How To Secure My Laptop From Hacking

Use Mac Address Filtering

Every network interface has a unique identifier known as a MAC address, regardless of whether its a computer, tablet, phone, or games console. The idea behind MAC address filtering is simple enough. You obtain the MAC addresses of your devices at home and enter them into the router so that only those unique identifiers are able to connect to your network.

Obviously, if you have a significant number of network capable devices this could take some time. But in theory you should be a lot more secure against a hacker in a car outside your house with a laptop perched on their knees. Unfortunately MAC addresses can be hacked and spoofed, so while the lesser hacker may give up the more determined one will simply bypass it. Think of MAC address filtering as putting a thorny rose bush up against the garden gate it may stop most opportunists from entering your garden, but those who really want to get in there will find a way.

Reasons Why You Were Hacked In The First Place

Hackers, like any criminals, are opportunists. Just like a shop window left open or a bag left unattended, some online activities leave you vulnerable to hacks.

For safer browsing, you should:

• Avoid opening suspicious email attachments.
• Make sure your operating system is up to date: youll be regularly informed of updates on your phone or computer. Dont put off installing these updates as they help keep your devices security current.
• Use strong passwords, including numbers, letters and punctuation and not your mothers maiden name!

For more on safe browsing, check out our guide to malware.

Other Tips To Protect Computer Files And Folders

Because its difficult to set up foolproof file protection from a determined hacker, its smart to use redundant security protocols and other privacy tools when possible beyond a locked folder with encrypted files.

• Use a compression tool

You can archive sensitive files, compress them, and encrypt the contents with a required password.

• Install third-party software

There are a number of programs available to help you encrypt data or password protect folders and files. Some, like 7-Zip, are free, while others like Folder Guard must be purchased.

• Back up important files

Even if something is protected with a password, it can still be deleted. Make sure to keep a backup of all your important files and folders.

• Keep track of passwords

Few things are worse than forgetting the password to an important document. Use a password manager to keep track of file and folder passwords. As an extra measure, make an unprotected archived copy of documents that you password protect. You can store them in a lockbox on a USB drive or external hard drive.

• Use anti-malware

Installing the extra protection of an antivirus or anti-malware program helps keep your whole system safe as well as individual files and folders.

• Protect your smart home from hacking

Using strong passwords, choosing the right smart home tech, and more can prevent bad actors from accessing your files. Our guide on protecting your smart home will get you started.

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How Do I Know That My Computer Is Hacked

If your computer is hacked, you might notice some of the following symptoms:

• Frequent pop-up windows, especially the ones that encourage you to visit unusual sites, or download antivirus or other software

• Changes to your home page

• Mass emails being sent from your email account

• Frequent crashes or unusually slow computer performance

• Unknown programs that startup when you start your computer

• Programs automatically connecting to the Internet

• Unusual activities like password changes

Choose How Private You Want Your Profile Or Blog To Be

Review your website settings and preferences to manage who can see your online profile or photos, how people can search for you, who can view your posts and make comments, and how to block unwanted access by others. Be sure to review the privacy settings for your favorite social networks to ensure youre not sharing more than you intend to.

Monitor what others post

• Search for your name on the internet using popular search engines. Search for text and images. If you find sensitive information about yourself on a website, look for contact information on the website and send a request to have your information removed.

• Regularly review what others write about you on blogs and social networking websites. Ask friends not to post photos of you or your family without your permission. If you feel uncomfortable with material such as information or photos that are posted on others’ websites, ask for it to be removed.

• On Facebook and other social media, turn on the tag review option to prevent people from tagging photos that you appear in without your permission.

Guard your information

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Protect Yourself From Scams

When you read email, use social media, or browse the web, you should be wary of scams that try to steal your personal information , your money, or both. Many of these scams are known as “phishing scams” because they “fish” for your information. Find out how to protect yourself from phishing scams and avoid tech support scams.

Use A Disposable Email Address

Theres a security risk attached to using your primary email address to sign up on every website, online service, app trial, etc. Your inbox becomes exposed to all sorts of spam messages from hackers and cybercriminals. Using disposable emails for unimportant or one-off activities is a good way to keep spam messages and phishing emails away from your inbox.

If youre unsure about the authenticity of a website requesting your email address, we recommend providing your temporary email addressnot your regular email address. If the website turns out to be fraudulent, you can be sure your true/personal email address information is safe.

