Image: David Suter |
Some recent media reports would have you believing that, thanks to modern connectivity, monsters can crawl through the computer screen and into your home--eating bank accounts and spewing pornography as they go. Most of us know it's not all that bad. But computer networks do present the layperson with some security threats. "The Internet is constantly being attacked and probed even by our allies," says Jim Davis of Iowa State University. "That's the environment in which we live."
With that in mind, Davis and Doug Jacobson, with whom Davis co-directs the Information Systems Security Laboratory at Iowa State, came up with a list of tips (below) for the general public about how to make their computers more secure. Some may seem trivial, but Davis comments that "it is amazing how simple preventative tasks early on can save you time, money and a considerable amount of hassle later on."
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