Truth 40 Installing proper identity theft protection

Check your email on any given day, and the probability that you have received potentially malicious emails is quite high. Unfortunately, there is no real solution to these unwanted emails and, more importantly, there does not seem to be any slowdown in these types of attacks. Many home users have no idea that their personal computers remain under constant attack via their connection to the Internet. These attacks range from worms that continue to self-propagate over the Internet to malicious Web sites that are designed to attack your computer when you browse them. While a secured computer will not end your risks of identity theft, it is a key component in your arsenal against would-be attackers.

Personal firewalls

New operating systems, such as Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista and Macintosh OS X, include built-in firewalls. The problem is that most people who have the ability to run the personal firewall either choose not to enable it, have it misconfigured or, even worse, simply don’t pay attention to the warnings that those firewalls give them.

The personal firewall is designed to serve many purposes. One of the most important functions is the capability to block external connections from accessing your computer. Hackers use a variety of methods to scan for unsecured computers connected to the Internet and then have an arsenal of weapons they can use to assault any vulnerable system they find. Unfortunately, for the typical user, these vulnerabilities aren’t visible and, worse still, it’s not usually apparent when you have been attacked. Once a hacker gains access to your computer, he might scan it, looking for personal information he can use to steal your identity, or he might enslave your computer to use its horsepower in attacks on other computers. Or the hacker might install viruses designed to wreak havoc. Whatever his intent, blocking hackers is job number one if you have a computer connected to the Internet.

The personal firewall is designed to watch your back, blocking access to your computer and requests sent from your computer unless you specifically allow it. With a firewall in place, many hacking attempts are thwarted simply by the fact that the firewall makes your computer invisible to the rest of the Internet.

Unfortunately, this protection does come at a nominal price—popup messages alerting you to activity coming in or going out to the Internet. These alerts can be annoying until you have trained your firewall on which programs have carte blanch to run without permission and which need to ask each time. Sadly, these alerts lead some users to either disable the firewall or blindly okay each alert from the firewall.

If your operating system does not include a built-in firewall, I strongly suggest that you look at purchasing a firewall application immediately. There are a variety of firewalls from security giants Norton and McAfee as well as a number of free firewalls available for download.

Antivirus software

While most new computers come with some level of antivirus protection, most of these services require an annual subscription to continue providing protection. Like personal firewalls, there are free versions of antivirus protection available for download from the Internet. While I prefer one of the major retail products, if you are on a limited budget, the free antivirus solutions do suffice. Make sure that you set up your antivirus program to receive automatic updates.

The bottom line is that having frequently updated antivirus software is no longer a luxury; it is an absolute necessity. Without it, the question is not if your computer will get a virus, but when.

Encryption

The success of wireless networking has made the laptop more portable than ever before. I have not had a desktop computer in about five years and can’t even imagine going back to one.

The problem, however, is while your desktop computer sits at home or in your office protected behind locked doors, your laptop is on the move. It’s with you in the car, on the plane, or sitting next to you as you ride the subway. Gone are the locked doors and the security that came with desktop PCs. Now you are the only protection that your computer has and, in turn, the only protection for the confidential information that resides on it.

So what happens when someone steals your laptop? Well, that all depends on whether the files on your computer are encrypted. Encryption programs are designed to make data unreadable without a security key. While there are a number of expensive solutions that can encrypt your computer’s entire hard drive, there are also a number of free solutions that you can use and still have the security you need.

While I generally try not to mention products by name, both TrueCrypt and Cryptainer Lite offer the capability to create encrypted drives on your existing computer and, more importantly, they are both free of charge. Once you’ve installed the product, simply place your confidential files into the newly created system folder. When you log back in, this folder will be locked and unable to be accessed without the security key. Therefore, if someone were to steal your computer, the data in this folder would be relatively safe.

Obviously, encryption is not going to be for everyone. If you are just lucky to be able to pick up your email, you might not want to mess with this technology. However, if you are using your laptop at the office and then taking it home with you, I would suggest you look into securing any potentially confidential information. Also, while I have focused on laptops due to their obvious risks, encryption is valuable on desktops, too, since it does help protect you from hackers and identity thieves.