AS WE USE TECHNOLOGY FOR MORE AND MORE EVERY DAY IT’S IMPORTANT TO STAY SAFE.
HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO HELP YOU SECURE YOUR DATA AND ONLINE ACTIVITY.
ALWAYS USE A PASSWORD TO LOG IN
The most important step for securing your laptop and preventing other people from accessing your files without permission is to require a login password. Make sure to create a password that is difficult to guess, so don’t use your birthday, your cat’s name, or the name of a loved one.
USE A PASSWORD-PROTECTED SCREENSAVER
To ensure that people can’t swoop in and snoop if you’ve left your laptop unattended for a few minutes, make sure that the screensaver starts automatically and requires a password to exit. And make sure you lock your laptop if you walk away!
ENCRYPT YOUR HARD DRIVE
Protecting your laptop with a password is not enough to prevent an attacker from accessing your files. If your laptop is stolen or the attacker has a lot of time, he can remove the hard drive and read the files directly. To prevent this and to protect your data from physical attacks, encrypt your laptop’s hard drive.
BACKUP YOUR DATA
From ransomware attacks to stolen laptops, backing up your data is essential to ensuring you will not lose what you hold dear. You can go with either a local backup or a cloud backup.
KEEP YOUR SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE UP TO DATE
The best way to keep your laptop malware-free is to not download random things (e.g., a weird Flash update) and to keep your software up to date.
Modern browsers such as Chrome and Firefox have auto-update enabled by default, but you still need to restart them from time to time. Make sure to turn on auto-update for your operating system and apps to benefits from the latest security patches.
ADD A WEBCAM COVER
There is probably nothing worse for privacy than a RAT (Remote Administration Tool), like the infamous DarkComet, which turns on your camera to spy on you. While in theory the LED next to your camera should always be on when the camera is on, in practice hackers have found a way to disable it both on Windows and MacOS so cover your camera so no one can use it against you.
CLEAR YOUR CACHE
If you are having problems with Toolbox it’s always worth clearing your Internet History (cached data) from your Web Browser. This helps by getting rid of old data and allows Toolbox to refresh and try again.
