After Thursday night's lesson I have spent some time reflecting upon how secure my computer really is. For the most part I feel fairly good about a lot of the steps that I have taken towards securing my computer and data but still have a ways to go.
The passwords that I use for the most part are secure. A great idea that several in the class have used is the idea of a password keeper. There are probable dozens of different web accounts I have and remembering all of the usernames and passwords is a bit of a nightmare. I try not to write them down but must confess that I do have some of them written on post-its in my desk drawer at work. Probably not the greatest idea in the world. I do intend to research some of the password keeper programs and use it.
After the first class of this master's program I downloaded dropbox and have been using it. This has given me a much better feeling of security and makes my files more accessible, to go along with backing them up on the cloud.
For the most part I am pretty good at avoiding suspicious emails and files and my email accounts do a good job blocking out junk mail. To go along with my anti-virus software it seems that my computer has a good degree of safety from malicious files.
Creating my personal security plan will be a good reflective and planning tool that I hope will allow me to discover some of my weaknesses and keep my computer and data safe. If anyone has any good programs or ideas to help, feel free to share...
I spent a lot of time thinking about my computer safety after Thursday's class as well. I realized that I have done a very poor job at keeping myself safe because nothing has happened to me yet. Instead, my philosphy should be, "How am I going to prevent a problem?", instead of "What am I going to do once a problem happens?" I also Am looking at creating a more timely schedule for changing my passwords and creating more secure passwords. I hate it when I forget a password and have to go through the hassle of sending an alert, then having to redo it within the account, all while still making sure that I will remember it later on. I liked her example of how to create a tough password by using a simple phrase.
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