NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, June 2011
Are you Secure?
By Constance Brown, President,
Canton/Alliance/Massillon User Group, Ohio
January 2011 issue, The Memory Map
http://www.camug.org
president (at) camug.org (click to email author)

Security is one of the most common concerns with today’s computer based communications and transactions. How can I secure my personal computer? Should I do banking online or is it safer to write checks and mail them? Is it safe to purchase products online? How much can people learn about me through online access? These questions are some of the most common I hear expressed by my students. Let’s look at some of these concerns.

First of all, we need to secure our personal computers. Most of us have high speed access in today’s world. If you leave your computer turned on and internet access turned on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you are more vulnerable than someone who has dial-up access and has to get offline in order to place phone calls. Dial-up is so slow that hackers don’t usually want to fool with it and users with that type of service are usually online only short periods of time. Those with high speed connections through DSL or cable can shut off their modems or turn off their computers. I have high speed access and VOIP phone service. So shutting off my modem is not an option for me.

That is one reason I turn off my computer if I am not going to use it for several hours. I also prefer to place my documents on an external drive that I disconnect if I choose to leave the computer running while I go to town.

Your personal computer needs to be protected with anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. It should also be protected with a firewall. One is included with Windows. A router provides an additional level of protection. It plugs into the modem and your computer plugs into it. When some would-be hacker tries to get to your computer, it finds the address of the router instead. Most routers come with programs to protect you. It is often necessary to update the router software to keep the protections as up-to-date as possible.

If you are using a wireless router in order to send signal to other wireless devices, you will want to secure your wireless network with strong encryption and a strong password. When you choose passwords for your network or for your bank accounts and online stores, be sure to choose a strong password with meaning to you but not to others. A word that is not in the dictionary is best.

You will want to mix upper and lower case letters, include numbers, and a special letter if the site allows it. Let’s look at a couple of passwords. Here are examples of two commonly chosen passwords that are dreadfully insecure: 123456; abcdefg. Here is an example of a strong password: E4g$jwQy. Normally passwords should be 8 characters or more.

Is online banking secure? Many people pay their bills and monitor accounts regularly online. Banks require the use of a browser with specific standards of security. For example, if you are still using Internet Explorer 6, your bank most likely will not allow you to set up online banking. If anyone uses your computer other than yourself or your spouse, you will most likely NOT want to allow the site to remember your login information. Over the past two years, banks have added levels of security including a picture id of your selection from choices they provide in addition to the login name and password. The only time I would not be comfortable doing banking or providing credit card information for other types of transactions would be in places providing free public Wi-Fi.

Is it safe to make purchases online? Buyer be informed! All major retail companies have online stores. These have securities in place. After all, these corporations have much to lose if their names were soiled by identity theft.

There are quality “Mom and Pop” stores online. And there are thieves, just as in the real world. If you have questions, check with someone more experienced than you before placing your credit card or bank card information with a company online. There are multiple, wonderful companies. There are some frauds.

Beware of emails that pretend to be from the FBI, PayPal, and Amazon, Chase bank or other well-known financial institutions claiming that there may have been fraudulent activity on your account and telling you to click on a link provided in the email to verify your account information. DO NOT DO THIS! If you have questions regarding your account, open a separate browser, type in the address yourself, and then login and check on things. Be sure to forward the email to the fraud division of the company it claims to represent. That is the best way to track down these identity thieves.

How much can people learn about you online? More than you think! Public information has always been available. You used to look up addresses in telephone books. And you could go to the auditor’s office to look up information about someone’s property. You could look up addresses on maps. Now all that information is readily available through the online white pages and the auditor’s web sites. Of course there are many map services. A GPS can guide you precisely to the locations you program into the system. Try “Googling” your name and the city in which you live. You will find references to your comments in the local paper, information about you that is included in online publications and anything else that is public.

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