Search
eHelp  

eHelp » Security » Tips » Good Computing Habits

Practice Good Computing Habits:

Here are some tips on computer usage that will help users avoid security breaches.

• Be on the lookout for spam emails – The best rule of thumb is: Don’t open emails unless you know what you’re opening. In addition to scrutinizing emails before they are opened, you can use an email service provider – Hotmail and Gmail being two examples – that offers junk email filters which you should set to automatically identify spam. Emails can also be spoofed, meaning it looks like they are from someone they really aren’t. Take steps to avoid opening harmful emails.
• Don’t automatically open attachments – Unless you know exactly what you’re opening, do not open attachments – even if they appear to be from a legitimate party such as a friend, a banking institution, or Cal Poly Pomona. There are basically two ways hackers try to bait users: they either scare users or try to sell them something. So, they’ll make it appealing by saying: “This is a way you can win an iPod,” or “This how we can give you something for free.”  Or they’ll scare users by saying, “If you don’t do this we’re going to close your account.”  Don’t fall for it.
• Don’t click on pop-ups – Most importantly, think before you click. If something is too good to be true, it probably is. Something to watch out for are pop-ups offering ways to find and delete spyware programs installed on your computer. These pop-ups are nothing more than another form of spyware. If these pop-ups are clicked, users won’t be fixing the problem, they will simply be downloading even more spyware.
• Don’t walk away from your computer with browsers open – Whenever you are using a computer away from the privacy of your own home, make sure you always close all open browsers before walking away from the computer. The easiest way to leave your sensitive information – BroncoDirect, online banking, or an email account – open for attack is to leave the door wide open for those looking to walk into your private life.
• Don’t use file-sharing programs like Kazaa and Morpheus – Once again, it is important to remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch. If you choose to use these programs do so knowing that you run the risk of downloading viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware along with the legitimate MP3s and videos available from users on the Internet. Many of these programs effectively record and report your downloading habits, and so are spyware themselves.
• Use complicated passwords – To protect private information from hackers, it is important to use hard-to-guess phrases with combinations of letters and numbers for your passwords. Also, mixing in the shift key to capitalize some letters and not others helps. Doing so can help stop so-called “dictionary attacks” where hackers utilize programs that automatically attempt to guess passwords by trying all of the words in the dictionary. BroncoDirect already requires complex passwords.