Top 10 biggest security risks, and how to fix them or rather, how to avoid them.
1. Leave Your Wi-Fi Wide Open - Leaving your Wi-Fi unprotected by a password, thus sharing your Internet connection with the rest of the world, may seem like a harmless and, heck, even a swell, neighborly thing to do. But, in the cyberworld, it's the equivalent of leaving all the doors and windows of your house open while you're away.
2. Don't Hide Behind a Firewall - At the moment you connect a PC to the Internet, it'll be probed for vulnerabilities within minutes by roving malicious programs, and, if any are found, will quickly be under siege. Thus, activate your Firewall. Any firewall is better than no firewall.
3. Open an E-mail From a Stranger - Anti-virus software is only as good as its most recent update, so fresh new viruses, Trojan horses and other malware continue to be spread by the most obvious mechanism possible: e-mail. Or rather, by the nincompoops who defy what should be common sense and spread those diseased e-mails. Oh, and let's not forget about phishing adventures, either. First things first, if you receive an e-mail from any source claiming to be your bank, credit card company or any other business with which you're affiliated, know that there shouldn't be a link to your log-in or account info in an e-mail. The only time you should log into any site that involves business is after you type the Web address in your browser. (A popular phishing technique is to put links in e-mails that take people to lookalike Web sites, where fooled users input their password info.) Also, if you receive an e-mail from anyone you don't recognize, you should be instantly suspicious; after all, typically, the only people who have your e-mail address are people you know. If there's no subject line, or an odd one, simply delete the e-mail.
4. Use Publicly Shared PCs - One of the surest ways to take your entire private world public is to visit an Internet café in some far off land (or around the corner for that matter) to check e-mail, pay bills online or update your Facebook status. That may sound extreme, and wildly unfair to the Internet café industry, but the unfortunate fact is that if you use a shared computer anywhere, you've just played Russian roulette. There is simply no foolproof way to tell whether or not your log-in info and passwords have been recorded by the PC's owner, or by someone who has fiddled with the machine (whether in person or via a downloaded virus). Call us paranoid all you want, but we're right.
5. Use Weak Passwords - There's a saying we just coined this moment that goes: "Give me a Google search of just about anyone, and you've given me his or her passwords." It's not strictly true, but try to tell us without laughing that you don't have at least one important password -- the sole source of security you have online -- that is a version of your social security number, birthday, old phone number or ZIP code. Read alsoTop 10 Hacker's Favourite Passwords
6. Don't Password Protect Your Hardware - It's so awesome being a thief these days. When you swipe someone's laptop or smartphone, you not only get their hardware, but -- since so few people bother using passwords -- you get all of their private data, as well. It's like two-for-one day, every day!
7. Don't Install System Software Updates - You know all those pesky little notifications in the bottom corner of your monitor that never seem to go away? Yeah, those mean that you haven't updated your software in a few months or years. And they also mean that you haven't installed those crucial patches of all the vulnerabilities you've been reading about in the news. They might also explain why your computer is running so slowly.
8. Download and Install Cracked Software - Look, we get it; $600 is crazy money to pay for Photoshop, especially since you only need it to put together that one killer LOLcatz the world has been awaiting. Well, besides the fact that you're dealing in stolen goods (and you are), you're taking a tremendous risk by installing software that doesn't come from a trusted source. The torrent may be named "Photoshop," but it may as well say "Trojan" for all you know. Even if it ends up being Photoshop, that doesn't mean it hasn't been hacked in some malicious way that you can't detect. Just remember, crack(ed software) is wack.
9. Use an Administrator Account for Matters Other Than Security - A study from last year showed that about 90-percent of Windows 7 security vulnerabilities occurred when users set up accounts with administrator privileges. In English, that means that your log-in account has the ability to install software and otherwise fiddle with the software guts of your computer. Plus, if your computer encounters malicious software, having administrative privileges often makes it easier for those nasties to dig deep into your system. And, as Windows 7 is far more secure than previous versions, it only gets worse the older your PC is.
10. Plug a Found USB Stick Into Your PC - This one is a bit of a rarity, but apparently cagey-hacker types have taken to putting malicious software on USB sticks and memory cards. Then they leave them out in the open with the hopes that they'll find their way into the hands of curious techies and corporate PCs. We have to admit, it's pretty genius. Read Free malware-infected USB drives from IBM
Source: switched.com