By: Azmeena Nazimuddin Khowaja
While accepting that security has become a major issue in IT, it is still not easy to figure out how to actually protect your information. I am presenting a gist of some security related articles that I had gone through, to give a clearer understanding of how to stay protected.
Laptop: Make it password protected. For further protection, use biometric devices so that only the owner can access it. Try to avoid printer, files and folders sharing. For sensitive data, encrypt your files and folders.
Mobile phones: Set a password to lock and unlock the phone. Try not to store sensitive business information on smartphones, unless necessary. Use unsecured wireless networks cautiously, otherwise cyber criminals can take advantage.
Wireless connection: SSID (Service Set Identifier), which is a default system ID, is easily traced by hackers. Change it, as well as your password, to a complex and strange one.
Use WPA (Wi-Fi protected Access) and WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) to encrypt your confidential data. This will protect from casual wireless hacking.
Change the default administrator passwords that come with hardware and software; configure router (by studying the given manual) to allow or stop access to the desired people; subscribe and update anti-virus software.
USB Drive: While it is not in your hands to keep your flash drive away from being misplaced or stolen, what you can control is the security of its data. For this, assign an authentication password to the USB, so that only the user can access it. Secondly, by using file encryption software, encrypt the confidential data and then transfer it to the USB.
Online Protection (Internet): If you have multiple accounts on various websites, assign a separate password to each of them, note them down somewhere in a notebook to remember, and make a complex alphanumeric password which is hard to be deciphered.
Never give your email address, password, or any personal original details to a website, unless it is a genuine one. Many software online track your personal information, preferences and browsing activities while you are browsing on the internet, that becomes the reason why you receive spam, advertising or adult emails from the websites you have never visited before.
While using social networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, alter the security settings and make them strict. For e.g., never fill in your complete birth details on such websites.
Block the cookies when visiting any anonymous websites, as hackers may take advantage of these files.
Email: Nowadays, many email service providers, such as Gmail, are giving options for encryption. To confirm the email‘s security and that the information you send is encrypted, see that “https” is written at the start of the webpage address. A padlock symbol beside the address bar indicates that the security certificate of the website is active, and that the information will be sent to the right server.
An extract of articles from: www.articlesbase.com
While accepting that security has become a major issue in IT, it is still not easy to figure out how to actually protect your information. I am presenting a gist of some security related articles that I had gone through, to give a clearer understanding of how to stay protected.
Laptop: Make it password protected. For further protection, use biometric devices so that only the owner can access it. Try to avoid printer, files and folders sharing. For sensitive data, encrypt your files and folders.
Mobile phones: Set a password to lock and unlock the phone. Try not to store sensitive business information on smartphones, unless necessary. Use unsecured wireless networks cautiously, otherwise cyber criminals can take advantage.
Wireless connection: SSID (Service Set Identifier), which is a default system ID, is easily traced by hackers. Change it, as well as your password, to a complex and strange one.
Use WPA (Wi-Fi protected Access) and WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) to encrypt your confidential data. This will protect from casual wireless hacking.
Change the default administrator passwords that come with hardware and software; configure router (by studying the given manual) to allow or stop access to the desired people; subscribe and update anti-virus software.
USB Drive: While it is not in your hands to keep your flash drive away from being misplaced or stolen, what you can control is the security of its data. For this, assign an authentication password to the USB, so that only the user can access it. Secondly, by using file encryption software, encrypt the confidential data and then transfer it to the USB.
Online Protection (Internet): If you have multiple accounts on various websites, assign a separate password to each of them, note them down somewhere in a notebook to remember, and make a complex alphanumeric password which is hard to be deciphered.
Never give your email address, password, or any personal original details to a website, unless it is a genuine one. Many software online track your personal information, preferences and browsing activities while you are browsing on the internet, that becomes the reason why you receive spam, advertising or adult emails from the websites you have never visited before.
While using social networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, alter the security settings and make them strict. For e.g., never fill in your complete birth details on such websites.
Block the cookies when visiting any anonymous websites, as hackers may take advantage of these files.
Email: Nowadays, many email service providers, such as Gmail, are giving options for encryption. To confirm the email‘s security and that the information you send is encrypted, see that “https” is written at the start of the webpage address. A padlock symbol beside the address bar indicates that the security certificate of the website is active, and that the information will be sent to the right server.
An extract of articles from: www.articlesbase.com
