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Nine Steps to Securing Your Computer

The Internet revolution has meant that many more people have computers permanently connected to Internet services and that more and more people are using their computers for activities such as on-line banking and shopping. The “always on” nature of broadband connections coupled with the increasingly sensitive information we store means that we are more and more open to potential hackers and criminals. While security may be considered obvious - there is always room for improvement, below are a few easy and cost effective steps that you can take to improve security.
- Always keep backups of important information and keep them in a safe place. It is better to store them away from your home, if at all possible as this will give you additional protection against fire, theft etc.
- Update and patch your operating system, browser and any software frequently. If auto update options are available, use them.
- Make sure that you have antivirus/anti-malware software installed, that it is up-to-date and has the latest patterns installed. If it has an auto-update mechanism, ensure that it is enabled.
- Install a personal firewall. Many home routers provide some kind of firewall functionality but it is always worth having the additional protection offered by a personal firewall. Many home user security packages (e.g. Norton Internet Security) include firewall functions or you can opt for a separate firewall such as ZoneAlarm.
- Check the settings in your Internet browsers. Active-X and JavaScript are used by hackers to install malicious software (”Malware”) on computers. Internet Explorer offers a number of “zones” for grouping sites, by default everything is in the Internet zone. Set the security level of the Internet zone to high. Internet Explorer also offers a trusted sites zone for sites that you trust, set the security level in this zone to medium.
- Do not open unknown email attachments from unknown senders and be extremely suspicious of attachments from known senders that seem out of character for the sender. Many viruses and other pieces of Malware spread by compromising email clients and sending themselves to people in the address book.
- Do not run programs of unknown origin as they can contain malware even if they appear to do something harmless. Resist the temptation to forward such programs on to friends, family and colleagues because they are funny or interesting. This is another mechanism used by malware authors to spread their programs.
- Disable the Windows “hidden extension” feature. By default Windows will hide the file extensions of known file types. This option should be turned off and you will be more able to see any unusual file extensions that may be there.
- Consider disconnecting your computer from the network and/or turning it off when you are not using it.

You should also consider making a boot or emergency disk for use in case or computer is compromised by malware. Fundamentally, you can never be too vigilant and the simple steps discussed above may prevent you falling foul of a damaging attack.

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