Top five list of Privacy Tips as submitted by a community of large member how goes by the handle Josh. So Josh, I appreciate you emailing this top five list to me. If you have got a top 5 list; whether it happens to be tech related or not, you can email it to me, chris@pirillo.com. Right Josh, we will see what you have got for privacy tips.
Number one, do not shop online or check your email on public computers. If you do, you should restart the computer and make sure your data is safe. If you use a Flash drive, you should try to see if you can use application such as After Work, which is available on U3 Flash drives to make sure all of your personal information is deleted.
Always make sure you sign out of website if you are going to check your email to prevent people from logging into your account. Remember, these are public computers, therefore anyone can have the ability to steal your information if they wanted to. Point well taken. However, simply restarting your computer will not erase your data, if anything, what I always recommend if you have to use a public computer, don't use any type of information that would be private, as in login or a password, or any kind of shopping whatsoever. Those public computers, any thing that -- I define public as anything that is not in your possession 110%. Even then, and I don't think he goes on to say this, but if you are using a wireless network, if it is unencrypted, and sometimes even if it is encrypted traffic, there are programs, packet sniffers that can reach out into the air and figure out what you are sending back and forth. So you have got to play safe when you are in public and you are doing anything with personal data.
Number two, only go to trusted sites that you know are safe. For example, if you need to download specific drivers for our hardware related issue, you should always check with a manufacturer site first. Going on sites you think are safe, from a search engine like Google, may lead you to giving out personal information to download the drivers or even paying for the drivers in some cases when that's absolutely unnecessary. If you cannot find the drivers on the manufacturer's website, contact them and see how you can obtain the drivers. Great point there, Josh!
Number three, keep your passwords to accounts lengthy and difficult to guess. An easy password such as 12345, sounds like something an idiot would use as the combination on his luggage, or a common word used in the dictionary that can easily be found by "brute-force attack". Stay away from those.
A good way to keep your password from being found is to do the following. Have the password over ten characters long, and when creating the password have spaces included, if possible, and uncommon characters, such as an exclamation point or a question mark.
One more important thing you should do is always keep your passwords different for various accounts. If someone found your password to one account, the chances are they will be able to access your other accounts, because you will have the same password. So it's very, very smart.
If you are looking for password management tools, I know key pass is -- I thought it was Open Source, I think its multi platform, there is also, for Windows users at least, AI RoboForm. There is a free version and I can get you 20% off the proversion of AI RoboForm, if you ask nicely.
Number four, create a password for your BIOS. If you create a password for your BIOS, or that's what happens when your computer is starting up, a person will not be able to access Windows. That is, in order to get into the computer, you wouldn't have to know the password right there before -- as the computer started up, but before the Operating System would load.
Also, you should change your Windows password often if you are running Windows because it creates a new hash if someone tries to crack your Windows password. This is according to Josh.
Number five, encrypt your data. If you have files that you need to protect, encrypt them. I found a free open source application called TrueCrypt that allows you to have a drive encrypted as you add files inside it.
Two more tips to keep your data safe are to create hidden folders. Hidden folders can only be seen if the option is selected.
The other tip is to save the file with another extension. For example, if you have a secret password you want to keep save, save the file as a PowerPoint extension or PPT. This adds more security to your files. I don't know how much more security, but from the common onlooker it would obviously trump anything that they would ever think of doing.
All in all, in my opinion, you are never 100% safe. True. People can always find a way to get your information if they really wanted to. However, if using these tips can prevent some of the ways they might be able to. Good top five list of privacy tips there Josh, excellent.
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