October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a good time to review your computer habits to protect yourself from cybercrime.
The FBI offers 5 ways to make your computer a tough target.
- Keep your firewall turned on. A firewall protects against hackers who could crash your computer, delete information, or steal passwords and other private information.
- Install or update your antivirus software. The software detects and protects you against malicious code like viruses and worms.
- Install or update your antispyware technology. Spyware is software secretly installed on your computer that lets others watch your computer activities, collects information about you, and generates pop-up ads.
- Keep your operating system up to date. Install computer operating system updates for the latest protection against security holes.
- Be careful about what you download. Be wary about opening email attachments from strangers and forwarded attachments. They could include malicious code that even the best anti-virus software can miss.