Safeguarding your computer

There are several precautions institutions and individuals should take, the most important being not to use pirated software, even though it’s cheap or free. The other steps include:

Use firewalls, and anti-virus software from reputed vendors, and ensure these are upgraded regularly.
Perform regular backups of all critical data, that should be kept on a separate device, and backups stored offline.
Never open attachments received in emails, even if from trusted sources. Always ask the sender to confirm what’s in the attachment before opening it.
Never ever click on an URL link, even if from a supposedly trusted sender. Always type in the URL in the browser directly yourself.
For financial transactions, ensure the use of Secure Socket 7. Ensure the protocol shows https://, not merely http://, together with the padlock symbol.
Use two-factor authentication in emails. Ensure the OTP comes to a different mobile device than one used for email. If one gets the SMS OTP on the same device used to access email, there is no added protection.
Big organisations should take several extra precautionary steps as individual users are often the weakest links. They should deploy web and email filters on their network. Configure these devices to scan for known bad domains, sources, and addresses; block these before receiving and downloading messages. Scan all emails, attachments, and downloads both on the host and at the mail gateway with a reputable anti-virus solution.

Disable macros in Microsoft Office products. Some Office products allow disabling of macros that originate from outside an organisation and can provide a hybrid approach when the outfit depends on the legitimate use of macros. For Windows, specific settings can block macros originating from the Internet from running.

Configure access controls, including file, directory, and network share permissions, with least privilege in mind. If a user only needs to read specific files, they should not have write access to those files, directories, or shares.
Regularly check the content of backup files of databases for any unauthorised encrypted contents of data records or external elements.
Restrict users’ abilities (permissions) to install and run unwanted software applications.
Enable personal firewalls on workstations. more