Your PC - Personal Security & Safeguards

Security Maintenance

When you buy a new vehicle—whether it's the car of your dreams, a new bike, or a boat—you know you're going to have to maintain it. The oil needs to be changed, the air filter replaced, the tires rotated—all on a regular schedule—so you can trust your vehicle will be available when you need it to get you safely where you want to go. Keeping your computer updated to help protect your privacy is much the same; it involves ongoing maintenance, not a "one shot" fix.

Getting the "Help Protect Security" Habit

By spending a few minutes every week you can create new habits that help protect your security. Do these things now:

• Register your software products, to receive product alerts.
• Sign up to receive automatic updates and notifications.
• Schedule tasks to run automatically (such as virus scans, update notifications, system maintenance).
• Use a reminder system that works for you, so you can manage maintenance on an annual schedule.

Checklist for Security Maintenance

Remember, no oil filter lasts a lifetime. Put yourself on a schedule for weekly, monthly, and bi-annual check ups.

As needed

Sign up to receive notices and alerts when patches are available from all your software publishers.

• Register new software. Software publishers can keep you informed about patches and updates. You can opt-in or opt-out of other services they offer.
• Sign up for free Microsoft® Windows® Critical Update Notifications. Visit Windows Update.
• Subscribe to free Microsoft product security bulletins. If you're an experienced computer user and wish to receive bulletins about the security of Microsoft products, subscribe to the free Microsoft Security Notification Service.
• Install software updates immediately.

Once a week

Related Resources 7 Steps to Safer Computing Maintain Security with Windows XP

Automate Your Maintenance Tasks Computers are good at this! For example, if you're using Windows XP or Windows Me, you will receive automatic alerts about updates needed to help maintain security and improve operation; and if you use Windows 2000, sign up to receive Critical Update Notifications. Contact your software vendors to see what automated services they provide.

Decide on a day to do these tasks:

• Back up your files and store them away from your computer. Frequent backups just make good sense. It's your protection against accidentally erasing information or a hardware failure, as well as from damage by hackers and their "malware."

The more virulent types of attacks damage or infect your hard drive and you can lose valuable personal information. By backing up your data weekly you can help protect your important files, computer settings, and irreplaceable digital media such as photos of loved ones or special events.

Consider investing in separate storage media, such as portable external drive hardware and/or a CD burner, to store valuable digital content and take these steps:

• Do make sure you have a recent backup before installing new software programs or updates.
• Do rotate at least a couple of storage disks, to mitigate the risk of one disk becoming damaged or infected. Add the backup date to the label.
• Do verify that you can read the back-up disk, before considering this task complete.
• Do store your back up disks away from your computer. If content is irreplaceable, consider a fireproof box or a safe deposit box.

For information on storage hardware and supplies designed for Microsoft Windows, check out the Windows Catalog.

• Let your antivirus software scan your files. Schedule your antivirus software to conduct weekly scans. It can scan data files, executable files, and system files in any combination. If an infection is found, the antivirus software will repair or quarantine specific files. Contact your antivirus vendor's Web site for further clean-up instructions.
• Check for software and antivirus signature updates. For those software programs for which you are not receiving automatic updates or notifications, check the software publishers' Web sites.

Twice a year

Spring cleaning, fall cleaning—add "computer cleaning" to your list:

• Change your passwords. Keeping the same passwords increases the likelihood that someone else will discover your password.
• Verify that your antivirus subscription is current. Treat it like car insurance. Don't let it lapse.
• Reassess your situation. Your security and privacy needs might have changed due to who's using your computer, how it's being used, or new threats in the Internet ecosystem.

Remembering to Remember

There are a few additional steps you can take that can help you remember to follow up and perform these tasks:

• Add this Web page to your Favorites. Right click on the screen and save it as a Favorite for easy reference.
• Save this document to a file and print. This low-tech yet effective technique works well for many people. Just print it and post in a prominent place near your computer. Note: Add the dates you want to perform the tasks before you print it.
• Link this page as a shortcut to your desktop. This is effective if you use your desktop to keep yourself organized and remind you of things you need to do. Simply right click and create a shortcut.
• Use the Microsoft Outlook® Task function to remind yourself. If you use Outlook regularly for your scheduling, this is an ideal way to personalize the suggested maintenance checklist. Select and record convenient dates for performing the weekly, monthly and semi-annual tasks.

Experts tell us the most important part of developing positive habits is reminding ourselves to do new tasks until they become routine.