Three Key Steps to Secure PC Software

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The best way to safeguard your mobile devices, computers and data from hackers is secure PC software. Hackers (also known as cybercriminals) attack your device or computer for many reasons, including taking, altering, and deleting information that you consider important. Hackers are malicious, unlike other thieves who may use stolen goods for legitimate reasons. They are most interested in gaining access to your sensitive information, and often before you realize that there’s been a problem.

The three most important steps to secure your computer software are firewalls, passwords and virus protection. If you follow these top practices, it’s less likely that your computer will be hacked by hackers or malware (software that locks information and demands payment for its unlocking).

Change the name of your administrator account. Choose a strong password that contains upper- and lowercase letter as well as numbers and computer symbol. Avoid using a password that is short such as 1234 because hackers are able to use automated tools to break passwords that are easy to guess in a matter of minutes.

Update your operating system and other software. The majority of software updates include security patches to help guard against hackers. Install all patches and turn on automatic updates whenever they become available to limit the amount of time that you are vulnerable to intruders.

If you own a laptop, or any other portable device, make sure the drive is encrypted when it’s not in use. This is particularly crucial for UF students. Windows allows users to enable encryption by clicking Settings > Update & Security > Device encryption. This will make your internal drive, as well as the majority of external drives, like SD cards.