Securing data has never been more important than it is today

We have to contend with hackers – viruses – spyware and not to mention disgruntled employees.

All valuable data needs to be backed up, this creates another headache as it means two copies, securing files through applications such as Word or Excel 2007 or 2010 is ideal as it has very high levels of encryption, but like most computer users what if you cannot use Office 2007 or 2010, or the files or files you need to protect do not have any native protection!!

There are should be two types of computer data protection when it comes to securing data

The first of these is aimed at stopping anyone from actually being able to get hold of the file in the first place.

The second is to protect the actual file so even if someone manages to get hold of the file they still have to crack or overcome this type of security.

To begin with we need to employ some computer data protection to help make our computer a veritable Fort Knox.

You can take this to mean whatever level you like.

File Security, File System security, Password Authentication, Anti-Spyware, Anti- Virus, Software Firewall, Hardware Firewall

1. Windows updates – Your computer must be running the latest Windows updates
2. Antispyware and Antivirus Software – Viruses and Spyware have always been known as back door ways to infiltrate a computer.
3. Firewalls – Always use a Software firewall application on your computer and make sure your Router has a hardware firewall that’s switched on.
4. Windows accounts – Ensure every user account has a good hard to crack password and any unneeded accounts such as the Windows guest account are disabled.
5. BIOS Passwords – A BIOS password comes into effect as soon as your computer is powered on, before Windows even loads.
6. File security – Make sure that the format of your hard drive is NTFS and not FAT32 which offers no security.
7. Hard drive encryption – If your computer supports hard drive encryption make sure this is switched on, even if someone steals your computers hard drive they will not be able to access the contents of the hard drive easily
8. Files – Always make sure your files are stored in a secure area on your hard drive such as MyDocuments .
9. Shared Computer – If you use a shared computer and everyone has local admin rights think about storing your files on a flash or pen drive that has password authentication.
10. It is advisable never to visit sites such as torrents or password cracking sites if you want to maintain a totally secure environment.
11. WIFI – if you access the internet via a Wireless connection make sure that WPA security is employed.
12. More WIFI – never connect to any unknown Wireless networks.
13. Emails – Email attachments are the most common way of getting a virus or some type of malware, only ever open the attachments if you know what it contains even if it is from someone you know.
14. Internet – Disconnect from the internet or even better power off your router or modem if not being used.

File protection

As mentioned above if you are using Office 2007 this provides very good password encryption, but if not then another means of securing data needs to be employed, even if you are using older versions of Office or any other application any password protection is better than none, but if you want something more secure checkout a product such as Winzip which has 128 bit AES protection (it is estimated that someone were to try and crack 128 bit AES and were able to discover 1 DES key per second it would take them 149 trillion years to crack a single key)

A really good point about using a program such as Office 2007 or Winzip means that if you backup the file to another source the protection will remain in place.

One of the weaknesses of any password protection though is usually the chosen password, many passwords are usually hacked or rather guessed simply due to it being a simple to guess password such as company name – spouses name – childrens name etc.

Make sure your computers overall security is not its weakness

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