I like to leave my computer logged onto the internet 24 hours a day. I signed up for cable internet a few years ago and now would never go back to dial up. I love the convenience of just walking into my office, sitting down at my computer, and being ready to go. My leaving my computer on all the time I leave myself much more vulnerable to internet hackers and attackers. While I don’t give out an overwhelming amount of personal information over the web some internet hackers are smart enough to use my internet connection to gain access to my computer, and all of the information contained on it, which is a quite a lot.
I do use my computer to store banking information, and have been receiving a good deal of money through paypal as of late. In order to access my paypal account all a hacker would need to get is my username and password. The internet while fun and useful can open you up to a world of attackers who can do a world of pain.
A good way to protect yourself against internet hackers is to set up a firewall on your computer. A firewall will help to keep unwanted visitors off of your hard drive and your information safe. If you are running a computer on Windows XP here is how you would go about setting up a firewall.
- Click START on the bottom left hand side of your screen
- Click CONTROL PANEL
- Double click on NETWORK CONNECTIONS
- Right click on your internet connection
- Click on PROPERTIES
- Click ADVANCED
- Select PROTECT MY COMPUTER AND NETWORK BY PREVENTING ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
- Click OK
Setting up a firewall doesn’t completely protect you against internet hackers, but it does help. Another good security idea is to look into the security options with your modem. A firewall is only effective for the computer you set it up on as well, so if you have several computers in your home you may want to set up a firewall on each of them.