Well, not really tricks, stupid behaviors.
1.) Fiddle around never planning for the inevitable… crash. It doesn’t matter how good your hardware or software is, one day, right in the middle of an absolutely essential piece of work, your hard drive will fail, your OS will become irretrieveably scrambled, heck, your house will biurn down and your will be data lost forever IF you are among the nearly universal set of casual users who don’t have a backup and disaster recovery plan. Count on it.
2.) Use a computer “bare naked”. No, I’m not talking about the user. I’m talking about the computer. Plug the thing directly into a wall socket and you’re just asking for trouble. Almost as bad (and in some ways worse)? Use an under-rated faux surge suppressor. If it won’t suppress a bare minimum 1,000 joules (and that is a minimum) don’t plug into it. If it’s older than a year, well, it’s probably nearly as bad as not having one at all (surge suppressors wear out over time). All it takes is one good spike (or many small spikes spread out over time) and your MOBO is toast.
3.) Surf “naked”. Yeh, no firewall. Even the crappy Windows firewall is better than nothing. A software firewall is absolutely essential nowadays. Most Linux distros come with pretty good firewall rules ready to activate, and there are several free Windows environment firewalls available (my current fav is Comodo. Very good. BTW, if you are still using Windows 98 or *shudder* Windows “Muppet Edition”–Me–install Sygate Personal Firewall–link is to an ftp download)
4.) Really dumb (and irresponsible and completely shameless, no matter what OS is in the box): no antivirus software. Even if you don’t get infected, taking a chance of unwittingly forwarding an infected email is dumb.
5.) Even dumber? NOT UPDATING one’s anti-virus. And not USING it to MANUALLY scan downloaded files. Emperor. New clothes. Get it?
6.) Ditto anti-spyware.
7.) Cheesy passwords. Your birthdate, child’s name, pet’s name, whatever. Dumb, real dumb. Worse still? I simply cannot count the number of computers I’ve seen with passwords stuck on monitors with sticky notes. *sigh* Hello! Put a sign on your house: “It’s locked, but the key’s in the door.” Choose passwords that are based on phrases, preferably from unique incidents in your life. Mix ’em up with misspelled words using uncials, capitals, numbers and symbols. “eyEdreenkgr33nt3@” is better than “password” *duh*.
8.) Sharing is for losers. Data and security losers, that is. If you must have file and printer sharing on on your home network, at least share ONLY specific, password-protected folders! And for heaven’s sake, TURN OFF FILE AND PRINT SHARING WHEN USING A WI-FI HOTSPOT!!!
9.) And while I’m on the topic of wireless… Heck, even responsible people can be tempted to sniff your network if you leave your fly down. *heh* At least use WPA-PSK on your wireless network. WPA2 (AES) is better. Current crops of router/firewalls are easily-configured for pretty darned secure wi-fi, but it seems most people never enable even basic WEP (*yech!*) “security” and for that matter never change the default password on their routers! (most common: UN:admin; PW: password *sigh*).
10.) Willy-nilly install and uninstall any old downloaded software–betas, warez, cracks, whatever. Asking for trouble. No, begging. Windows users, make a Restore point before installing new software. For that matter, determine FIRST if you NEED that shiny new toy, do some research–reviews in mainstream computer mags are one place–and MANUALLY SCAN the downloaded file with an UP-TO-DATE anti-virus BEFORE installing it.
11.) Oh, here’s a really dumb trick: clicking on any and every link in an email. Anyone say, “Viruses, Trojans and Worms, oh my!”? Or how about phishing? Great. Infect yourself (and pass it on) and offer yourself up for identity theft, if you will. CLICK NOT unless you have a VERY GOOD IDEA where that CLICK will lead you.
12.) Opening any old attachment in an email. The classic “Infect me please!” Dumb. The rules are: Do not open unexpected attachments, SCAN expected attachments separately, MANUALLY with an up-to-date anti-virus software.
13.) And the “unluckiest of all” dumb computer trick? Listening to Cousin “Eye R a compewter goo-roo” Clem. No, he does NOT know what he’s talking about. Nod your head and keep his hands OFF your keyboard!
Tacked to the board at the Thursday Thirteen Hub and Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Planck’s Constant, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Thoughts, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
