If you are a computer user (advanced or not) minimize your electronic risks and follow some simple rules:

1. Protect yourself from “pre-attacks” and subsequent hack attempts.
2. Use cash or your charge card instead of your debit card. Remember, the credit card money is the bank’s money but the debit card money is your money.
3. If you do use your debit card, work with your bank to put a limit on the size of each transaction and to notify you of any mysterious or strange charges.
4. Do not use “userid” or your name, your spouse’s name, significant other’s name, pet’s name, etc., as a user id.
5. Do not use “1234” or “password” or “abcd” as your password. If you do, you are literally asking for a hacker to take your money.
6. Change your password on your PC/Smart phone, etc., every 30 days.
7. For your password – use a phrase with numbers, letters, lowercase and upper case letters and an occasional special character or two (i.e.#, $, %, ^, etc.) instead of a single group of numbers and/ letters.
8. Use a long WPA-2 string for your password on your wireless network password (See item #6 above).
9. Put a security code on your cell phone. Otherwise, if someone steals your phone, it may be “bye, bye” bank account.
10. You may want to look into AVG for your Android and Android tablet.
11. Do not tell your friends on social web sites when you are going on vacation.
12. Do not send user ids and passwords in the same email.
13. Do not have your computer “remember you,” especially with your bank account and medical information web sites.
14. Store your passwords in an encrypted file.
15. If you have VOIP phones, make sure that you have an appropriate firewall between your phones and your provider – otherwise, your conversation (including private data) may fall into the wrong hands.
16. If you have sensitive data on your server or PC, be sure to use encryptable hard drives with an operating system that can support them.
17. Make sure that your new Internet-connected refrigerator is not transferring valuable information.
18. You may want to subscribe to an Internet service that pre-scans your email for phishing, viruses, and spam. It’s cheap insurance.
19. Turn off your camera on your super smart flat screen television.
20. Turn off your web cam on your tablet, PC, or smart phone.
21. Perform regular backups of your servers and PC’s with encryption.
22. When accessing your banking website or accessing other confidential web sites, make sure that the web site starts with “HTTPS:” – take note of the ‘S’ at the end.  This is extremely important.  This ensures that your activities are confidential.
23. Do not access your banking website or access confidential web sites on “free” or “public” networks (such as at bars or coffee houses).  Hackers camp on those networks to see what information you are transmitting.  This could result in identity theft, loss of savings, etc.
24. Beware of web pages that ask you for private information but also warn that “information security is not guaranteed”.
25. If you have a network, constantly monitor it for “pre-attacks”. These are signs that bad times are coming if you don’t take some protection.
26. Due to the increasing use of technology, new attacks are now being forecast. GPS is predicted to soon to be the next target.  Cars and boats driving next to you can surreptitiously hack your personal or car-mounted GPS device – and then manipulate your GPS location to guide you to an area that you may not want to go to.
27. Sadly, it has also been shown that Bluetooth-capable health devices (like pacemakers) are also susceptible to hacking.  Future demented hackers will be able to use this kind of hacking for terrible results.

Yes – the list is long. But guess what? It will only get longer as technology advances. Not only is Big Brother watching you, but so is his entire family.

Regards,
George Baldonado
Oasis Technology, Inc.
“We Put the Knowledge in Technology” ®

Do you want help protecting your systems and your network? Contact Oasis Technology today. We provide outsource IT support and consulting to solve your technical issues and give you peace of mind.