Computer security is a broad and complex topic. In this post, we’ll cover a few basic practices that small businesses can easily implement, often at little to no cost, to improve their computer security and maintain good security hygiene.
Two accounts on your computer
Create two accounts on your computer. One that has administrative privileges and another with local (non-admin) privileges. Use the computer with the non-admin account for daily use. When you you need to install anything or do something that needs administrative privileges, a popup will appear (in most Operating Systems) asking you for the credentials to the administrative account. Benefits of using non-admin accounts are:
- minimize risks from malware, ransom attacks etc. because they need administrative privileges to run.
- reduce accidental changes because you’ll be asked for administrative privileges and that’ll alert you.
- prevents installation of software that you’ve not authorized or don’t know of.
Password manager
Don’t ever write passwords in excel sheets, on paper or leave them around your desk. (We’ve seen it all the time, we continue to see them.) We’ve written in detail what to do here.
Multi-factor authentication
For everything that requires a username and password, use two factor authentication. Prasna IT recommends 2FAS. It works on any browser and on your phone. If your phone is lost, you can recover the tokens from a new phone when you set it up with the old iCloud(iOS devices) or Google account (Android devices).
While Traveling
When traveling and needing to conduct sensitive business in a public space, use your phone’s hotspot. It is safer than public Wi-Fi.
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