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When some people hear the words "computer security" they instantly begin to roll their eyes and let out a deep sigh. To some, security is like that aunt who only visits at Christmas whom you can't stand and when she leaves,
you do a happy dance and relax. If we loathe something, we're likely to come up with countless excuses as to why we don't want to fool with it. We also tend to trivialize it so it will seem less important. Putting off securing your computer is a lot like putting off your 6 month visit to the dentist. You might be able to get away with putting it off for a while, but eventually you're neglect is going to have consequences and you're might have costly problems down the road.
Here are 5 of the lamest excuses people give for not securing their computer and why they aren't true:
1. Antivirus Software is Too Expensive and I Don't Want to Renew it Every Year
One big complaint about Antivirus software is that people get tired of paying for it every year. Many folks let their subscriptions expire and as a result, the protection lapses.
What many users don't realize is that there are many antivirus options available that don't cost a penny. Some OS vendors offer 1st party solutions that are free of charge, others are ad-supported. There are also some solutions that include free lifetime updates. Check out About.com'santivirus site for information on all the different types of free antivirus solutions that are available.
2. My Operating System Updates Itself
While most operating systems feature the ability to automatically install security updates, some people don't have this feature enabled or may have accidentally disabled it. It's also possible that malware could have intentionally disabled this feature.
You should perform a manual patch check every once in a while to see if your autoupdate feature is working properly and to see if any critical security patches were missed.
Consider enabling the autoupdate feature on popular apps such as Adobe Acrobat, Flash and other apps that may feature the ability to self-update
3. Backups Are a Pain And Take Too Long
Backups were once a pain in the butt when the only medium we had available was CD-Rs or tapes. Now you can backup to "the cloud" as well or use inexpensive portable hard drives and high capacity optical medium such as writable Blu-ray discs.
Develop a backup strategy and make sure you have at least two methods of backup (online and offline) in case one fails.
4. I'm Too Smart to Fall For a Scam or Click on a Dangerous Link
You may have scam-proofed your brain, but phishers and scammers are building more and more convincing scams everyday. You might not click on something malicious, but your kids or someone else using your computer may accidentally visit a bad website or open a malicious attachment. One weak link is all it takes to compromise your system.
5. Security Takes Too Long / Gets in The Way / Slows My Computer Down
Yes, longer passwords may be harder to remember, but there are a lot of security technologies that have a very low-hassle factor.
Some security enhancements can be completely transparent to the end user. A personal VPN service installed on your router can secure every device in your house that connects to the Internet through it. Since it's implemented at the router, the users don't even know that all their traffic is being encrypted and protected from eavesdropping and tampering.
Using a security-minded alternative DNS provider can also be a low impact security improvement that in some cases can even provide a web browsing speed increase. Check out our article on Alternative DNS providers for details on how to point to a Alternate DNS Provider for enhanced security and maybe even better browsing performance.
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