There are email clients that allow you to create temporary addresses with validity ranging from minutes to days, weeks, or months. Some even let you create disposable email accounts without an expiration date. This compilation of the best disposable email account providers has everything you need to know.

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Logout From Whatsapp Web

WhatsApp web is around for quite a sometime now. With WhatsApp web you can use WhatsApp on your PC. If you feel that the messages you are receiving are already read in the chats. Or there is a reply of your friends message which you havent done. Or if you feel that your last seen is different from what it should be. Then it means that someone else is using your WhatsApp account. That is done by creating the replica of your WhatsApp using WhatsApp web on any phone of computer. Dont worry, you can easily prevent it by logging out from WhatsApp Web. Heres Complete Guide to Logout from WhatsApp web.

How Do I Remove The Infection From My Computer

Once you have a virus on your computer, it may attack Norton and prevent it from working properly. In these cases, the virus must be removed manually. Norton offers free, do-it-yourself support options as well as a paid service where we take care of removing threats for you.

You can let our Spyware & Virus Removal Service expert technicians do all the work for you. Our Spyware & Virus Removal Service is handled by highly trained expert technicians who work with you for as long as it takes to locate and neutralize all known threats on your computer.

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Use A Firewall To Lock Down Your Network

A firewall is a network security system. It provides a wall of defense by monitoring traffic to and from your network. In short, it can help keep the bad guys out.

Your computer probably comes with a firewall, which will prevent unauthorized access to your computer. Keep in mind, most firewalls need to be turned on. If youve never enabled your firewall, its a good idea to do it now.

Use A Secure Browser And Windows Sandbox

Microsoft Edge is a big improvement over the famously terrible Internet Explorer browser, but its just not good enough. You should switch to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome they both offer better protection against phishing sites and malicious web scripts than Edge.

Theres one more way for Windows users to ensure their browsers cant be a source for malware infection Windows 10 Pro now includes the Sandbox tool. This tool allows programs to run in a virtual machine sandboxed programs cant access any of your system files, and any changes they make disappear when you close the virtual machine.

I run Chrome in Sandbox, which allows me to navigate wherever I want on the web with zero risk any dangerous web script or attempted system invasion is cut off the moment I close Sandbox.

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Save Sensitive Business For Your Home Computer

Avoid paying bills, banking, and shopping on a public computer, or on any device over a public wireless network.

If youre not using your own device to browse the internet, use Microsoft Edge and open only InPrivate tabs or windows. When you use InPrivate tabs or windows, your browsing data isn’t saved on the PC once you’re done. However, you should still be careful not to type critical passwords on a shared computer.

Make Your Computer Passwords Secure

This may be the most basic of ways to protect computer security, but it is generally the most important technique on how to prevent hacking. Every time you create a new digital account, you are asked to create a password. A simple abc123 will not suffice when trying to ward off hackers youll have to create something stronger.

Make sure your passwords have a combination of numbers, letters and symbols. You should also throw in some special characters as well, in order to further strengthen the passwords effectiveness. Remember, a password should never be used twice this limits a hackers ability to access your information if all passwords are different.

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How Can You Protect Your Computer

How to Protect Your Computer From Viruses/Spyware/Hackers

Since the Internet is a popular means of communication it is important to protect your computer from viruses, hackers and spyware. Viruses can delete files, hackers can retrieve personal information you have on your computer, advertisers can load programs that read and send them your passwords without your knowledge, and in some cases someone can actually access your computer and delete files that could render your computer unusable.

While most of the “behind the scenes” stuff that takes place as you surf the Internet are only targeted advertising, demographic data collection, or pranks, you should be aware of the potential problems and protect your computer. You can do this by making sure that you avoid programs that can install spyware without your knowledge, keep antivirus software installed and updated and keep security and critical patches updated by automating Windows Updates.

Protecting Your Smart Tv From Hackers

Protecting Your Smart TV From Hackers

Youve likely heard plenty about the need to secure your computers, laptops, and mobile devices from hackers, viruses, and malware. But did you know that your smart TV also needs cybersecurity? Smart TV security is very important, because, without proper security protocols in place, savvy hackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities in the smart TVs operating system, enabling them to access your device and even take control of it.

The Benefits of a Smart TV

Smart TVs are dominating the consumer marketplace today, and its no big mystery why. Smart TVs allow you access to an enormous amount of content, both broadcast and through streaming apps. This enables you to truly enhance your entertainment options and view content that you might have otherwise needed a computer for previously.

