4 Windows Computer Security Tips
These 4 IT Security tips will help to make your computing life easier, faster, and more secure against all the malware, viruses, spyware, money grabbing corporations, dishonest ISP's, poisoned websites, marketing misinformation and most of the other nasty's that daily plague and pollute our internet cesspool.
This is neither a discussion about "why" these security tips are advised nor is this going to be an exposure of the methods employed by all the usual suspects (wolves in sheep's clothing) who contribute regularly to the demise of our internet's quality. Certainly all of that aforementioned information is easy to discover and readily available.
"Take what you need and leave the rest" once said a sage. We hope you find some IT security tips below that - immediately - help to improve the quality and security of your internet travels. We do not encourage weblog style discussions on this site for all the obvious reasons. However, if you have questions about implementing any of the good ideas below, on your own computer(s), then please Contact Us. We're glad to help improve the quality of our internet. One page at a time!
Home Sweet Home Page
Security Tip #1: Here's a great Home Page for you to consider. https://encrypted.google.com/ Using this as your Home Page, your encrypted search information can no longer be read by third parties - such as your ISP - who may try to access the connection between the searcher’s computer and Google’s servers.
To set this up on your internet browser(s) just search for "How to set up a home page in my internet browser" on the web. As an added bonus, look to the link all the way down at the bottom right of this new home page - and choose your own background image!
Mozilla's Firefox as a web browser
Security Tip #2: The spurious discussions that pervade the internet about which is the "best browser" are as time wasting as the discussions about "Ford vs. Chevy" or "Apple vs. PC". What a joke! Listen, it's all - well intended - and there's nothing right or wrong with using Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer - for their various strengths - as the mood or situation warrants. Having said that, if you only like to have 1 web browser on your computer then seriously consider Mozilla's Firefox. If you are "adventurous" enough to work with 2 or more web browsers then please make sure that Mozilla's Firefox is one of them.
To download and install Firefox as a web browser on your computer - if it's not already - then just do the requisite web search for "Mozilla Firefox".
Firefox Add-ons
Now that you have Firefox installed, it's time to take advantage of a couple of the security offerings - in the form of Add-ons - made available by the Firefox community.
What are Add-ons (you ask)? Add-ons are applications that let you personalize Firefox with extra functionality. The extra functionality that we recommend is going to increase your computer security and leave you far less vulnerable to malware, tracking, poisoned scripts and the many other - unsolicited - pitfalls of unprotected web browser use.
Better Privacy Add-on
Security Tip #3: The first Firefox add-on that we'd like to recommend is called "Better Privacy". To locate and install this hugely beneficial and objectively outstanding security applet then, go to your encrypted.google.com home page - in Firefox - and execute a web search for "download the better privacy add-on for firefox". The correct link will appear at the top of your search engine's result page and should look like the picture below.
Follow the link to the Better Privacy page at Mozilla, download the add-on and install to your Firefox web browser.
NoScript Add-on
Security Tip #4: Now that we know Firefox Add-ons are applications that let you personalize your Firefox web browser with extra functionality, let's install a second Firefox add-on that prevents virtually all "surprise attacks" from poisoned and malicious websites. We believe that this NoScript add-on ranks up in the top three security "must haves" for anybody using an internet connected device with web browsing capability. Onward!
As before, go to your favorite search engine (try http://duckduckgo/ if you don't want to be GoogleTracked!) and search for "download the noscript add-on for firefox web browser". From the picture below, take the top link, again, to the Mozilla Firefox Add-on site and download the NoScript Add-on for Firefox.
Once you have the NoScript Add-on downloaded, installed and operational in your Firefox web browser, websites and web pages will all be a little different! That is to say you won't be seeing as much litter and garbage as you did before!
This IT security add-on will take a little getting used to but the security benefits are - measurable. Your web surfing will be faster, your web pages will be "cleaner" and your security will be as good as "maximized for your protection". It just doesn't get any better than that!
