Make sure your PC is safe.
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America’s cyber defense agency has plenty of sound advice this holiday season. Much of this focuses on securing your phones and avoiding the fake shopping websites that will see you get stung. But there’s also some timely advice for Windows PC users.
Whether at home or at work, “before you dash out the door for your holiday” or pack your bags and head out of town, “lock up your data like you lock up the office.”
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CISA tells all users to make sure they have a recent data backup — don’t leave your data at risk in the event something happens to your devices. But just as critically, if you’re leaving your PC for some time, “log out” and “shut down.”
Shutting down your PC each day is painful, Microsoft restarts are still not what they should be. But if you’re away for a few days or more, you should do it. It provides a level of physical protection, making it harder for an in-person attack, but more critically it will stop anything processing on the device while it’s unattended.
And that includes cyber threats.
“Turning off your computer completely eliminates its vulnerability to remote cyberattacks and malware that rely on an active network connection or running processes.” This is standard security expert advice.
As we await the last set of Windows vulnerabilities of the year with this month’s Patch Tuesday, security advice for the holidays should land well. It takes just seconds to log out and power down, but it’s worth doing just that.
Meanwhile, this is already turning out to be a record holiday shopping season. “While millions of Americans are online buying gifts,” CISA says, “cyber criminals are trying to take advantage of the influx of shoppers. Don’t get scammed!”
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The bad actors, the agency says, “target online shoppers through fake websites, malicious links, and even fake charities to gain access to personal, business, and financial information. The good news is that simple steps can bring you peace of mind through stronger cybersecurity,” as is always the case.
Attacks targeting Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers surged 620% this year, and will continue to get worse through the gift-buying season.