On a sunny morning, you wake up and prepared to sit on PC to complete your last day’s incomplete task or last episode of any latest game. So, when you open the PC a shocking message visualizes to you and it says “Contact xyz@xyz.net for support with decryption and the decryption fee is $500 (USD).”
Don’t worry you are not the only guy rather like you 181.5 million ransomware attacks recorded in the first half of 2018. This is only a scenario likewise there you find many. So, as a user what precaution you need to take to protect yourself.
The 5 Essential Tips for Your Computer
Here we bring 5 essential tips for your computer to remain safe.
1. Updated OS
A computer without an OS is valueless that’s why it is a must-have thing for a PC. So, you get one mandatorily and it will provide you blissful service for a long time.
Definitely, this is not the scenario rather OS becomes vulnerable to cyber-attacks or becomes slow in performance over time. So, whatever your OS is like Windows or Mac, the developer fixes the existing flaws and releases the updated one.
For example, Microsoft brings some common updates on each month like security update, critical update, software, and service pack update. By the way, you can easily get your OS newly released update by checking the update section.
2. Latest Anti-virus
You may get a little idea at the beginning of how a virus stuck your computer’s activity. We sketch that scenario based on one type of virus.
Likewise, there are many threats that are waiting to welcome you like bots, rootkits, worm, trojan horses, spyware. Luckily, you will find such a protective solution from various anti-virus Software.
But here you have to ensure that your anti-virus is up to date. Because almost every day, new types of virus brokes out simultaneously anti-virus developers also bring updates against those viruses.
3. Strong Passwords
From our PC to social media, we have to use a password to secure our personal information. Here we have to make sure a strong along with a unique password. So, how could you build a strong along with a unique password?
Thankfully, all the website where a password is mandatory they show the password strength indicator. But blindly depends on that tool is not a wise decision. Here we enlist 3 points which will ensure a strong password, such as-
- Do not use any words which can be found in a dictionary.
- Make sure the password length is at least 12 characters.
- Try to use uppercase, lowercase, number, symbols, and also letters.
Lastly, you have to be careful about saving your passwords on software on your PC. One of the famous sites like the FTP client Filezilla stores your passwords in plain text which is not good for security.
4. Ensure Backup of Important Data
Some unfortunate events like getting stolen, liquid drop or electric shortcircuit will cause severe harm to our PC. Afterward, we have nothing but become tensed if we have the most important data there.
So, here you can make a backup plan from earlier like upload on google drive or dropbox (get 2 GB free by signing up). However, a backup plan is mandatory today because of growing Ransomeware attacks.
It will freeze your computer activity and demand huge money to make it normal. Moreover, if you can’t keep trust in these cloud storage then you may buy an external hard disk to store data.
5. Try to Keep Away From Rogue Websites
It is obviously a difficult task to spot a rogue website, but you can get it by following a trick. Whenever you get into any website through your browser then they will provide you full security information. They show a sign is like a lock and you can get the information by clicking on that.
But the position is slightly different, like in Chrome and Mozilla- they visualize this sign prior to the “https://”, whereas internet explorer show this sign at the ending of the address.