Ten low-cost and effective ways to be secure at work

1. Change your password frequently and don’t share it.

2. Clean your desk before you leave.

3. Lock your computer, when you leave your desk.

4. Use a screen saver with a password.

5. Shred all documents with personal information.

6. Do not give personal information over the phone or in an e-mail.

7. Do not open e-mails that you were not expecting, with or without attachments.

8. Don’t use your work laptop as a ‘family’ computer.

9. Don’t allow automatic downloads from websites.

10. Back-up your work.

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Thinking Proactively about Security

Security starts with being proactive or reactive.  Proactive security, which is before an incident occurs, appears to be more time-consuming and costlier than reactive measure (waiting to after an incident occurs).  However, you never recover to your ‘normal’ operation state after an ‘incident’.  You either come close or create a new ‘normal’ operation state.  However, by following the 10 low-cost and effective ways to be more secure at work, you can avoid some incidents and help you keep your ‘normal’ operation state intact.

1. Change your password frequently and don’t share it.

Using a password is one of the most effective and low cost security measures that you implement.  Even if you are the only person using your PC or laptop, you should always protect your information with a screensaver and a sign-on password.  However, passwords are only effective, if they are secret.  Don’t post your password in the open.  If you cannot remember your password then put it in a locked drawer, so that you can find it if you need it.  Better yet, use one of my password creation hints.  It is a free download and it gives you suggestion for creating effective passwords that you should be able to remember.

Free password savers

 Password Tracker Deluxe (Windows) http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10004985.html

Password Master (Macintosh) http://www.download.com/3000-2271-10197942.html?tag=lst-0-12

2. Clean your desk before you leave.

When you leave your desk, you do not know who has stopped by looking for “something.”  You may not be aware that most fraud and security issues are caused by employees.  In addition, many companies do not perform background checks on their employees or the maintenance crew.  By leaving documents, letters and forms with your client’s personal information on your desk, you may be opening up the your company to liabilities and you may be held responsible because you did not take ‘due diligence’ in protecting your customer’s information.  Make sure that all documents with personal information are locked in a drawer with not in use.  Shred documents that are not needed anymore.  Better yet, lock all of your papers away in a drawer and only bring out what you need to work on that day.

3. Lock your computer, when you leave your desk.

“I was only gone 10 seconds” is a common phase that is used when someone finds out that someone has gotten into the system by using their computer while they were away from their desk.  When you leave your desk, you should get in the habit of locking your computer’s screen.  Usually it only requires a CTRL+ALT+Delete to go the lock screen button.  This simple security technique will stop others from using your computer or viewing your files when you are not at your desk.  But, you say that you have a screen saver.  It is not effective, if it takes longer than 10 seconds to come on.  Most screen savers are set to come on, usually in 5 – 10 minutes of idle time, which is plenty of time to access your system.  One company got their employees to comply with locking their computers by sending a “heated” e-mail from the employees’ e-mail to their boss, while they were away from their desk.  The employees quickly learned how to lock their computers when they left their desk.  In addition, if possible lock your computer if you have to leave for a fire drill, etc.

4.  Use a screen saver with a password.

If you forget to lock you desk then your screen saver will be your next line of defense.  You should always use a screen saver that has a password.  Using a password is one of the most effective and low cost security measures that you implement.  Even if you are the only person using your PC or laptop, you should always protect your information with a screensaver and a sign-on password.  However, passwords are only effective, if they are secret.  Don’t post your password in the open.  If you cannot remember your password then put it in a locked drawer, so that you can find it if you need it.  Better yet, use one of my password creation hints.  It is a free download and it gives you suggestion for creating effective passwords that you should be able to remember.  

5.       Shred all documents with personal information.

Most people are aware of the Microsoft patches that may be downloaded each month.  However, most of your software applications may have security and other patches or updates that may be needed for added security.  Make a list of all of your programs and visit their websites.  Usually, the websites are located in the ‘about’ the application pull-down, in the opened application or you can use a search engine, such as Dogpile, IWON or Yahoo to find the companies website.  If you store the application name and website link in a table or Excel spreadsheet, then you can re-use the spreadsheet to look for updates.  Schedule a day once every month to check for downloads.  If you have the spreadsheet, you can just go down the list each month.  Update the sheet with new applications, as needed.

6.  Do not give personal information over the phone or in emails.

This tip should not have to be stated.  However, there are still people that give social security numbers, names, addresses, and banking and credit card information in an e-mail or over the telephone.  Number 1, if an e-mail or a person asks you to send personal information through an e-mail and you are certain of the source of the email (not Spam or fraudulent), ask if it can be faxed instead or sent encrypted or sent in pieces.  In addition, always make a note of what your supplied, the date and time, and the name of the person to whom you supplied the information.  It will help to trace leaks of information in the future, if needed.

7.  Do not open e-mails that you were not expecting, with or without attachments.

The attackers of your system are ‘bots’, viruses, worms, spammers, phishers, spyware and adware.  Just by opening an e-mail, you may be allowing someone to compromise your system.  Rule #1, if you do not know the sender of the e-mail and it has an attachment that you were not expecting, call the sender to find out if it is valid or do not open it.  If you must open it make sure to scan the attachment with a virus detector to make sure that it is virus free.  Be leary of any web site links that are in the e-mail.  They may direct you to phishing, spyware and adware sites. 

Virus Control

8. Don’t use your work laptop as a ‘family’ computer.

Some people let other members in the household use their work PCs and Laptops.  This is not a good practice.  Links to porn and other sites may be put on your machine.  In addition, the data may become corrupted because ‘bots’, viruses, etc. have been downloaded into the machine.  In addition, you PC may become unusable, if it is used for ‘gaming’.  Some of them have slowed the hard drive to a completed stop.  Moreover, some of your customer’s information may be stored on your system and may get into the wrong hands.  Keep your work PC strictly for work and it will save you some headaches.

9.  Don’t allow automatic downloads from websites.

The new attackers of your system are spyware and adware.  However, most people invite it unknowingly.  When you download software or visits some web-sites, you may download other applications such as ‘bots’, spyware or adware.  The clues for adware are usually the application opens with different advertisements on it or the download states that they will be downloading ads.  Spyware does not usually have many visible clues.  There may be usual activity at certain times on your system or it may run slower.  If you think that your system is infected and you are on a network then contact the network administrator or help with removing it.  If you are responsible for maintaining your computer then there are shareware, freeware and low-cost adware and freeware removers that you can use.  In addition, some ISPs offer free spyware and/or adware blockers to help stop them from being loaded in the first place.  If possible, view the website from which the adware originated.  You may find that you want to keep it in which case some removers will let you exclude it from future scans.  Some firewalls such as Checkpoint will notify you when an application is trying to communicate through the firewall, which is good for finding adware and spyware.

10. Back-up your work. 

Remember to back up your important files and documents regularly with encryption if possible.  Now, days most larger companies have a separate drive set up for backups in which the employee can back up their own files.  However, there is not always enough room.  If possible, zip the files so that you can get more of them on the drive.  Also, remember to back up your e-mail profile, personal e-mail and archive files, and other files that you may need to make it easy to set your system back to the way that it was before your system went down.  The network usually only backs up, what is on the network and its mail servers.  If it is on your personal computer, then it may not be backed-up.