Note: \u00a0If you suspect that you are infected, this isn’t the post for you. \u00a0This is a post about being proactive.<\/p>\n
The following are things that should not be scheduled, they should be done automatically, or whenever possible, with highest frequency.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 1) \u00a0Insure that you have anti-virus and anti-malware protection of some sort on your computer and that they are updated automatically. \u00a0If an automatic update is not available for the free version of the software package you are using, then every time you turn that computer on, the first thing you should do is check for updates.<\/p>\n 2) Insure that your computers OS is updated automatically and check for optional updates. \u00a0Sometimes optional updates are really not optional. \u00a0The are just put on hold because of their size. \u00a0You need to schedule time for and activate these large updates at your earliest convenience.<\/p>\n Weekly Security Maintenance:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1) \u00a0Although not actually a security step, having a good backup will save you when everything goes awry. \u00a0Depending on the value of your data and the amount of use your system has, you may want to do this more frequently than once a week. \u00a0For the average user, backing up once a week should be sufficient. \u00a0There are systems (e.g. WD My Cloud and other Western Digital products) that will perform a continuous backup. \u00a0That is, whenever a file is edited, it is automatically backed up. \u00a0Some offer file versioning. \u00a0I use a continuous offline backup with versioning. \u00a0CryptoLocker is an example of a malicious program that will encrypt all your files on network shares, attached drives and on the local computer. \u00a0So having an offline-backup is critical in defense of ransom-ware like CryptoLocker.<\/p>\n 2) Force a “check for updates,” “apt-get update && apt-get upgrade,” or whatever update schema you use, force a check and apply updates manually.<\/p>\n 3) \u00a0Force an update then execute a full scan first on your anti-malware\/spyware then with your anti-virus system. \u00a0Delete the files\/cookies as determined by your system. \u00a0 If you wish, you can delete your temporary internet files.<\/p>\n\n