1. LESSON 5-2 Protecting Your Computer Lesson Contents Protecting Your Computer Best Practices for Securing Online and Network Transactions Measures for Securing E-Mail and Instant Messaging

2. Lesson Introduction You need to provide your identification to access your bank locker or your safe deposit box. This identification is to ensure that no one else is able to access your items. Similarly, you can implement various security measures to minimize the threat to your computer and the data on it. This lesson introduces you to some common best practices that will help you protect your operating system, software, and data on your computer.

3. Protecting Your Computer You need to protect your computer and the data stored on it from various security and privacy threats. Take the following measures to protect the operating system, software, and data on your computer: Implement user identification. Set username and password. Keep passwords secure. Use lock combination. Encrypt data to prevent unauthorized access. Back up data in another storage device. Update system and vulnerable software.

4. The computers connected to a network or to the Internet require some more security measures than standalone computers. For computers connected to a network, some good practices are: Use updated security software. Protect your computer against hacking and spyware. Clear history and cache periodically. Delete cookies periodically. Perform online transactions only on secure sites. Never give out your personal history to a Web site.

5. E-MAIL E-mail attachments can be carriers of viruses or worms. Some security measures that you should follow while using e-mail or chat are: Use updated security software. Avoid opening e-mail messages that have attachments. Delete junk e-mail messages or spam messages. Delete unsolicited commercial e-mail messages. Protect yourself from phishing. Limit chat activity to the people you know.

6. Lesson Takeaway Your computer and its data are always prone to security risks. The Internet leaves your computer vulnerable to many online threats. Hackers, online predators, and the people who create worms and viruses use e-mail and IM for malicious purposes. For all these reasons, it becomes necessary that you adopt security measures. The following table describes the measures that you can employ to safeguard data on your computer.

7. MeasureDescription Implement user identification. You can set up accounts or authorized users on the basis of which each user gets an appropriate level of access to the computer. This helps to keep unauthorized individuals from accessing your computer and its data. Set username and password. You can increase security and limit unauthorized access to your computer by setting up a username and password. Ensure that you use strong passwords that cannot be easily guessed by others. Encrypt data. You can encrypt your data and protect it from unauthorized access. BitLocker Drive Encryption and BitLocker To Go features in Windows 7 Ultimate helps protect sensitive data from being accessed by unauthorized users who come into possession of lost or stolen computers and portable storage devices. Install and update protective software. You can protect your computer by installing and regularly updating protective software such as antivirus, antispyware, and firewall. These would protect your computer and its data from malicious virus and hacker attacks. Clear browsing history periodically. You need to remove the temporary Internet files that accumulate when you visit Web sites and Web pages to prevent hackers from accessing your personal information. These temporary files often contain personal information, such as your username and password. Perform online transactions only on secure sites. While shopping online, you usually need to provide sensitive information such as your bank account number or credit card details. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you perform online transactions only on secure Web sites. A Web site is secure if its name has the prefix https. Exercise caution when opening e- mail or instant messenger attachments. You need to be cautious while opening any mail or instant message containing an attachment unless you are absolutely sure about its origin because it is the most common pathway for the spread of viruses. Do not respond to unsolicited commercial mail. Avoid replying to junk mail. Unsolicited messages, known as spam or junk mail, can often include content that is harmful for your computer. In addition, junk mail is often used for stealing identities, and you might accidentally share sensitive information while responding to such messages. Lock your computer. Remember to always lock your computer while you are away. When a computer is locked, it immediately hides the content of the screen and does not allow any operation until the computer is unlocked with the correct username and password combination.