Best Practices in the Office
Make a habit of following these simple suggestions
Choose strong passwords. Choose passwords that don't appear in dictionaries or enyclopedias -- preferably each password will contain a mix of numbers and letters. Even better is a punctuation mark or two. Don't use pet names, car names, or people names. Your passwords may make sense to you, but to nobody else.
Keep passwords private. Don't reveal your passwords to friends, family, or IT support staff.
Lock your computer when you expect to be away from it. (Press the Windows key and the L key together.) Create a password for your screen saver and make certain that it masks your screen after, say, 10 mnutes of inactivity. Otherwise, anybody can read your email, edit your files, etc., without your knowledge.
Log out and restart or shut down your PC at day's end. This protects your data and ensures that your computer's memory will be flushed and ready for business tomorrow morning.
Shut down or restart computers after you are done with them. Logging out is sufficient to protect the security of your accounts and data. You may shut computers down after you have finished, to prevent remote access, but first check with your I.T. department -- their backup system may need to keep your computer running at night.
Nothing on the Internet is necessarily what it claims to be. Email and instant messages may not necessarily be from your friends and colleagues. (It's very easy for a person or a malicious program to spoof a message sender's name.) Don't open unsolicited messages from banks or the IRS.
Keep backup copies of your important documents and files. Check with your computing support person or I.T. department: they may regularly
back up Your Documents or other portions of your computer's hard disk. They may also provide a file server's disk for storage via your office LAN (Local Area Network). These are usually backed up to tape each night. Ask now before you lose or damage any files.