disable automatic scripting on your e-mail client.
Use encryption software like PGP (pretty good privacy) when sending sensitive e-mail. You can also use it to protect your entire hard drive.
Install a spyware detection app -- or even several. Programs that can be set to run frequently, like SpyCop, are ideal.
Use a personal firewall. Configure it to prevent other computers, networks and sites from connecting to you, and specify which programs are allowed to connect to the net automatically.
Disable any system services you're not using, especially apps that could give others remote access to your computer (like Remote Desktop, RealVNC and NetBIOS).
Secure your wireless networks. At home, enable WPA (Wi-Fi protected access) with a password of at least 20 characters. Configure your laptop to connect in Infrastructure mode only, and don't add networks unless they use WPA.
Hackers are becoming more sophisticated in conjuring up new ways to hijack your system by exploiting technical vulnerabilities or human nature. Don't become the next victim of unscrupulous cyberspace intruders.
Do these things when the computer is running well:
Windows XP: Create a System Restore Point
Should something happen in the future, you can return the computer to a previous date when it was running well. Note that System Restore Points only do certain critical Windows settings. It isn't a cure-all, but it's a good start.
Write down all your LoginID's and Passwords on paper and keep in an envelope taped to the underside of your keyboard.
Over the course of time you will end up with 50 or more accounts at various websites.
Here, I keep a MS Write .rtf file on a floppy disk... and print it out periodically.
Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > WordPad or Write and create your list of LoginID's and Passwords. Save it in the My Documents folder, then copy it to a floppy disk for safe-keeping in the event of a hard drive failure. Hard drives are warranted for 3 years to 5 years, so you will need these passwords at some time in the future.
Don't get sloppy. Make periodic backups of your files.
Question: How often?
Answer: When the new files are important to have.
Question: What files do I backup?
Answer: Email files, address book, and any other data files on the computer. You have CD-Roms for the programs, so don't bother backing up the programs, just your data files.
Question: I have a Checkbook program that writes its datafiles into c:/program files/data/ folder. How do I make backups of these files?
Answer: When you have the checkbook program open, under the File Menu, select "Save As..." and place a copy of your important datafile in the My Documents folder. Periodically (when the new files are important to have, either copy them to a separate floppy disk or burn the whole My Documents folder onto a CD-Rom.