10 Security Awareness Tips in Computer and  Internet Use 

 

1. Use of Password: Password of Computer and Internet is like Lock & Key of your house. It is a major defense for computer and internet security. Good password practice will help in keeping personal & your organizational information more secure.
   1. Use of Strong Password-
      • Use a strong password to protect your data: use at least eight characters; combine letters (capital and lowercase), numbers and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess. Don’t use personal information — name, child’s name, birthdates, etc. — that someone might already know or easily obtain and try to avoid common words: some hackers use programs that try every word in the dictionary.
      • Disable Auto complete/Password storage in-browser.
         
   2. Change your Password at Some Regular Intervals-
      • ​Changing your password at some reasonable interval will enhance the security of your password.
         
   3. Keep your Password Secret-
      • Your password should not be shared with anybody. Try to keep your passwords to memory with a strategy to memorize them. If you write password anywhere, be careful as to where you are storing it. Such recording should be secret and secured so that only you can access to it.
         
   4. Use Different Passwords-
      • As per as possible, use different passwords for each online account you access (or at least a variety of passwords). If you use the same passwords on multiple accounts, an attacker who gains the access to one account will be able to access all of your accounts.
         
2. Secure your Computer: Lock your computer when you leave your desk for a meeting, a break or any other purpose. Utmost care and observation should be kept   when you at all allow other people to plug their USB drive into your computer.
    
3. Don't install or use illegal and/or unauthorized software: Installing and using unauthorized software means compromising your data security and increase security vulnerabilities.
    
4. Use e-mail and Internet with Care:
   1. Don’t open unknown e-mails and attachments.
   2. Don’t click on any hyperlinks contained in a suspicious email.
   3. Share documents in PDF format to ensure that the files cannot easily be changed.
   4. Do not share information about your organization and duties on social networking sites.
   5. Don’t download documents and material from untrusted parties.
   6. Do not access, download, store or send any illegal or offensive material.
       
5. Use of Portable Devices:
   1. Laptops-
      • Use legal and authorized software.
      • Switch off wireless connection when not required.
      • Back up the information stored in your laptop.
      • Lock your laptop when you leave your desk to go for a meeting, a break and/or lunch.
      • Don’t leave your laptop unattended.
      • Don’t leave your laptop on view in the car.
         
   2. USB Drives-
      • Use an encrypted USB drive.
      • Scan USB flash drive after copying files from to avoid virus transmission.
         
   3. Mobile phones and Black Berrys-
      • Switch off wireless connections (i.e. Bluetooth and WLAN) when not in use.
      • Don’t leave your mobile and Black Berrys unattended.
         
6. Handle Information with Care:
   1. Protect sensitive content with a password to help prevent someone from changing or deleting it.
   2. Don’t leave sensitive information in shared conference facilities or meeting room.
   3. Remember to collect all the printed documents from the printers' output-tray.
       
7. Visitors:
   1. Take utmost pre-caution so that sensitive information from your table or computer are not disclosed to the inside or outside visitors.
       
8. Use Personal Firewall Softwares: Any program on your computer that tries to access the Internet will be stopped by the firewall until you either approve it or disapprove it. Most programs today will at one time or another access the Web to look for updates for itself. After a bit of time, these interruptions do not occur nearly as often. As a tip, if you are warned that a program is trying to access the Web and you are not sure what the program is, you can Google the name of the file that is in question. Chances are very good that there is a website out there that will tell you what it is and if it can be considered safe.
    
9. Follow your Corporate Policies and Legal Requirements:
   1. Follow your corporate / office policies relating to computer and internet use.
   2. Comply with legal requirements related to copyright restrictions, intellectual property, privacy and software licenses.
       
10. Others:
    1. Install authentic and updated antivirus application.
    2. Remember that antivirus definition files are kept up to date.
    3. Regular scans are being run on your system.
    4. Backup your important data and files regularly. 
    5. Do not allow unknown individuals or third parties to access your computer at any time.
    6. Don't send personal or financial information over unsecure websites.
    7. When using a public computer, remember to log out your internet sessions and close the browser and clear your browser cache.
    8. Increase caution when using social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter etc.
    9. Do not click on links or open email attachments from unknown sources.
    10. Don't install programs coming from unknown sources.
    11. Do not visit sites which you don't know or which have a bad reputation.