8 Good Digital Security Practices for Virus Protection by Antivirus Software

What would originally be a presentation for a workshop became a post, the 8 good practices on digital security for all audiences:

1. Use and update Antivirus

In general, one of the biggest fears of digital users is being the victim of a computer virus, but in response to this fear, few users have an antivirus installed and updated. Having an antivirus and not updating it is having a door and not closing it. That is, an antivirus to protect you depends on being updated in its databases on new viruses. Here are a couple of reliable and free antivirus that you can download (Yes also Mac users need an antivirus, they don't have super powers).

· AVG

·Protegent 360 Antivirus Software

·Avast (Windows and Mac)

2. Strong passwords

Passwords became our main defense barrier against a digital intruder, let's think about it for a moment; Before starting to talk about servers and large internet security systems, the first thing that exists in this chain of services is our password for emails or social networks.

3 tips to follow to have a secure password

·Use a password with more than 8 characters in length.

·Combine the phrase using capital letters and numbers.

·Try to change your passwords on a regular basis.

And finally and essential do not share or publish your passwords anywhere.

3. Log out of all the devices you use.

It does not matter if it is a phone, a laptop or a rented device, after using email or a social network, try to close the session you opened. Many times we leave our computers unattended and we can be the victims of some joke or worse, information theft.

4. Use https in your connections

The HTTPS service is a secure communication protocol between computers that means that not all the information that travels over the internet travels safely and can be seen by others, that includes your passwords. One way to understand how https works is with the following graphic, in the first case the information can be read by everything, in the second example it is the same search but nothing can be understood.

5. Put lock code to devices

It does not matter if it is a desktop, laptop or cell phone of any type, we must enable the code lock option to protect our information from some data "thief". If you do not know how to do it, we will share some tricks for all operating systems.

·Windows

·Mac

·Android

6. Backup information from your devices

It might seem basic but it is common to hear stories of people who lost all their information due to a failure of some component of their equipment. Most people do not take it as an important activity, but in a moment of failure or breakdown they will know its importance. A backup does not have to be complex; it really must meet some basic rules:

·It should be as up to date as possible, preferably no more than a month

·You must back up the most valuable or indispensable thing that you consider within your files.

·A backup is a copy of information; therefore it is not for daily reference use.

·Keep the storage device in a safe place from theft or mishaps (water, variable temperatures, drops or misuse)

Now let's talk about social media and some good habits.

7. Accept and share only with those people you know

It is very common to find users of all kinds of tastes, interests or activities throughout social networks, but really, what do we know about people on social networks? In other words, in social networks we share all kinds of information but we must be careful who can access it; a good practice is to keep our profiles private and accept those people we know.

8.  Periodically check the applications linked to your accounts

Many of us use our network profiles to access different internet services, or we register them on some pages to be able to share our interests with other people. All applications that have permission from us or that we link at some point can publish content on our behalf regardless of the registration date. In other words, our profile can use them to send messages to other users of the same social network. To avoid this or to control the applications that we have registered, we can periodically review our profiles to do so; here you can see a video for Facebook.