Home computer security is very different to that of a company computer as it’s something that you need to manage yourself, unlike a company environment where you probably have a nice chap called Kevin who will take care of all your computer security requirements.
The first big misconception of home computer security is how hard it can be making a computer secure, this really could not be further from the truth, today there are so many security products on the market that we apparently must have, but this really just adds to the confusion of what we really need.
There are really only two three types of home computer security these include Settings, Software and awareness on your behalf.
Settings
you need to make sure whenever you login to your computer it has a good password, this might seem like a hassle, but if you don’t use a password anyone can access it if they manage to reach it from the internet, Windows also comes with a number of other accounts, such as Administrator and Guest, ensure the Administrator account has good password, by this I mean a password which is at least 7 characters in length and consists of both letters and numbers, and even a special character such as a £ sign, for example, C()mputer, easy to remember, but very secure, the guest account should be disabled as this can be a big security hole on your computer if left enabled.
To change passwords on accounts right click on computer, or my computer and select manage, local users and groups, Users, now right click on each user and set password.
Windows comes with a built in firewall, this is another way to prevent unauthorized users and applications from connecting to your computer, personally I think it does a great job, much better than many of the so-called specialized firewalls, it also comes pre-configured and apart from checking in the Windows Firewall section in control panel to make sure it’s turned on there is nothing else to do.
Software
Always make sure your Windows software is up to date with the latest Windows patches, these should be downloaded automatically and then you will be prompted to install them, you can check on the status of Windows automatic updates from Control Panel & Automatic updates, then simply make sure its set to Automatic and check Every day.
Windows on its own is pretty defenseless against viruses and other types of malware so a separate product is required; personally I recommend Microsoft security Essentials which is totally free and can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website.
Awareness
Any home computer security is only as good as its weakest link and in many cases it’s us, opening unknown email attachments is the number one cause of a computer becoming infected with some type of malware, next is downloading seemingly innocent files which can contain some type of malware.
In short never open a file or download anything you’re not sure of it’s simply not worth the risk.