Additionally, some smart TVs have further options for gaming, web browsing, storing photos and video, sharing content from mobile devices, and more. But this new technology, which is essentially an operating system much like a mobile device contains, is also vulnerable to hackers without proper smart TV security protocols in place.

Risks of a Vulnerable Smart TV

If you have a smart TV with Internet connectivity, then it is particularly vulnerable without IoT security. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in the operating system to access the information stored on your Smart TV and use it to perform a number of unscrupulous actions. These include:

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You Didn’t Encrypt Your Hard Drive

If you hold sensitive data on your hard drive, it is important to encrypt it. That way, if you ever lose your laptop or someone steals your computer, they won’t be able to open the drive and access the information.

To encrypt your hard drive, press the Windows Key, type “This PC,” and open the app in the results. Right-click on the hard drive you want to encrypt and select Turn on BitLocker.

Select Use a password to unlock the drive, enter the password you wish to use and click Next. Make sure to create an unbreakable password you won’t forget. Then, choose how to back up your recovery key and click on Next.

Choose whether you want to encrypt only the disk space you’ve used or the entire drive, and then click Next.

Click Next to choose the default encryption mode.

Finally, click Start encrypting to begin the encryption process.

Once complete, there will be a lock icon on the encrypted hard drive. That means you’ll need to enter a password every time you restart Windows to gain access to your files.

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Update Operating System And Software

Your anti-malware software is only as good as its last update. Make sure your protection software is set to update automatically. By doing this, your protection software always has the latest defenses against new hacks and malware without you having to remember to run a manual update routinely. Periodically check the date of your anti-malware definitions file to make sure that it is up to date.

In addition to anti-malware and anti-virus software, check to see if your operating system needs to be updated. Just as with anti-malware software, your operating system receives updates that thwart security weaknesses. The same goes for applications you use automatically updating these helps keep your software secure with little effort from you.

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Anti Hacking Software Faq

What is anti hacking software?What is the best protection against hackers?

In order to protect your computer against hackers, here are several things you need to pay attention to.

How much RAM do I need for hacking?What operating system do hackers use?

Password Protect Your Software And Lock Your Device

Most web-connected software that you install on your system requires login credentials. The most important thing here is not to use the same password across all applications. This makes it far too easy for someone to hack into all of your accounts and possibly steal your identity.

If youre having trouble remembering a whole bunch of passwords, then you could try a password manager. This will keep all of your passwords safe and you only have to remember one. A password can be combined with an email or SMS as part of a two-step verification method for extra security. 2SV usually kicks in when you log into a website or app from a new or unrecognized device requiring you to verify your identity with a PIN code.

While many security steps relate to intangible threats, there is always the possibility that someone could get their hands on your actual computer. A simple line of defence here is to have a strong computer password to at least make it more difficult for them to enter.

Other forms of verification include biometric methods like a fingerprint or retina scan. Alternative physical verification methods might involve key cards and fobs, such as those offered by Yubico. Any of these can be combined with each other and/or a password as part of a two-step authentication process.

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Encrypting Keys To Protect From Keyloggers

Keyloggers are dangerous as they can record your keystrokes, track your activity, and can record the open sites. With Keyloggers, your accounts can be easily hacked by the hackers. These keyloggers can detect your bank accounts passwords too. So better it to avoid them as much you can. So follow the guide to encrypt keyboard.

What Do You Need To Protect Your Computer From Hackers

There are a couple of things youll need to ensure the security of your computer in case your suspicions of a hack are confirmed:

• Basic computer skills
• A copy of your most important files
• Professional help

However, sometimes its not that easy to get rid of hackers and the damage theyve done to your system. If the breach has compromised the whole system a reinstallation of the OS might be required as is the case with ransomware. Contact professional help if you dont know how to install OS or youre unable to remove the compromised files.

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Be Careful What You Click

Phishing attackswhere hackers send seemingly genuine messages to trick you to hand over personal informationare becoming more sophisticated. For instance, you may receive an urgent message stating that your bank account has been locked and requiring you to enter your password and Social Security number to unlock it. Think twice before clicking on links in messages such as this. Most genuine messages from financial institutions will not ask for personal information directly, but will instead instruct you to call or visit a website directly. You can also verify the email address that sent the message to ensure it came from the expected sender.