[Full guide]Protect your computer from security threat risks-10 Best Steps

In this era, computers or laptops are become an essential need on a daily basis to work, to store your important working/personal data on our computer or laptop, spend many hours doing different projects on it and stored important documents in our system but Is your data is safe on your computer or laptop? What if all your data get leaked or if anyone is watching on your files? There are countless ways through which hackers try to harm their victims

You know nowadays Security is a myth, so you have to protect your system by yourself. In this article, you are going to see all the best ways to protect your computer/laptop data from any type of threat and to keep it secure. To keep your computer/laptop safe and secured from security threats depend on many factors. Microsoft always works hard to make their users safe but still hackers able to find vulnerabilities in Windows to exploit them. Window 10 is the most secured window comes with a lot of safety features till now.

How to Secure your Computer from Threats?

It takes only a few minutes to follow the below steps and keep your computer/laptop secure.

1. Keep your system and its softwares always updated

Updating your software is always good for your system, it adds not only extra features, changes interfaces but also fixes security holes present on it. Every time when there is an update that means software providing company found some vulnerability which gives hackers a chance to compromise a program or a complete system.

Not only software you have to keep the entire system up-to-date(operating system). Sometimes companies offer pre-release versions to try it but they are not stable so, avoid them until the stable version gets launched.

Stay away from fake updates which are delivered by hackers, you get it from third-party websites or forums. Who makes you enter your precious credentials and use them against you. If software update notification looks suspicious and comes from unknown ads, then avoid it and google it about that software update to stay away from any scam/threat.

2. Protect your system by enabling a firewall

Firewalls act as a barrier between your computer/laptop and the internet by monitoring the traffic coming in and out. The firewall works by closing ports that are used for communication with devices because Hackers can exploit these ports by sending payloads to these ports and making communication with your system and using it for illegal purposes.

The firewall allows only trusted software to use these ports and even asked you before opening any port which is going to be used by any other software. Windows XP, 10, and other OS come with a built-in firewall.

If you’re using Windows operating system with a built-in firewall feature, then go to Control panel> system and security>Windows defender firewall and see its status of window firewall. If you don’t have a firewall in your Operating System then a free third-party option is also present in which you can download these software, Comodo, ZoneAlarm, and Tinywall are excellent software for firewall tasks.

Some antivirus also comes with a built-in firewall. Well, the firewall comes with software and hardware form, hardware firewalls come with homes routers or you can buy hardware firewalls separately.

3. Adjust your browser settings

Browsers have security and privacy settings to browse over the internet safely. This can help you by lowering the risk of getting an attack on your device, maintaining security by blocking cookies that tell the website all about your activities. It takes only a few seconds to go into your browser settings and make the necessary adjustments. You can also add extensions to your browser to make it more secure.

Before using any browser make sure they are secured, not like Brave browser in which it leaked users real IP address in Tor Window which is especially to make you safe but it’s not actually making you safe.

If you want a private browser then Tor browser, Comodo Dragon, Epic Privacy Browser is good to choose from. While for daily uses Chrome or Firefox is good.

4. Install Antivirus and anti-spyware software

Any system that is connected to the internet is vulnerable to get viruses, malware, ransomware, and trojan attacks. Different antivirus works in a unique form, free version come with limited features and before using their paid versions you have to choose which one is really working well as they are promising.

Spyware is malware that presents on your system as normal software but actually gathers your information and sends it to another party. Spyware is categorized as adware, trojans, and keyloggers that cause serious threats to your system. Many antiviruses come with anti-spyware built-in features.

If you found spyware on your system, then you can easily able to remove it with free and paid options.

5. Protect your system and software with passwords

There is not always an online threat for your system but sometimes there is a physical threat so it is good to set a strong password for login in your system, make a strong startup password, set a strong BIOS password also. Make strong passwords don’t add your DOB, mobile number to your password.

Change the password of your online accounts after some period because I have seen a lot of cracked accounts in which other people use them because the owner of that account never finds out that someone is using their premium account.

6. Encrypt your data

Definitely, your computer has your important files, photos, and videos that you don’t want to share with anyone else and don’t want them to fall into the wrong hands. The best way to make your system files purely safe is by encrypting them.

If your system gets hacked or stolen, then hackers or thieves can easily able to access your drives and take your data but the encryption of your system makes it almost impossible for anyone to get access to your drives.

There are plenty of tools that help you by encrypting things like online traffic and accounts, files in your system. Some popular tools are VeraCrypt, Bitlocker. You can also find tools to encrypt your mobile device data as well.

7. Use a VPN

Virtual Private Network(VPN) is an excellent way to make yourself secure over the internet. When you use a VPN it encrypts your internet traffic and changes your geographical location to make you secure on the Internet surface. Mask your original IP address and replace it with a new fake one which makes your ISP(internet service provider) no longer monitor your activities.

