Articles: Useful Info and Guidance

We thought we’d share a little more on password security.

We’ve previously posted a couple of articles on password and security

• ‘Phishing’ – Some Advice on Ataying Safe and Avoiding Scams
• TheGuardian.com article: How to sort out your passwords, privacy and bulging photo folder

and thought about some more useful information:

Check if your password has been exposed:

You can check if the password you use is a password that has been leaked online. There have been maybe big security breaches over the years where millions of data has been stolen, and the then published online. This site uses this data to create a database of known passwords that you can search for your password(s): https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords I have what I thought (quite sure) is very unique ‘trusted password’… but it is on the list. Time to change it for a new one.

Check if any accounts used with your email address have been exposed or compromised:

Avast is a reputable security company and they have put together a tool to check if your Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, email, or other service etc. has been compromised. You’ll get an email with any negative results, and you can then reset the password (to a new secure password) or close the account with that service if you don’t still use it. https://www.avast.com/hackcheck/ – you don’t have to receive news and updates if you uncheck the button.

Don’t forget:

1) To reset the password to strong password. You can use a password generator like:

https://www.lastpass.com/features/password-generator#generatorTool to help make one.

2) To ensure your email account has two-factor login authentication (if possible) set up and all your details and recovery details and security questions are up to date and known to you.

Note: It’s not great to have passwords or login details written down, but it’s worth considering it is probably more secure to have something written down at home (in a code you know is a good idea), than to use a known or weak password.

 

If you have security issues or need help with passwords, accounts, logging in, setting up, etc. we can help (or with any IT issue), get in contact here

 

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Just to let you know we are open if you need help during the strange times we are in at the moment. Just give us a call for a chat and we can see what we can do. Stay safe.

Caution: These folders are important system folders, so please only play with them if you are sure you know what you are doing.

When backing up, as well as your typical user create files in Pictures, Documents, Music, Desktop etc, it’s also a good idea to backup some other places (AppData and ProgramData folders). By default Windows hides these folders and it’s necessary to enable viewing it before you can view and back them up. To show these folders:

1. Open Windows Explorer (open any folder on the computer)
2. On the menu bar at the top find the View tab and then click Options; or if you have no View tab click on the Organize button on the top left and then Folder and Search Options.
3. In the box that pops up click on the View tab and then in the list box find the Hidden files and folders section and select the option to ‘Show hidden files, folders and drives’ and click OK.

Now it will be possible to view and backup the AppData and ProgramData folders. their locations are:

• AppData – Can be found in your user area.
• ProgramData – Can be found in the system drive (usually C: drive).

To backup both of these folders, simply right-click on each and select copy, and then in your backup location, right-click > paste.

How to: Windows PC Backup Plan

Our best advice is to backup your files to a local backup to an external drive (but don’t leave backup drives permanently connected to the computer) AND a remote backup to the internet/cloud. This is a guide to back up your files to a local hard drive or USB stick.

In this guide we assuming you keep all your data in your user area (such as in My Documents, My Pictures, Desktop etc.) which is the usual place to keep your files. It’s good practice keep all your data in these areas. To check you keep everything in that area, you can an:

Enable a desktop icon for your personal user area on your desktop (which is inconveniently hidden by default in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10):

1. To show your user area in Windows 10:
2. Right-click on the desktop
3. Left-click on ‘Personalise’
4. Left-click on ‘Themes’
5. Look to the right and scroll down to find and left-click on ‘Desktop icon settings’
6. Left-click on the tick box new to ‘User’s Files’. While you’re there might as well tick next to ‘Computer’ and ‘Control Panel’ (and ‘Network if you have a networked PC)
7. Left-click on ‘OK’ button.

To show your user area in Windows 7 or Windows Vista

1. Right-click on the desktop
2. Left-click on ‘Personalise’
3. Left-click on ‘Desktop icon settings’ on the left side of the window
4. Left-click on the tick box new to ‘User’s Files’. While you’re there might as well tick next to ‘Computer’ and ‘Control Panel’ (and ‘Network if you have a networked PC)
5. Left-click on ‘OK’ button.

Check your files:

Now that’s done, double click on the user area icon on your desktop, which will show ‘Documents’, ‘Pictures’, ‘Music’ etc. ‘Desktop’ will also be there which contains any files you have saved to the desktop. Enter each folder and check all your files are there.

Backup your files to a local drive:

To do manual backup to a USB stick or USB hard drive, you need to copy all the folders in your user area (Documents, Photo, Music, Desktop etc.) to a USB drive:

1. Open your user area and press select all (CTRL + A) and then copy (CTRL + C)
2. Plug in your USB stick or hard drive and if it pops up with a window you can open the drive directly, or if not go to My Computer / This PC and open the drive (May be D: for E: or some other letter).
3. When you are viewing the drive, make a new folder (right-click on some white space and go to New > Folder and give it a name, e.g. Backup October 2018). Enter the folder by double clicking on it.
4. Now paste the files you previously copied (CTRL + V). All the files will now copy across which will take varying times depending on how much data there is and the speed of the drive you are copying to. When done the file transfer box will disappear.
5. Now check that all the data you copied is on the USB device.

Advanced Info: It can also be a good idea to backup some other folders as some user/program data is also stored in some hidden folders in the user area and elsewhere on the computer – read this guide to find out how to view and backup hidden AppData and ProgramData folder.

We’ve had so many data recovery jobs in Sheffield, many of which as requests about data lost from USB memory sticks. Please read this advice if you use USB sticks (and the same applies to hard drives).

• Use USB sticks for storing and transferring data only…
• Don’t use the drive as live – don’t read and write to it constantly. I.e. don’t open a file from the USB stick and save the file to it > best to make a document and save it to the computer, and when finished copy it to the USB stick (leave the original on the computer too),
• Or if the file is on the USB stick copy it to the computer and work from the file there, and when finished copy it back to the USB stick.
• A good way to do a load of text is to write it using Google docs through a web browser. The file is autosaved extremely often and it is possible to go back to previous versions. I use this method for the initial text writing and then copy it all to a program such as Microsoft Word to finish the document off with better formatting tools.
• USB sticks can often survive a washing machine and drop, but they are not indestructible. They can get corrupted (especially poor-quality drives) and if they aren’t used for long periods they can lose charge and all the data.
• Avoid leaving USB sticks attached to a computer (with important data on) because a crypto virus can encrypt data on the computer as well as on an USB or network drive visible on the computer.

Our general best advice is, backup backup, backup!