Archives - Security Best Practice


Avoid third-party app stores

Phone and tablet software should be vetted by approval teams to ensure their quality and security. Such processes are routine on official app stores, but cannot be assured with third-party sources. Accordingly, steer clear of unofficial storefronts or sideloaded apps from websites.

Give online donations directly to the charity

Why hand over a chunk of your contribution to a third party web site when you can give directly through a charity’s own site? If the charity that you want to support does not offer online giving, you may be able to give through JustGive or Network for Good. Be aware that these third party […]

Turn off autoplay videos and plugins

Videos that start playing automatically in your browser are more than distracting – they also use up bandwidth and are potentially dangerous as malware delivery vehicles. Similarly, plugins like Flash and ActiveX can drain battery while heightening risks if not up-to-date. You can set most web browsers to block autoplay videos and to require your […]

Ransomware primer: The risks and what you can do

Ransomware is one of the fastest growing forms of malware.

Keep a clean machine

Update the security software, operating system, and web browser on all of your Internet-connected devices. Keeping your security software up to date will prevent attackers from taking advantage of known vulnerabilities. Use a tool like our PC Tune-up to keep your PC running like new.

Periodically clear your web cache, cookies and history

Collecting these three items enables web browsers to speed up your experience by loading already-saved resources instead of making new copies. However, their accumulation can create security risks and performance issues. An incident involving Yahoo’s use of cookies exposed many accounts to hijacking. Storage of cookies also requires disk space and CPU resources. Clear everything […]