Home Computer Talk

One of the major tools in the grab-bag of a hacker is what is known as Social Engineering. There are formal definitions but it is all about how people will, unless given a reason to be suspicious, be open and unsuspecting and can be led into giving away information.

In other words, hackers quite often and successfully walk into a building, posing as (say) an inspector or even a cleaner and find supposed-to-be secure information that allows them to access the company computers.

A part of this is knowing about people. There are sites that list the most common things people use for passwords. Network security can insist on a regular change of login password from users and prevent them from using the same one for a set number of times.

This seems like good security but in practice, people being people, the users simply write down the list of passwords and step through them each time they are asked to change.

But that’s in the office or work, where people are paid to make sure security is kept. Who does YOUR system administration?

If you’re like most of us, you simply don’t do it. The computer comes with a pre-set way to set it up and you follow it. Nobody steps you through setting it up to be secure and most computer owners have no idea about security.

In Are you Safe? Part 2 I mentioned about not seeing an Administrator account when you look in the User accounts. This means your computer has never logged in the Administrator.

So, you need to do this first, then set a password on the Administrator account. This is a major step in safeguarding your computer. Most basic Windows setups have the Administrator account password set to blank – and if you think hackers don’t know this, think again.

There are a lot of broadband and wireless home setups these days. It has become an extremely popular purchase as the prices have come down but it still bites into the family budget. To pay all that money & then have someone else get the benefit makes blood boil, but the good news is that learning a few simple steps can help protect your systems.

More in Part 4…