Five Security Issues Most People Do

Posted by Michael Koby

March 2, 2007

Every computer user is guilty of overlooking some method of being more secure. Even I take shortcuts sometimes. But this week we are going to look at five different security problems that most people practice.

5) Not Verifying Websites Before Entering Personal Information: A lot of people do not realize that phishers can make websites look very legit. I myself have fallen for a couple only to be seriously screwed over. Firefox and Internet Explorer now give huge, canâ€™t miss warnings about these websites. Just so everyone is aware, most websites these days are secured and you can check the validity of the secure connection by double clicking on the little lock icon in the status bar section of your web browser

4) Writing Passwords Down: It amazes me that in this day and age, even after numerous warnings, and countless lectures people still write their passwords down and then hide them in places that everyone checks first like under the keyboard or mouse pad. Folks, please stop writing your passwords down.

3) Giving Passwords Out to Unknown People: You would be surprised how many people still give their passwords out to random people who do nothing more than ask them for it. Even with huge warnings posted with in the chat window or in emails, people still willingly give people they do not know, their passwords.

2) Not Changing the Default Settings on Internet Routers: If you were to drive around in any subdivision, you could have your pick of wireless internet routers to use for random internet access. Want to download music, movies, or other questionable content? Simply drive through any major neighborhood and you can connect to a host of access points named “Linksys” and no one would be any wiser to it. Please, when you set up your wireless router, change the SSID and password for the router. Otherwise, you are just asking for trouble.

1) Using insecure Passwords: This is probably the biggest one. People like to pick passwords that are easy to remember, but because they are easy to remember, they are also easy to guess, hack, crack, or even just pick out of a hat. A more secure password is just as simple as replacing some letters with numbers. For example, Michael becomes M1c4@3L, or something similar. Also, using a password safe (like KeePass) can really help in this area.