PC Maintenance and Security

The health of a computer and its contents, both our private and public content, is determined by our consistent behavior on it. Before I went to college, I knew very little about computers and their inner-workings, what makes them tick. My interest in computers did not grow until I had my first full time job in an office, where there were always issues with various technologies. Usually, at some point during my work week, something didn't work right, or no one really knew how to work it. It was at this point that I thought to myself, "I really wish I knew how these things work, and how I could fix them". Shortly after I enrolled in a technical program and began to understand what it is that makes technology tick. It was during my courses that I began to realize that it's not just zeros and ones that work magic, but how the user employs their skills and knowledge on a system to input information and receive desired output.
A very basic concept of computing is IPO, input, process, and output. This is something that applies to not only the use of a program, but also to our use of information directed both from us and to us between a system. We give it information, it process it and we receive the output. Now, were this ties in with the health and security of a machine is how we handle our personal information and were we input it. We are in control of what information we use and where we input it, the only danger is when we freely disclose information to an unknown system, how it is then processed and where it outputs. Without first analyzing and being safe of where we input our information, we can't control who process it and where, or worse yet, to whom it is outputted to. Our digital citizenship compels us to be responsible how we employ this concept.
This week's lesson was a nice refresher for me and a great reminder of how important it is to practice safe computing, both offline and online. While I used to be a primarily Windows user a few years ago, I have since moved over to the Mac OS X operating system, and accompanying iOS platform devices. There is a misconception that if you run Mac, you don't have to worry about viruses nor spyware, this is certainly not the case. Much of the attacks to our personal information take place online, in the browser of your choice, where operating systems are not always an important factor. The same organizational and safe practices that a Windows user would exercise also apply to a Mac user, just with a few differences.
While browsing through the Atomic Learning tutorials, I found a few of my all time favorite things to do to help maintain a PC in top running shape. MSCONFIG, is on of my go to programs when setting up a machine, and when troubleshooting. This tool allows me to control many aspects of how Windows operates from boot, but what's really important is taking a look at the Startup tab. This section shows all of the programs that run at login. I like to browse through and disable anything that is not system critical. This enables the machine to start up without the extra bulk.

An important component to securing a machine is anti-virus software. In this category my free go to suite is AVG's free AV software. Although their pay for version offer more features, the free version offers just as much virus protection and removal options. My personal pay for suite is Eset. They are a San Diego based company, (total coincidence I swear!), that offers a very effective and streamlined application which does not affect system performance like other suites. The installation process outlined in Atomic Learning is a great tutorial in how to properly get AVG up and running. I usually install this program on computers that don't have any AV software installed, or suggest it to peers that hate how badly other AV suites slow down their system. In my mind, any AV software is better than no AV at all.

Last but definitely not the least, backing up. Backing up is essential in practicing safe computing. If all else fails, you should be able to restore valuable information and return to a state of normality. I like a couple of tools for Windows, SyncToy, and the online service Carbonite. For Mac, I use Time Machine on a daily basis, but for full disk backups I use Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner, a tool that has come in very handy in the past. Atomic Learning introduced me to another tool, Replicator by KarenWare. This tool offers a fairly simple but quite flexible backup procedure. It is similar to SyncToy, by Microsoft, in both the graphical interface, and some of the backup options.

Ultimately the health of both our computers and our privacy consists of a combination of procedures. Ensuring that our systems function properly from boot, are kept safe by using anti-virus software, and keeping a secure backup of our content. From this lesson I think the most important information to share is that commonsense is above all the most important tool we can use in the fight for privacy and security.