Help your mother be safer online
May 7th, 2013
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A great Mother’s Day gift idea: help your mom guard against viruses, fraud, and identity theft. Unless she’s a super geek or an IT professional (or both), we know she’ll appreciate it.
Make sure that your mother:
- Has antivirus software from a trusted source and knows how to keep it updated. (Microsoft Security Essentials can be downloaded at no charge.)
- Understands automatic updating. Encourage her to regularly install updates for all her software and subscribe to automatic updates wherever possible.
- Uses strong passwords and keeps them secret.
- Knows to always keep her firewall on. Turning off this protective barrier between her computer and the Internet for even a minute increases the risk that her PC will be infected with malware.
- Is aware of tech support phone scams and knows not to provide any personal information to callers who claim to be from Microsoft and offer to fix her computer.
- Knows how to lock her mobile phone with a unique four-digit PIN. For more tips, you both can take our Facebook poll about mobile manners and safety.
Get more tips on how to stay safer with security software and scans.
