Protecting your personal information on your computer and while on the internet is a big concern for most everyone. While there are volumes of information on the subject, there are few simple things anyone can do to help protect their computer and personal information.
Secure your network
If you have a home network (and most people do these days), this should be your primary concern for loss of personal information. This is even more critical if your home network is wireless. The following are a few high-level tips for keeping your network secure:
- Wireless network
- Do not broadcast SSID of your wireless network. Not broadcasing the SSID prevents other people from easily discovering your network.
- Use WPA encryption not WEP encryption if your wireless access point supports it. WPA is a newer technology and much more secure than WEP.
- Use a very secure password, not something that could be easily guessed.
- General Network
- Use a strong password on your network gateway. Do not leave the default admin password.
- Disable the remote administration capabilities of your network gateway/router.
- Lock your computers and use strong passwords.
Limit the amount of Data you retain on your computer
If you keep sensitive personal information such as tax return information or bank account records on your computer, you should limit the amount of this data that you retain. You can simply back up to CDROM or DVD disks and then delete the data from your computer hard drive. This ensures that even if someone does gain access to your computer that your personal information is not compromised.
Periodically clean your browsing and activity history
Your actrivity on the computer both on the internet and locally on your computer is recorded by Windows and other software applications in the system areas of the hard disk and the system registry. The ‘Clear History’ and other built in functions offer little protection because only part of the history is removed by these tools. Failing to properly clean up this history of activity can grant others the ability to snoop on your activity. More importantly sensitive information such as banking information, business proposals etc. could be compromised through a review of the history on your computer. The only way to ensure your history is completely removed is to utilize an application that fully cleans up your computer activity. WinClear provides this support. Why use WinClear over other History cleanup programs?
- Easy to use shortcut keys perform the cleanup in the background
- All popular web browsers are supported including IE, FireFix, Mozilla, MSN, NetScape, AOL, and Opera.
- Frees your valuable hard disk space.
- Removed files are processed through a built in file shredder to ensure they can’t be recovered.
- Built in scheduler allows you to have regular history cleanup without manual intervention.
- Automatic program updates ensure the latest version is always on your system.
Comments
Trackback