Staying Safe

There is nothing more important than your safety when it comes to surfing the internet - there are so many things you need to think about to stay safe and keep your information private - think about the following safety aspects when making plans to stay safe online;

Anti-Virus

The obvious choice when it comes to online safety, a good anti-virus can be a great way to stay safe online, keeping the likes of viruses out of your system. Computer viruses have been attacking PCs for the past 20 years and today we’re now tackling millions of different nasties.

Unless you have a Mac, a computer system unaffected by computer viruses, it’s only a matter of time until you get bitten - that is unless you invest a little bit of money into a good anti-virus. There are loads of them out there, each just as good as the next…although at the top of the pile there is the likes of Norton AntiVirus and McAfee who have been protecting computers for years.

Firewall

Firewalls are great ways of keeping hackers out of your system. Hackers are people who want to snoop around your computer looking for your personal files in the hope that they will stumble across something private like credit card details that they can use to steal all your money. Stop them with a strong firewall, usually provided as part of a good anti-virus package.

Secure Your Wireless Connection

Although wireless connectivity is a great tool, it is very often overlooked in terms of security. When a router is bought it is very often left operating using its factory settings. Most people don’t even think about changing the settings, like using a password for example, to stop outsiders from logging on to the system.

In a best-case scenario they will steal your bandwidth, the worst-case scenario will have them stealing your files - don’t let them! At the very least make sure you are using WEP, although today a stronger and more reliable form of security is WPA encryption. Either way do something to stop thieves.

Back Up

When you think of security you often think about hackers and viruses - not many people think about backing up their data. If your computer happened to blow up tomorrow what would you do without all your files and folders, pictures and movies and music?

By backing up you can make sure you won’t have a panic fit if your computer did break down (which by the way they do for no reason from time to time). It doesn’t take a long time and external hard drives are often cheap and good looking! Some people advise backing up every day, but if you use your computer normally, once a week should suffice…

Safety Online?

Do you worry about your security online? Do you often feel paranoid when scouring the web? Let us know your stories, we want to hear from you…