It seems like computers these days need multiple levels of security in order to protect your personal information. There are a number of questions that keep coming up that require attention by every computer user a couple are: How do I keep track of passwords? and When to and when not to provide personal information?
We will go through these in order, first how do i keep track of passwords? It seems everyone these days has multiple email addresses, facebook accounts, bank accounts, bills to pay, and every other site that requires a user name and password. There are a few options for remembering these passwords. First of all you can have Firefox or Explorer remember them for you. If you are the only user of your computer this may be okay but be careful, this will allow access by any user of your computer to sensitive information. Next there are security programs such as Norton 360, that will remember your passwords for you grouping them under one specific password. This is also okay if you are the only user of your computer but what do you do when you are out and about and need access to your email. Here is a suggestions. Create a hand written list of your passwords. Do not store it on your computer or in an email account. This may be the best way to protect your information. Be careful and don’t enter passwords at public computer terminals.
When do I provide personal information? It is important to only provide personal information to the actual website you intend to visit. Never click a link on a website or in your email and then enter your personal information. Always do a web search yourself or enter the URL. It is very easy to be tricked into entering information into a phony website. Remember security is up to you.