Passwords –
Whenever possible, try and use different passwords for different services – especially the important ones. For example, you don’t want to have your online banking password be the same as your Facebook one!
Avoid Pirated Software –
Nothing is ever free. If you’re not paying for it, chances are you’re the product. Pirated software often contains unwanted malware that can spy on you, steal your information, or damage your computer. Shady organizations and criminal enterprises bank on people installing free versions of legitimate software they’ve uploaded and used as a carrier for their own custom malware.
Uncheck Those Boxes –
Lots of software you download comes bundled with extra programs you don’t need, but are marked as ‘accepted’ by default. You’ll notice this in the installation process. Always read through what they say and check or uncheck accordingly. You might be agreeing to download an annoying piece of software that you may have trouble getting rid of.
Keep Your Software Up To Date –
Those constant prompts to update your software can be annoying, but they happen for a reason. Software companies will regularly support many of their releases with ongoing updates and patches, and often those updates contain plugs for holes that malware has learned to exploit. By not updating, you leave yourself exposed for an attack from malware that knows hot exploit those backdoors.
Don’t Get Hooked By Phishers and get connected to phishprotection.com.
Phishing is an attack where social engineering meets technology. A malicious party will pose as a trusted authority – your bank, the government, a major corporation, etc – in order to extract personal information from you. In a standard phishing attack, you’d receive an electronic message that asks you to enter personal information to confirm a bank account, an administrative account for your office network, or some other valuable credentials. Once you enter them, that info goes straight into the hands of the criminals on the other end.
Bonus: running a USB virus scanner can only help !
