Defend yourself
computer from attacks by hackers and scammers TECHNOFILE
While anti-virus developers employ hundreds of clever people to develop amazing pieces of software preventing our information from being stolen, there are thousands of nefarious individuals across the world doing everything they can to thwart the best intentions of the security software giants. But the philosophy behind protecting
your data should be the same as keeping possessions safe in your home – at least make it hard for the crooks to gain access. Difficult access is likely to drive them elsewhere. Complacency with pass- words and failing to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date is an open invitation for the less scrupulous to help themselves. First, develop a system of rolling
passwords. Many corporate networks insist you change your password every so often, but when was the last time you changed your personal email password, facebook or Twitter login? If you’ve ever been the victim of a phishing scam, knowingly or not, using the same login name and password for all your internet services might also give the scammer access to your banking accounts and other popular sites using your credentials. And if they have hacked your personal email, they will be able to see which sites are regularly sending you updates. While it is a pain to have different login and password credentials for a variety of sites (and tough to remember them all), protection of your data insists that you become disciplined in adapting your pass- words for various sites. As a rudimentary example (and please don’t implement this idea exactly) add a suffix, or prefix, to your favourite password in order to make it different for each site. If your password for email, banking, facebook and LinkedIn is ‘sandwich’, for example, add a word depending on its use. The password for email could be ‘sandwichmail’, banking could be ‘spendingsandwich’ while face- book could be ‘socialsandwich’. You must also add numbers to make your passwords stronger. Another method is to tailor your
24 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 |
WWW.EXECUTIVEPA.COM Tim Stackpool explains how to protect your
“Never ever use ‘cracked’ or pirated software. It often contains malicious viruses or ‘worms’ that surreptitiously relay your user names and passwords across the internet”
password using phrases. A favourite Shakespeare phase: “If music be the food of love, play on…” might form the password for your library login, taking the first let- ter of each word to make: IMBTFOLPO. Customise it further by adding the year you first read Shakespeare. Of course, protection would be better
if every site you logged into used a dif- ferent user name and password. However, determine what system of different and rolling passwords works best for you, and plan to change them on the first day of every month, or no less than on the change of each season. IT professionals whose job is to develop protection systems for com-
puter networks will always tell you that the best way to beat a hacker is to think like a hacker. But for mere technology users, the best we can muster is an atti- tude of vulnerability to ensure we don’t make silly mistakes when working online. Always keep your firewall and anti-virus software up-to-date. Highly regarded anti-virus products are available for download, so there’s no excuse for not having even the most rudimentary pro- tection installed. Never ever use ‘cracked’ or pirated software. It often contains malicious viruses or ‘worms’ that sur- reptitiously relay your user names and passwords across the internet to people who have the worst of intentions. Keeping these ideas in mind is the first
line of defence in protecting your data and ensuring your online credentials stay safe. Many other measures should be implemented, depending on the size and nature of your network, but for every- day use these practices will help to main- tain the integrity and security of your personal and professional information. E
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