Secure and Protect Your Valuable Laptop Files

Have you ever been a victim of internet fraud? How about identity theft on or off line? Since I have been targeted by the unscrupulous, more recent than I wish to admit, I'd like to suggest a few precautions, that you might consider using, for your own protection. Change your passwords often and don't use the same one at multiple accounts on different sites. It may be a convenience to you but you can keep a list somewhere in a safe place for remembering them. An offline location preferably but in a briefcase on your desktop, would work just fine.

Make a copy of all of your correspondences as well as contacts, in a safe place. Once you lose your opt-in list or a contact list of friends and business people, this can cause you a great deal of time and phone calls just to re-construct it. You might want to have a copy of them on a removable stick, of any of your contacts, in fact.

Any resume or genealogical files definitely need copies made and stored away. Time is precious and this definately represents many hours. The important files also includes your digital photo downloads, that you may not have copies of eleswhere. Backup your entire system on an external drive regularly. You never know when your computer will crash. Hard drives seem to burn out faster these days and the computer repairman costs big bucks. Time is money unless of course you enjoy re-loading software. If you misplace startup disks, new ones cost money and they aren't cheap. You still end up losing files that you didn't think you would need.

As you know, there are many scams online and lots of viruses. Have up to date virus protection on your computer. You never know when they will infect your files. If you open emails, make sure you know the person. Most of those viruses are in the emails that we open and unknowingly, there is a present for you that you didn't want. Some of them are not very innocent and can pull your personal information from your computer. Others just plant spyware that can monitor your activities online. I believe most of your spam emails are only from nice people who only want to sell you something. The small percentage that can cause you harm, you need to be very watchful of. The bad economy may increase this threat as times goes on.

Protecting your information and valuable files should be your priority. I know that I, for one, will be extra careful from now on. There are too many hackers and thieves, with too much time on their hands these days not to be on the defensive, while online. There is a wealth of wonderful information on the web but there are also harmful aspects, that can cause you much pain and despair, so be safe.

John Sprague is an American currently working in the mideast. He enjoys writing and working on his websites in his free time. He has a new site at http://www.marketingkindreds.com His website has photos of the mideast and marketing articles that you may be interested in viewing. There are also website analysis tools and articles on genealogy and dna.

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