Personal computer protection

Notes on good practice to help safeguard data held on a personal computer

There are a few things that you can do to help protect yourself:

• Avoid clicking on any unsolicited links that may be emailed or texted to you.  Just delete the email / text.
   
  • Be wary of spelling, grammar and typos within the content of the emails.  This is still the strongest indicator of a fake email or website. 
     
  • If unsure then either go directly to the website they purport to be rather than click on their link, or call the person who sent you the text or email to confirm.
     
  • Hover your mouse cursor over the website address and check to see if it looks like the address you expect.  Many fake sites can look like the same address but contain an extra word or dot from the original. Websites that start with ‘https://’ are secure and generally are what they say they are.
     
• Regularly update your passwords for important on-line services such as email accounts and financial services websites.
   
  • Use long passwords and phrases that cannot be easily guessed.  For example: Ihave1dog,3cats&aParrot
     
  • If a website service offers Multi-Factor Authentication (it texts or emails you a code when you log on), then use it.
     
  • Use different passwords for different sites.  Do not use the same password for multiple websites.