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Quick and Easy Ways to Secure your computer Part 1

Security these days is becoming more and more of a concern. Almost all of us keep some kind of data on our computers others should have access to. If nothing else, you should keep your machine safe to prevent being used as part of a crackers DDoS attack, or something similar. So here are a few easy ways to try and keep your machine a little safer.

1) Update your operating system.
Make sure that if you use Windows that automatic updates is on, you can check this out by going to start-> control panel and clicking the automatic updates icon (if you are using the category view, you will have to click security center first). Here you can make sure they are up and running, and keeping you safe.

2) Delete extra user accounts.
Your computer probably came with an extra account or two that you dont need. It is pretty easy to delete these, but if you are not comfortable with DOS you may want to skip this part. Otherwise lets do it. Open a command prompt by going start->run-> then type cmd without the quotes. A black box should open up with some text in it. Type the command net user without the quotes again. You should see a listing of all the user accounts on your computer. There are 3 in particular to look for ASPNET Support_388945a0 or something similar and HelpAssistant. These 3 accounts are for services that nobody ever uses, and are security risks. Delete em by using the command net user ASPNET /delete without quotes, and replace ASPNET with the name of the account that need to be deleted. Repeat that command for each account that needs to go away.

3) Create strong account passwords.
Weak passwords are probably the number one cause of getting hacked. A strong password is defined as 8 or more characters with capitol letters, numbers, and if you can a special symbol such as $ or *. Too many times I have seen the computer just boot straight into windows with no password required. This is unacceptable. To fix this go into start->control panel->users accounts. Here you should see the accounts used on your computer. Go to each one and set a strong password. Make sure to set one that is really good for the administrator account that is what is attacked most frequently. A tip for making strong passwords, think of a quote or saying you like, then replace the spaces with a special character such as @ or $ or ^. That way your password will be nice and long, and have special chars. It will be quite hard to break.

4) Disable the guest account.
Windows machines come with an account for guests to use called the guest account, go figure. This thing is a security risk and probably should be turned off. Again get to User accounts in the control panel and somewhere in there you should see the guest account. Click on it, you should be able to disable it from there.

I have lots more tips, but I will save them till next time. If you are dying to know more; now, email me at Aoshi775@hotpop.com. Good luck, and remember security starts and ends with the user, you are only as secure as the weakest link in your chain, and of course the old saying of security specialists everywhere, security is not a product, it is a process.
-Dan

 
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