The New Year means a fresh start and with lots of new technology in the house from Christmas I thought I would provide some tips to keep it all running smoothly for you:

  • Do the updates. Whether your device is a tablet, phone, or computer it is critically important that you keep it up-to-date. It is true that sometimes especially with Windows 10 that updates can cause a few problems, but not performing any updates leaves your computer vulnerable to all sorts of nasties if it is connected to the internet (wireless or wired).
  • Pay for decent Internet Security. The free ones are not good enough unless you are incredibly careful about where you go on the internet and what email attachments you open. For less than the price of one posh coffee a month I can provide a complete peace of mind security package. Click here to get a quotation.
  • Turn on Parental Controls. If you have children they can easily be exposed to the darker side of the internet. Whilst it is important we educate them about such things it is better to do this in our own time frame rather than have it foisted upon us by a pornographic advert or similar. Children also like to play games online, download movies and music often clicking away consent forms and downloading malware unintentionally. This compromises the whole computer and possibly the home network for all family members. Your primary school should have a Child Safety Expert Teacher you can talk to and of course I am available to consult.
  • Back up your important files. Ransomware is a bit of a buzz word in IT security at the moment. This is where a special type of virus puts a password on all your photos and documents so you cannot open them without the “magic word”. Then the crooks demand a ransom be paid to regain access. New variations of this are coming out every day and even the most powerful Antivirus software struggles to catch them every time. So backing up is very important. This can be done automatically with special software or you can do it manually with a memory stick or external hard drive. I also offer a service to automate backing up.

 

Hopefully if you follow these resolutions you will have a much more secure 2017.