Online Security

Saturday, 14th October 2006

As someone who seems to know something about IT, I get asked a lot of questions by friends, family and work colleagues about anything technical, from what digital camera/printer/PC to buy through to what’s causing a problem on their computers and how to do whatever in Word.

One of the things I get asked a lot about is online security, to which I have a fairly standard set of responses based on experience and reading up on the subject. I was very pleased, however, to see that the BBC were running a series on online security this week based around them setting up a ‘honeypot’ (a machine which is purposely left slightly open and monitored to check for and record attacks on it). The series also had some useful advice on analysing spam emails, spotting a phishing email and general advice on how to stay safe when online.

I advise the people who ask is almost everything they suggest in the series (and a few more things), my other advice is that you, the user, is almost always the weak point of any system, think before you do things like open attachments from people you don’t know.

Staying safe is actually easier than it appears, but having programs running in the background isn’t as visible as a locked door, a big padlock or a vigilant guard, so people worry. Having been watching The Real Hustle recently, shopping on the high street is just as dangerous.

  • Print This Post/Page | Print
  • Comment on this post | Comment

Related Articles

This article was posted in Computers, you might find the following articles interesting, they're supposed to be related.

  • Password Protected

    It seems that online security will take another turn for worst this year (unless Microsoft's new Win ...

  • Search Records

    I've just finished watching The Money Programme episode titled 'The World According to Google.' I w ...

  • PC Security

    It seems like barely a week goes by without a story about computers being hacked, a virus being spre ...

  • Micropayments and the Net Community

    For a future venture (I'm aiming to become a net entrepenuer and stop working for soul-sucking emplo ...

  • Look, No Hands

    At the UK office, you have a magnetic swipe card to let you through the alarmed 'gateways' at the fr ...

Comments

↑ TOP

Be the first to comment on this post

Write a Comment




* - Required

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>