Sunday, September 11, 2011

Best Ways to Secure Your Notebook


Your Notebook comprises of your entire personal and professional data and hence, it is more than necessary to protect it from getting in the hands of hackers online or from thieves in the real world. Hence, it is high time to pull up your socks and find solace in a foolproof solution that could protect your most important gadget everywhere and at any cost.

Categorizing security measure

The distinct ways that you adopt can be broadly classified into two categories, i.e.

- Protection of your laptop/notebook from Real theft 
- Protecting it from the hackers that could steal your digital data

Let us discuss them one after another.

Protection of your laptop/notebook from theft

- Use lengthy passwords: This strategy could work actively in your cause. Using strong passwords that contains at least one digit, alphanumeric character and special character apart from the regular alphabets would be considerable. Make sure not to use your date of birth, the name of your family members or friends as the password, it can be decrypted easily.

- Avoid using bags: It is an open invitation for people with negative intensions to carry a laptop bag. It is better if you can replace it with some safer option such as suitcase or padded briefcase.

- Encrypt your data: If unfortunately your notebook gets into the hands of wrong people, file encryption could save you from intensifying the damage further. This is also helpful if you are lending the notebook to someone else for few hours or days. With perfection encryption strategy, those with unscrupulous intentions can not decrypt your data despite of persistent attempts.

- Do not take it to public place: You can forget your notebook while keeping on he floor or on a chair while you are in public place such as a ticket counter or a restaurant. Hence, until it is a very important cause that compels you to take your gadget outside, avoid doing so.

- Use a security device: Attaching your notebook/laptop with a security device such as cable or chain and tying it with a heavy object in the room could prevent your machine from being stolen in your absence.

Protecting your laptop/notebook from hackers online

- Activate firewall: While you are rising your Wi-fi network, turning the firewall is highly recommended. You never know how many fellows are there, waiting for your open your laptop so that they may steal your sensitive data.

- Block unwanted connections: If you are using a hotspot connection then before moving further, make sure to block all the useless connections that appear in your computer. All the operating systems provide efficient ways to perform such a task comfortably.

- For extra safety, use secure website connections: While opening a website, if you use https instead of http, it assures added security to your data. Websites such as Yahoo Mail, and Gmail allow you to use this facility and there are many more as well.

- Unshare folders: Leaving the options of shared folders open could be dangerous if you are using your notebook somewhere other than home. It is not acceptable if someone checks out pictures or video files without your permission, hence it is better to unshared those folders each time you are out.

- Use VPNs: This is perhaps one of the strongest methods to secure your data online. It works on a specialised tunneling mechanism and protects your identity over the internet. Moreover, it also provides you with an IP address of a separate location that keeps you totally anonymous until the time you are online. This not only hides you from prying eyes but also enables you access blocked website.

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