Security Tips for securing your files and Computer
so why secure computers??
There is an increasing number of security issues that arises from a day to day basis like :-
-Lost of Laptops/mobiles phones (lost of data and precious information like login to websites etc)
-Increasing Number of viruses / malware/ spyware (program that runs in background and try to steal user passwords e.g log everything that a user typed in)
-Files are more and more important and contain confidential information and can be misused against the person itself
-many people have bad intention concerning the data and there are lots of techniques that can be used to get the files [available freely on the internet]
-People are unaware of the dangers or risks about data lost
how to Secure your Files against data LOST?
There are different ways to secure your data:-
-Use of Cloud Storage
i.e Store your data on server so that you can access your data at any pointing time or at any place where there is an internet connection. Also it is very helpful to synchronise files among your devices (laptops, mobiles and pc)
Two famous service providers for cloud storage is Google Drive and Dropbox.
Google Drive:-
Sign in with a gmail email address and secure click on the Drive link or https://drive.google.com
You can also download its google drive for desktop, helps to synchronise a folder on your computer and it automatically upload new files to the google drive.
Dropbox (https://dropbox.com):-
This is the same as google drive and works the same as google drive. Just download the Dropbox Desktop Application and synchronise a folder where you want to upload your respective files.
–BitTorrent Sync (https://www.bittorrent.com/sync)
This program helps to actually access your files on your computer system from any computer around the world 😀
All you need is to download the BitTorrent Sync for your computer and follow this guide and you can also synchronise your Smart phone.
Select a Folder which you want to share and then copy the secret key
On the other computer .. add the secret key and this is it
Both computer will download the files you want on the go 😀
You can also specific some restrictions on the folder you share e.g Full control (read/write), ReadOnly etc
This program does not use a server to store the files, so in order for successful synchronisation, you need both computer to be on. Also helps to keep your data secure from the bad guys “NSA” hahah
-Use of Pendrives and External Hard disk
Well, a pendrive and external HDD should NEVER be used as a backup storage. It should be used only to transfer files from one computer to another 😉
How to Secure your Computer against computer lost or stolen?
You lost your computer/laptop or smart phones and don’t want anyone to know what its in or even don’t allow other people to use the device 😀 the following can be of great help :-
-Many Laptops/devices come with a password protection before a windows is load and this feature can be activated from the BIOS. That is, add password when starting a laptop/computer or adding password to unlock your hard disk.
-Encrypt your whole hard disk or pendrive/external hard disk 😀
Use of program like Truecrypt and Bitlocker [google to know how to use them] to encrypt your entire hard disk or a specific file. These programs will prompt the user to input a password before opening them
The beauty of Truecrypt is that you can actually create an encrypted file which can be use as a partition and thus adding all your important files in it and truecrypt will encrypt those files before closing. However, if you delete the encrypted file, all your files in it will be lost :/
Some Security Tips:-
-Use third party Authentication technique to verify yourself (e.g Google Authenticator or sms verification)
When you sign to Facebook or twitter, emails,dropbox etc… make use of 2 way login technique,
after login, the system will send a sms to your phone number or use an authentication app to get a secret code and add it to the system.
-Don’t let untrusted people to use your machines (they can have bad intensions)
-Change your password regularly
-Change your password as soon as possible when you have used an untrusted computer
-Update your System regularly
-Install antivirus and make sure firewall is on and scan system regularly
-Don’t install untrusted programs
-Always logout after using a system or an online application [email]
-Use of timeout lock when system is idle
Hope you can avoid unnecessary security problems 😉