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Information Security – Protection Begins at HomeBy Alan Brill, Senior Managing Director, Kroll, The Risk Consulting Company With more and more of us taking highly confidential work home to process either on a laptop or a home computer, it has become vital to consider whether you are adequately protecting that information. Here are some ways to handle confidential work papers and computer files that will frustrate hackers, crackers, and cyber-spies. Use Protective Programs Using a combination of readily available programs, often sold as a bundle, you can minimize your risk of becoming a victim of online crime. Here are some of the most important:
By “good” we mean one that produces confetti, not long strips of paper. The problem with strip shredders is that the documents can be reconstructed, and the basket fills up very quickly. With a crosscut shredder, the capacity of the basket is greater, and the ability to reconstruct is greatly reduced. By the way, since many municipalities require recycling of paper, it makes it easier for someone to grab your waste paper without having to sort it from your other garbage. Not only should you be shredding confidential drafts and other work-related material, but in light of identity theft, consider shredding things like credit card solicitations and similar materials. Be Careful What You Email Confidential files sent by standard email can be intercepted. Also remember that copies are easy to make. You may want to consider ways to send confidential material that are more secure than standard email. For example, file compression programs give you the option of creating a password- protected file in the form called a self-extracting archive. You tell the software the files you want to send, and it converts them into a password-protected .Zip file that you send as an attachment to a regular email. When the recipient gets the attachment, they unzip it, and are asked to put in a password. You give them the password independent of the email (e.g. face-to-face, by phone, fax, or some other means). They enter the password, and the files are decrypted, expanded to full size, and placed wherever the recipient wants to store them. Don't Download Content You Aren't Certain Is Safe Aside from viruses, you could find yourself with software that does things you don't know about, like reporting to an outsider what you are doing, or transferring files, or something else you wouldn't approve of. Use Passwords that Are Hard to Guess Don't use names of family members, birthdays, or the names of your pets. In fact, you should avoid any word that is in the dictionary (since hackers use dictionary files to break into systems). The best passwords don't have to be hard to remember, just hard to guess. For example, if you want to use the name of Yosemite national park as your password, it is a lot harder for a hacker to come up with y0sem1te (substituting the numbers for the letters o and i) than Yosemite. A substantial percentage of penetrations of online and corporate databases can be traced to bad passwords. Did You Know You Can Change Your PC Branch Password? Although PC Branch has extensive security features that have never been broken, you can go one better yourself. By going to User Options and choosing to change your password, you can select your own password in any alpha and numeric combination up to 16 characters. You can even update it on a regular basis. Back Up Important Information If something goes very wrong with your computer – through a virus destroying your files, a hacker running a malicious program, or a hardware failure – could you recover your files and programs? It is not difficult to use backup software to create a recovery copy on something as simple as a CD burner. But remember this: If you make backup copies, you have to protect them. Stealing or copying a backup disk or tape is as good as grabbing the computer. Safeguard them, and when you no longer need them, destroy them (physically break the CDs). Be Careful with Your Old Computer When the time comes to get a new computer and retire an old one, remember that the hard drive on the old machine can contain a lot of very confidential data. Even reformatting the disk does not necessarily remove that information. The best way to get rid of it is with a shredder program (some of which are available at no cost). © Kroll, Inc. Used with permission. |
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| Digital Federal Credit Union PO Box 9130 Marlborough, MA 01752-9130 508.263.6700 • 800.328.8797 • dcu.org • dcu@dcu.org TTY 800.395.5146 (For hearing impaired only) Have you had a good experience with DCU that you want to share with others? Send us an email at dcu@dcu.org or mail it to: DCU Attn: Marketing Dept. PO Box 9130 Marlborough, MA 01752-9130 |
For direct deposit: routing and transit # ABA 211391825 Editor: James Paquette To apply for a Home Equity Loan, Consumer Loan, or Mortgage anytime, call 508.263.6700 or 800.328.8797 (select 3) or visit dcu.org. For a complete listing of DCU's rates, visit our web site at dcu.org or stop by your nearest DCU branch.  Images may be from one or more of these sources: ©Thinkstock, ©iStock, ©Fotolia. ©2010 Digital Federal Credit Union. |