Just when you think your home is secure, someone sneaks in. Not through a door or through a window, but through a thin wire running to your computer. When people are successful in picking the lock on your computer they can have access to personal and banking information. And, if that information is not readily available, they can pretend to be someone else and trick you into giving it to them. When you consider whole-house protection, do not forget about home computer security as well.
Just as a thief can break into you home and steal your possessions, through an unprotected computer system they can steal your money and your identity and once they do it can take a long time to recover. Many people have some sort of home computer security in the form of virus protection, firewalls and intrusive adware. Most of these features are readily available, many with no charge from an internet service provider, but frustration can sometimes prompt internet users to disable them.
With many home computers now connected through a broadband connection, your computer is always connect to the internet, even if your are not using your browser for surfing. You can test your home computer security while you are no online by seeing how many updates to software are received after a night of sleep. There always seems to be one program or another automatically sending updates, which are received while you snooze, and your system is automatically updated. Convenient, yes but also leaving your computer vulnerable.
Do Not Leave Money Lying Around In Cyberspace
It can be tempting if you pay a lot of bills online to save your payment information on your computer. It makes it simpler the next time you go to pay that bill and when you select make a payment, your information is already there. As most websites claim, stored securely on your computer and not on their site. Hackers know most home computer security system are much weaker than commercial banking sites so all they need is your credit or debit card number, which is easier to get from your computer than the bank's.
Although it may be an inconvenience to look up and enter numbers every time you need them, even your social security number, but the inconvenience of not using home computer security by not storing this information on your system is considerably less of a problem than finding out that about a month ago someone tapped your account for everything you are worth.
