Monday, 22 October 2012

Top 10 Tips To Make Your PC Secure

Computer Security is one of the major concerns for the people worldwide. The rate of privacy violation and intruders is rapidly increasing with the emerging world of Internet. Large scale businesses are seen to spend millions of investments just to keep their data secured. But, there are some easy ways that can be helpful to maintain your home computer security. Here is a list of top 10 security measures that one can easily apply to home computers especially for the users who come across this amazing invention on daily basis.

1) Get Connected To A Secured Network:
Mostly home routers offer less security than they are expected. To secure your home router you can consult the user manual that will instruct you to an IP address (normally used IP is 192.168.1.1) allowing you to perform following actions:
  • Configure the wireless network to use WPA2-AES type of encryption to intact your data confidentiality.
  • Change the default username and password.
  • Alter the default wireless SSID.

2) Get An Authentic Firewall:
Firewall allows you to have secured incoming of data. Some of you may know about Tomato or DD-WRT firmwares that enhance security and data integrity. Try to get authentic Firewalls installed on your system to prevent viruses.

3) Install Good Antivirus Software:
Getting a decent anti-virus installed on your PC is one the effective measures through which you can make sure of your computer being secured. However, just installing an antivirus and anti-malware program won’t do much. One should update them regularly to cope up with various viruses that are inducted through Internet daily. Keep the automatic update setting on, so that it figures out automatically exactly when to update the program.

4) Keep Your PC Well-Updated:
It is essential for you to regularly have a check on updates from your OS vendors. Every other day, Microsoft and Apple are seen to on-air updates to their operating systems. These updates are useful as they have significant security patches to keep your computer secured.

5) Uninstall Any Redundant Software:
Less you install the software, more there are chances of being saved from intruders. Try to install the software that actually meets your need and eliminate all those that do nothing but just occupy your storage. Try to install software from authentic sites so that intruders don’t get chance to manipulate your privacy.

6) Use Complex Passwords:
Make your passwords safe and complex enough to guess. Intruders are getting smarter and they have all possible ways to figure out password patterns. Last Pass is a good password manager to maintain all your passwords and keep them secured. Use alphanumeric text to set your passwords.

7) Make Your Browser Secured:
Most web browsers don’t come with secured default settings. You need to get it secured manually. Keeping your cookies and other content like Java scripting, Flash, Active X disabled for unrecognized sites can benefit you from being infected. As for IE users, they should keep they security levels as second highest level for trusted sites because keeping them on highest level may harm their functionality.

8) Public Wi-Fi Is Not Trust Worthy:
Don’t ever mistake to trust public Wi-Fi. Public internet cafes and coffee shops may provide you instant connectivity but they are the major contributors to harm your privacy. Your email and other personal information can be easily leaked through public Wi-Fi as there are so many people accessing the network, using vulnerable sites and downloading unethical content from internet that may harm your privacy.

9) Disable Needless Services:
Unnecessary services open ways for attackers. The two sensitive services are file sharing and print sharing that can be used to induct malware programs. For instance, Conficker malware used file sharing service to infect systems. Therefore it is essential to keep such services disabled unless you really need them.

10) Don’t Leave Your System Isolated:
It merely depends where your computer is. Other than close family members, don’t let it be used by someone you don’t know. An easy access to your system can provide great opportunity to infect your system with vulnerable stuff.

These are simple top 10 tips meant to provide instant security measures especially for non-technical users, so that most of you can easily follow up with these, making your system as secured as possible.

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