If your computer is connected to the internet, or is shared between a few people, always imagine that there is a road that can connect others into your computer. Sometimes we put in a lot of information about who we are and what we It is not hard to be aware of a few things to protect your personal data on your computer.

First, think about who or what you're protecting it from. The answers could range from random virus attacks to spyware (basically an annoying programme that attaches itself into your computer without your permission and gets information from it) to people who have physical access to your machine. Then, you are able to take more specific steps to address these different kinds of potential vulnerability.

Protecting your data:

• Set up a guest account on your computer and let other people use your machine with that account. By doing this, you keep them away from your own files and data.

• Password protect directories, folders and files that contain sensitive information.
• How-to Password Protect Directories in Your Windows Machine:
  • You will need to set up a username and password.
  • Go to Control Panel.
  • Click User Accounts.
  • Click on the Account Name that you use.
  • Select Create a Password
  • Create your password. Remember to use a password that is not easy to crack. Try to avoid using English words or your birthday or the name of your boyfriend / girlfriend / pet / mother / father.
  • Once you've created a password for your user account, you can then password protect your directories.
  • Open your Windows Explorer
  • Right-click the file / directory that you want to protect.
  • Select Sharing and Security
  • Tick the option to Make this Folder Private
  • You can also install a firewall in your computer. This is basically a software or hardware system that allows or denies traffic to and from the internet based on a set of rules. Firewalls are useful to prevent unauthorized access into your computer. An example is Smoothwall.

Protecting your identity:

• Always be careful about giving out personal information (e.g. your name, home address, phone number etc) when using the internet.
• Only give them out if you are sure you need something from the requesting website.
• Websites generally have privacy agreements if they are asking for your details. Read them and find out how they are going to use the information about you, if they will share them with 3rd parties etc.
• Try to use an anonymous nickname or handle when you are chatting online. Don't give out your actual name unless you want phony emails or spam to look more genuine because they address you by your full name!
• Use proxy tools like Privoxy. This allows you to anonymously surf the web.
• Use encryption software like Pretty Good Privacy on your machine.

Protecting against computer viruses:

• Use an operating system other than Windows. All of the malicious computer virus out there are built for Windows machine. If you shift to another operating system (Linux, BSD, Mac OS), the most common computer virus will not be able to do anything with your machine.
• But if you choose to remain a Windows user, you must have a reliable anti-virus softare. One that regularly updates its libraries to be able to track the latest computer virus infecting the Internet. One such anti-virus software is AVG Antivirus.
• Make sure that your anti-virus software is regularly updated and that you schedule daily virus checks on your machine. (handy tip: schedule your anti-virus check up during your lunchbreak so it doesn't interrupt your work)
• Make sure that your anti-virus checks incoming email and downloads automatically.
• Never open email attachments unless you're absolutely sure that the file is not infected.
• Whenever you use a floppy disk, CD or thumb drive that's been used on a different machine, run your anti-virus software on it first to make sure that it's clean.
• Back up your data regularly. Make it a habit to do so at the very least, once a month.