TECHNOLOGY GUIDE THREE

1. TECHNOLOGY GUIDE THREE Protecting Your Information Assets

2. Technology Guide Outline • TG3.1 Introduction • TG3.2 Behavioral Actions to Protect Your Information Assets • TG3.3 Computer-based Actions to Protect Your Information Assets

3. Learning Objectives • Identify the various Behavioral Actions you can take to protect your information assets. • Identify the various Computer Based Actions you can take to protect your information assets.

4. TG3.1 Introduction • According to Symantec (www.symantec.com), if you connected an unprotected personal computer to the Internet in 2003, it would be attacked within 15 minutes. Today, that personal computer will be attacked within seconds. • You can take two types of actions to protect your information assets and greatly reduce your exposure to fraud and identity theft. • Behavioral Actions are those actions that do not specifically involve a computer. • Computer Based Actions relate to safe computing.

5. Behavioral Actions • Do not provide personal information to strangers in any format. • Protect your social security number. • Use credit cards with your picture on them. • Use virtual credit cards-disposable Credit Card number. • Know your credit card billing cycles. • Limit use of debit cards-check with issuing company for your liability. • Use a cross-cut (confetti) shredder. • Sign up with a company that provides proactive protection of your personal information. • Do not use a personal mailbox at home or at an apartment.

6. Computer Based Actions • Never open unrequested attachments to e-mail files, even those from people you know and trust. • Never open attachments or Web links in e-mails from people you do not know. • Never accept files transferred to you during Internet chat or instant messaging sessions. • Never download any files or software over the Internet from Web site that you do not know. • Never download files or software that you have not requested. • Test your system. • Run free malware scans on your computer. • Have an anti-malware product on your computer and use it (ideally at least once per week). • Have a firewall on your computer.

7. Computer-Based Actions (continued) • Have an antispyware product on your computer. • Have a rootkit detection product on your computer. • Have a monitoring software on your computer. • Have content filtering software on your computer. • Have antispam software on your computer. • Have proactive intrusion detection and prevention software on your computer. • Manage patches. • Use a browser other than Internet Explorer. • Travel with a “sterile” laptop or no laptop. • Use two-factor authentication. • Use encryption.

8. Computer-Based Actions (continued) • User laptop tracing tools or device reset/remote kill tools. • Turn off peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. • Look for new and unusual files. • Detect fake web sites. • Use strong passwords. • Surf the Web anonymously. • E-mail anonymously. • Adjust privacy settings on your computer. • Erase your Google search history. • Personal disaster preparation: backup, backup, backup!

9. Wireless Security • Hide your Service Set Identifier (SSID) • Use encryption. • Filter out Media Access Control (MAC) addresses • Limit Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. • Sniff out intruders. • Change the default administrator password on your wireless router to something not easily guessed

10. Wireless Security (continued) • Use virtual private networking (VPN) technology to connect to your organization’s network. • Use Remote Desktop to connect to a computer that is running at your home. • Configure windows firewall to be “on with no exceptions.” • Only use Web sites that use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for any financial or personal transactions (discussed in Chapter 3) • Use wireless security programs.