peterCooper
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There's been a bit of discussion about viruses and anti virus software on one of the other threads. It's probably never to early to make a couple of comments about Internet security and you can never make the comments often enough.
I recently sold a timeshare on eBay and got my account hacked in the process. eBay were really good by the way and were quick and efficient in handling the problem.
I'm pretty sure you all know these points and apply them to everything you do on line.
[*]Always use a strong password. That means a password of at least 8 characters using a mixture of uppercase and lower case and numbers and special characters. That makes it harder (takes longer) for a hacker to crack your security.
[*]Never use the same password for two different accounts. If you can't handle too many passwords, at least make sure that your banking password is different from all the other ones. I have different passwords for the forum and for buying stuff from George. You should not use passwords at home that you use at at work.
[*]Change your passwords regularly. For banking that should be once a quarter at least.
[*]If you need to make a note of your passwords, don't use you computer to store the note. Note your passwords offline.
[*]Do not respond to unsolicited emails. Clicking on a link or an image in an unsolicited email can result in financial losses. If in doubt, don't. If you use Internet Explorer, the new version (7) has some cool security enhancements. If you use Firefox, there is a google toolbar that has some useful characteristics too.
[*]You can limit the problems of anti virus software by using two. It's called defense in depth.
[*]Back up your data.
[*]Back up your data
[*]Back up your data
Peter
I recently sold a timeshare on eBay and got my account hacked in the process. eBay were really good by the way and were quick and efficient in handling the problem.
I'm pretty sure you all know these points and apply them to everything you do on line.
[*]Always use a strong password. That means a password of at least 8 characters using a mixture of uppercase and lower case and numbers and special characters. That makes it harder (takes longer) for a hacker to crack your security.
[*]Never use the same password for two different accounts. If you can't handle too many passwords, at least make sure that your banking password is different from all the other ones. I have different passwords for the forum and for buying stuff from George. You should not use passwords at home that you use at at work.
[*]Change your passwords regularly. For banking that should be once a quarter at least.
[*]If you need to make a note of your passwords, don't use you computer to store the note. Note your passwords offline.
[*]Do not respond to unsolicited emails. Clicking on a link or an image in an unsolicited email can result in financial losses. If in doubt, don't. If you use Internet Explorer, the new version (7) has some cool security enhancements. If you use Firefox, there is a google toolbar that has some useful characteristics too.
[*]You can limit the problems of anti virus software by using two. It's called defense in depth.
[*]Back up your data.
[*]Back up your data
[*]Back up your data
Peter
