Computer Security at Home

At school or at work most of us find that great measures are taken to secure information and maintain computer functionality. On the other hand, when we go home, most of us do little or nothing to secure our own personal computers and the information they hold from threats of data loss, attacks, or novice users. For instance, in my home we run no automated backups; we use an unencrypted wireless network; and most computers log on automatically with no password as an administrator. Throughout this blog post I will explain what I have learned about these security holes and what I will be doing to patch them. I will focus on three main points, those being (1) backups, (2) network security, and (3) user account permissions.

Everyone has information on their computer that they would consider important. I have a home recording studio, so for me the important things are the audio and project files associated with the songs I write. The truth is all hard drives go bad eventually and sometime files are corrupted by malicious code or programing errors. I have not up to this point done anything to back up my data. I realize it is inevitable that data loss will happen so I have decided to buy an external hard drive to back-up to. I will then put this back up elsewhere to keep it protected against theft and natural harm. (PCMAG.COM)

As far as my wireless network goes, I just need to require a password to use the wireless network. If I fail to do this, other people could park outside my house and access my personal files. They could delete them or get information about me to potentially steal my identity. (identitytheftfixes.com)

Finally I need to require passwords on all computers. And when I let others use my computer I need to log them in with a non-administrator account so that they cannot purposefully or accidentally destroy my data. (Microsoft)

In the future as I make these three things a consistent practice I will protect myself from the headaches of data loss. Also I won't have to worry about having important information stolen. Employing these practices will not only protect me, but everyone that uses the computers on my home network.