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Why Should You Secure Your Computer?

Malware is a software built to bad reason designed to secretly accessing the owners confidential data, like credit card information, passwords, personal information, online banking access information etc.

Malware attacks any computer through attachments sent in emails or when you visit risky sites and/or download from untrusted sites. USB devices too are increasingly becoming sources of malware by virtue of such software stored on them.

Yet most of us don’t think about this much and feel that “it's not going to happen to me”. But with hackers, viruses, malware, spyware, keyloggers, identity thieves and a host of other nefarious things, the internet is not a place where you let down your guard.

Most of us have at least installed an anti-virus and have installed or heard of firewalls too. But that's not enough! Not only do we need to install an anti-virus/anti-spyware and a firewall but also need to be aware of what we do on our computers not just what we install. A firewall acts as a data filter connected on one side - to the Internet, and on the other - to the internal network and prevents your machine being used as a vehicle for attacking others, sending spam, etc.

Steps that you can take to safeguard your home computer's security -

1. Install a firewall - a firewall should now be a SOHO user's first line of defense.
2. Install an anti-virus and anti-spyware.
3. Do not open unknown email attachments without scanning it.
4. Keep changing your password frequently and do not use the same password for all sites. Use complex words with characters, special characters and numbers.
5. Backup! Backup! backup!

If you don't do all of these then be prepared to lose all your data!

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Stepcase Lifehack

http://www.lifehack.org
It is a Productivity, Getting Things Done and Lifehacks Blog. Get pointers on productivity, getting things done, personal development, self-improvement and lifehacks.

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Googling AROUND!

Google's AROUND proximity operator is a lesser-known feature. It lets you specify how close you want two terms to appear in a web site.

This can be particularly useful if you are looking for two topics that may often appear on the same page but not in relation to each other. Now you can also specify that two words or phrases must be no more than, say, 5 words apart.

The syntax is search-word AROUND(x) search-word - replacing "x" with the maximum number of words you want between the two search terms or phrases. (Be sure you type AROUND in all caps; otherwise, Google treats it as just another search term.)