The most important thing to protect your devices, computer systems and information from hackers is secure PC software. Hackers (also called cybercriminals) break into your device or computer for a variety of reasons, such as taking, altering, and deleting information you consider important. Hackers have malicious motives unlike other thieves who use stolen goods for legitimate purposes. They are most interested in gaining access to your sensitive information, usually before you know something has gone wrong.
The three main steps to secure your computer software include passwords, firewalls and virus protection. If you adhere to these best practices, it’s less likely that your computer will be compromised by hackers or malware (software that encrypts data and demands payment for its unlocking).
Change the name of the administrator account. Choose a strong password containing upper and lowercase letters numerals, numbers and computer symbols. Avoid using a password with a shorter length such as 1234 because hackers are able to use automated tools to break passwords that are easy to guess within minutes. secure pc software
Update your operating system and other programs. Most software updates include security fixes to help protect against hacking. Install all patches and turn on automatic updates if there are any, to limit your vulnerability to hackers.
If you own a laptop or any other portable device that’s not being used, ensure that the drive is protected. This is especially crucial for UF Students. You can enable encryption in Windows by opening Settings > Update and security > Device encryption. This will encrypt the entire internal drive, as well as the majority of external drives, such as SD cards.
