More Important Tips

 Backup!

A couple weeks ago shortly after a thunderstorm, I heard fire sirens down the street from my house. There had been a giant nearby bolt of lightning and the power was still out, so I went to investigate—one of my neighbors’ houses was on fire. It was tragic.

I don’t know how much they lost, but it made me think of what I’d lose if my own house caught fire. I realized that many of the things I’d miss most were stored on my computer. So, as soon as the power returned, I double-checked that my backups were still running as expected. I checked all my external hard drives and other backup storage devices I use.

Nothing can keep your data safer than backing it up. We’ve covered several great easy-to-use backup solutions in other articles, and we still recommend Mozy for affordable complete backups. They offer free 2Gb storage and promise better security.

Watch Your Kids

Kids these days grow up with the Internet, and that means they’re exposed to all of the Internet’s less savory aspects from an early age. It’s easy enough to install some parental control software and then assume that your kids are safe—but they’re not.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about kids, it’s that they’re ingenious little buggers. Worse, your kids probably know your computer better than you do. No mere technology is going to stop them from getting into trouble.

The best way to keep your kids safe is to watch them when they browse the Internet. That may sound hard, but it can be quite easy—just put the family computer in the room where you or your spouse spend most of your time—for example, the kitchen or the living room.

You may also want to check the kid’s Web browser logs, but beware—if the kids know you do this, they’ll find ways of removing entries. A better method would be to check the hostname access logs on your router, but again, a crafty kid will eventually figure out how to fool even that.

 Different Sites, Different Passwords

You’ve probably grown used to reading in computer news how such-and-such big site has been hacked and all of its usernames and passwords were stolen. It may not seem terribly important—after all, most sites don’t store any financial information.

But hackers know that most people use the same username and password for different websites. John Smith very likely uses the same password for his Yahoo! email account that he does for his PayPal account. Minutes after breaking into Smith’s email account, the hackers could use PayPal to empty his bank account.

Each site you use should have a different password—or, at the very least, you should use a different password for each site with access to your financial information. Protecting your online accounts is extremely important so do not neglect this!

 Encrypt Sensitive Files

Even if you work really hard at avoiding viruses and other malware, you should prepare yourself for the chance that one will make it onto your computer any way. Backups protect your files from being deleted, but what protects your sensitive files from hackers?

The only thing that can protect your sensitive files is encryption. Higher-end versions of Windows include encryption, but you can also download a free encryption utility that provides just as much security (if not more—Microsoft is under pressure by some governments to put a “back door” into their encryption.)

To secure your files against hackers and other prying eyes, I suggest the free TrueCrypt encryption software.

 Firewall

There’s a big difference between good and bad anti-virus software, but the same isn’t true of firewall software. Even the free firewall that comes with all recent versions of Windows will fully protect your computer against automatic network virus attacks. Just make sure you turn it on in the control panel.

If your anti-virus software comes with a firewall, I suggest you use that instead—not because it’s better, but because it will probably be easier for you to use.  And keeping things simple is its own safety computer tips.