How to Enhance Your Computer Security?
When Charles Babbage, the father of Modern Computers, designed the Differential Engine and Analytical Engine, most probably he never gave a thought on Computer Security. There were more important research topics but as time went by and the versatility of computer took its shape people began to apply computer in different fields and different applications. As more time went by and more people became computer literate they tried to peep to other people’s documents in different ways or the other.
For instance, if your files and folders are not secured, anyone can login to your computer and access files. This is the most common type of cyber crime and perhaps most simplest. But as technology geared up, more and more types of cyber crime came into existence. There are lots of technologies but some of them which are worthy to mention are implementing a Packet Sniffer or just injecting a Trojan into the network. Before you are aware, any data like your files and folders or even critical data which we don’t want to share with other people like Credit card details might be hacked. It is for this reason that PC Security is now not only a top concern for most small Business or Enterprise IT, home users are also aware and undertake all measures to stop a hacker or a cracker to steal sensitive information from one’s computer. Instead of discussing how one can crack to other people’s system lets discuss how to stop or atlest try to stop such hacking.
First of all, make sure you don’t keep any sensitive information stored in your computer and if it’s very much necessary to keep a softcopy you can keep it certainly in a pen drive or a CD ROM or DVD ROM. Once you store it in a removable media the only responsibility from your side is to store the media in a safe and secure place which is not always applicable for a computer in an open network. For those data which are less important or less critical it is always better to keep a backup copy. All operating system gives the option to take backup.
Keep a good antivirus with a good firewall which will protect unwanted traffic. All operating system like UNIX, Linux and MAC OS X including our favorite Windows XP SP2 come with a default firewall which does a pretty good work of filtration of network traffic. Further keeping a good antivirus or an antimalware/ adware will protect your computer from Trojan horse which might claim something and end up taking control of your computer and so your data.
When you buy or download an Operating System or software it’s bound to have some flaws or bugs which a hacker or cracker can take advantage of. But luckily these companies periodically do release patches or hotfixes or service packs to keep its software secure and safe.
