Safeguarding yourself, your identity and your loved ones in our digital age : Part 2 of 3 : Computers, spyware and deleting files.

Your personal computers contain a wealth of your most personal and valuable information as well as a venue for exploitation and theft by savvy criminals. The easiest way for a criminal to steal information off of your computer is to physically steal the computer. Laptops are prime targets for theft and you should never leave one unattended. Never leave them in your car, do not stow them in overhead bins while traveling and when you are at home, store them some place that they are not easily seen.

Also:

Secure your computers with passwords that are not easily guessed.
It is best to use alphanumeric passwords if you can remember them.
Or use an odd sentence that makes sense to you.
Keep in mind that the longer your password is, the more characters it contains, the harder it will be to guess.
Don’t write your passwords down anywhere someone could stumble upon them. It’s best if you don’t keep written records of your passwords.
Make sure that you have good virus protection installed on your computer.
Never click on any links in emails or online that you do not recognize or that you are even slightly are unsure about… even if it comes from a friend or family member.

Truly deleting digital files is not as easy as it sounds. You may think that once you delete something from your computer that it is gone forever, but a lot of times that is not the case. Physically destroying old hard drives that you no longer need is the best way to make sure no one will retrieve any of your sensitive data.

We all do a lot of shopping online which means we are all typing our credit card numbers into lots of different websites. Make sure the company you purchase from is reputable. If something seems too good to be true, it is! Massive discounts on normally very expensive items from shady online stores are going to cost you a lot more than you think.

Next week : Part 3 : Medical records, credit reports, junk mail and documents.

~TeCHS