VPN is highly recommended if you are using public WI-FI networks. Public Wifi can be set up by hackers who can easily spy on your activities and easy to make your system vulnerable. VPN helps you in these cases by encrypting your data, and traffic.

Also Read: How to safely use Public Wi-Fi 2023

Many antiviruses come with VPN protection features in their premium plans like Norton, Avast, etc.

8. Beware of Spoofing and Phishing

There are many ways that hackers adopt to make contact with their victim systems and try to steal their information. They attract their victims with different social engineering methods, like by telling them that this software makes your system performance speed up, Earn $xx per day, etc. Never click on these types of suspicious offers links, don’t download this software, don’t register on suspicious sites, don’t open emails from untrusted users that maybe contain trojans, virus, worms, etc. which affect your system.

9. Always research and double-check your downloads

Many times hackers put virus, trojans, malware in Zip files which is not identified by antivirus because of in compress format, so you should take some caution before accessing any content or unzipping any download file.

Some steps you can take are:

• Do a quick google search of how big your file should be in size
• Look through the content of a zipped file before extracting it
• Use VirusTotal for online checking inside zip files for viruses

Always use decent antivirus which actually makes your system safe.

10. Monitor your PC with task manger

If you think your computer/laptop is behaving strangely, then you have either malware or performance issues. To find out what is running in the background of your system, at this time Task Manager is the best place to find out this.

Task Manager can be accessed by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Check which program takes a lot of space, processing power search about that program more, and figure out that this is malware or bloatware on your CPU.

It’s always great to have knowledge of your computer process. Task Manager is always good to identify what software or process running in the background with which port and connections.

Now you know all steps on how to keep PC safe

Securing your system is not only done by using some software or tools, it mainly depends on your state of mind. Like in-home safety, you go outside of your home after locking doors, here also you have to get into the internet after taking essential precautions. Hackers mainly attack those who are unprepared and it is easy for them to get into their system just by doing social engineering or sending click baits links.

Accessing the Internet surface is not that bad until you download files from the internet without knowing anything and without taking precautions.

Note: For accessing Dark Web these above rules get changed.

You Should Do

Install Tracking Software: There are a lot of tools that track your system files when someone stole your system files, it alarms you, encrypts your files, locks the computer BIOS and stops a computer from running.

Backup your data: Most people don’t think about taking backup of their important files as a security strategy but when your computer gets infected or your whole disk gets locked by a strong password and hackers asked big money to give you unlock keys at that moment this backup plays an important role and it is very valuable.

Use secure browsers: Internet Explorer is the least secure browser, so TechDevilZone suggests you use Chrome or Firefox. If you want a more secured one, then the Tor browser is the best choice.

Also read: Windows Safest web browser of 2023

Uninstall the program you don’t need: If you have a lot of programs on your computer/laptop but don’t use them then there is a chance that you also don’t update them, which directly means you’re giving hackers an opportunity to do an attack on your system. You know every time there is any update that means the developer fixes some bugs, these bugs are sometimes also fixed in a way through which hackers make access.

Turn off Autorun and Autoplay: This feature is good until you know that your external devices are trustworthy, but what if you don’t know that external device is trustworthy or not, it may contain viruses, autoplay lead them to activate because Auto-play runs the software, files without scanning them by antivirus.

Use a good password on every account: This keeps people stay away from your system physically and also prevents outside intruders from accessing your system.

Unplug or cover your webcam: It is always good to cover your cams when it is not in use. For inbuilt cams use tape or sticky notes to cover your webcam. Even some laptop comes with this feature to cover their webcam, it’s easy to exploit webcams by hackers.

Reset your firewall: Many programs need internet access and need ports to work fine so you give permission to them, which lead to a lot of holes in your firewall so, reset your firewalls in a period of time to make sure hackers don’t use them to exploit it and can’t take access on your system.

Use additional anti-malware: Install Malwarebytes or Hitman Pro, in addition to antivirus. Malwarebytes is free unless you want real-time protection with the full version, you can buy it on affordable price plans.

Download these software to stay secured

Anti-Virus: To keep viruses, trojans away.

KeyScrambler: protect against keyloggers.

Unchecky: Download only legit files.

CCleaner: Clean your PC old temporary files that take much space and disable the program at startup.

These are enough precautions that are taken by experts as well, which come in contact with viruses on a daily basis.

At last, your behavior is your first line of defense. You are your computer’s biggest security feature, and be aware of security threats.

Conclusion

Above are some of the best ways to keep your system and network safe, if you are aware of the above points and follow all steps carefully then you can easily make your system even safer even when you surf on the dark web. Keep changing your all accounts password after some period, never store your important files on unsecured cloud services, use good antivirus, VPN, and encryption tools to keep safe and secure your computer from threats.

FAQs

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