Is your computer as safe as you think?

By Keith Barfield, Founding Shareholder, CPA, CITP

I’m sure you’ve heard a thousand times how important security is. Since we all do so much online, on our laptops, phones and tablets, making sure your devices are protected is crucial.

Figuring out how to best do that is an overwhelming task. I think many people tend to dread looking for programs that can help with security since there are just so many options out there.

Here I share some of the programs and methods that have worked for me personally and some that we’ve found extremely helpful at Barfield, Murphy, Shank and Smith.

• Password management. Your first line of defense is password management, which I discussed in a previous post.
• Stay patched. This means that you have installed all the latest software upgrades from manufacturer. If you don’t, exploitations can happen. Every time Microsoft patches its operating system, they list the vulnerabilities from the previous version, so it makes it really easy for a hacker to go find those. It’s just like a road map. They take that information and look for someone who didn’t patch their machine and still has the older version where those vulnerabilities exist.
• Run an anti-virus. Most people have one, but make sure you keep your subscription up to date. I use Norton 360 at home and it hasn’t let me down yet. We use AVG here at the office.
• Back that thing up! For personal use, I use Carbonite. It lets you access your backed up files from the internet. Local firm, Abacus IT Solutions, has great corporate level server backups.
• Keep Spam at bay. Postini is a great service provided by Google that filters out Spam and keeps your email secure without having to install costly hardware or infrastructure.

Call technology accounting specialist and CITP, Keith Barfield of Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith at 205-982-5511 or email him at technology@bmss.com if you need accounting help for your technology business. He has experience helping Alabama technology companies and emerging industries, including software development, internet design and controls and online training with their exact accounting needs through our Technology Division. 

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