PC security mistakes.

I perform anywhere from 5 to 10 service calls a day in Reno to help clients with their computer problems. And time after time I see first hand a number of mistakes people make in keeping their personal or business data safe and secure. I have listed these mistakes below…

1. No computer backups.
What would you do if all your data was just gone one day? Backup drives are cheap and easy to use once installed correctly.

2. Same passwords for every account and website.
A simple guess or somebody looking over your shoulder as you type a password could mean all of your online accounts get exposed and taken over. And with businesses reporting new data breaches almost daily, a hacker just needs to get into one account to then try the same password with other accounts. This is very preventable, just create a different password with each website you use, to avoid one successfully hack, becoming many.

3. No encryption of sensitive data.
If your computer ever got stolen or left behind, somebody with just a simple Windows boot disk could see everything on yourPC and do anything they wish with your data. Data encryption assures if somebody did get your data they would not be able to read it and use it against you.

4. No antivirus or firewall and poor web browser setup. 

I see computers running expired antivirus software everyday. Most people don’t know what a firewall is, yet alone test if theirs is working. And I had clients that had 50 web browser plugins running that they had no idea were installed or what information they were giving up. If you don’t remember the last time you checked these things out, then your computer is insecure.

If you have any of these issues then you should take steps today to safeguard all your data. If you do not know how to fix these problems yourself then you should hire a computer technician to help you ASAP.

It will be worth the time and money spent. As you will always pay more if you loose your data or a hacker gets a copy of your information.