Tips to Protect your Computer
Protection of the Mail Client: Sure Outlook dominates in this area however Thunderbird can also be a good alternative. Of course, you could be among the people who make use of Gmail to do everything. My guess is that you’re a security-conscious person we should also presume that cloud-based e-mail isn’t your thing. The one of those features which ought to be part of the security software is an anti-spam, antifishing and anti-bad e-mail feature. Personally, I do not find the anti-spam options included in the security software very useful, which is why I also utilize SpamAssassin for my email server, and SpamBayes for my email client. In addition, my proxy server handles some filtering tasks for me.
However, you should also take into consideration the functions and features included in your mail application itself, such as preventing images from being displayed and viewing header information and more. In addition, like the options for browsers, there are many security-related add-ons that work with most mail clients. Take your time and research the options that meet your requirements. A side note: Make sure you use SSL when connecting to the mail servers you use. Don’t throw your email credentials and messages in the trash by using clear, open mail services.
Protection of IM and social media platforms The topic is slightly more complicated because it covers a lot of territory. Like everything other security issue it is important to be aware of your options. This can help you get rid of 90% of problems that exist. Be aware that ways to encrypt your chats (both embedded and using third-party tools) available for several IM chat applications.
Additionally, there are scanning tools which can be offered by your security program to stop you from clicking on dangerous embedded links or opening files shared through these channels. In the end, conduct your own research and look at the IM services you are using and what social media platforms you use. Choose the tools that best satisfy your requirements. The objective here is to protect yourself from accidental information disclosure and also from malware (viruses or spyware, etc. ).
Secure Your Passwords Nowadays, we are bombarded with passwords to keep track of (at at the very least, you need plenty of passwords in case you’re doing your security right). The issue is How do you manage to maintain all the passwords in order? Particularly, if you’re adding the complexity level you must be (at at least 8 characters, including both lower and upper case letters, numbers, special characters etc. Better yet, you should have an actual passphrase that’s slightly longer and utilizes several of the same character kinds).
However, you’ll probably require storing the passwords in a safe place. Not putting them in an Excel spreadsheet isn’t an choice. Instead, you should consider using one of the various encrypted password storage software tools that are out there. My preferred tool is PassWord Safe. These tools not only let you keep your passwords in a safe location but they also have options like cutting and pasting (then clearing the cache) which allows you to input your passwords directly into websites applications, websites, etc. in just a couple of mouse clicks.
Expanding the scope of encryption The last time we talked about complete disk encryption, and we’ve talked about e-mail security. In this article, I’ll discuss encryption with regard to emails, and also in terms of creating encrypted volumes. PGP is my preferred choice in this case. It’s possible to use the OpenPGP solution or purchase the Symantec suite however, either way, PGP encryption is a absolute necessity for secure communication.
For encrypted volumes, this is an effective method of working using USB storage device. Instead of merely adding your data to the device, create a safe volume that you can mount and demount when needed (using the passphrase or key). I would suggest combining the two tasks by removing your personal keys off your computer and then storing them on a volume, which is secured by the passphrase. It is the “key for the Kingdom’, and must be secured from damage or loss. It is possible to use encrypted data in variety of different ways that are creative – in general, whenever you want to safeguard a specific subset of data using more secure security measures (like when you want to save sensitive information in a cloud-based server or other network-accessible storage device, for example).