Our company focus is on business computers but we often get asked about home computers. It’s just as important to protect your home computers as it is to protect your business computers. Here are a few tips to help secure your home computers:

Use antivirus software – here is a good comparison of several different products in varying price ranges: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp.

Add an additional layer of security to protect against malware, and help protect devices like tablets and phones – Cisco Umbrella protects networks by examining DNS traffic (basically the address book of the internet) and blocking anything attempting to get to a compromised destination. It’s a bit more complex to implement than installing antivirus software, but it has the additional benefit of offering content filtering (block websites based on category such as adult content, nudity, or gambling). https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/

Don’t open emails you don’t recognize – you’ve heard it at work, but the same applies at home: don’t open emails you’re not expecting, don’t click on links in emails (especially purporting to be from your financial institutions), and don’t open attachments you’re not expecting. Having a good antivirus program, and adding OpenDNS, will help protect you in the event you accidentally open something malicious but it’s better to avoid it in the first place.

Don’t illegally download software/music/videos – everyone likes watching the latest movies, having the latest music, getting software for free, but it comes at a steep price: your machine will most likely become part of a botnet, meaning it is controlled by someone else and can be used to carry out attacks on other internet-connected entities.

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