employees should

Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know (McGraw-Hill Professional Education)
$3.98
I think we know that there are constant threats to our computer systems. Confidential information can be grabbed from us, and computer viruses can slow down or stop processing, as well as introduce plenty of unwanted material.

As Ben Rothke explains, that means that we need to use great caution in downloading (or even "upgrading") software, especially on company computers. When asked for personal information on the internet, we need to be very wary indeed. And, of course, we need to avoid giving others (even co-workers) our personal access to restricted sites.

Passwords can be tricky. I have successfully guessed a couple of passwords used by others, so my advice is to avoid using your own name (or even an anagram of it) or the names of your children or pets! Yes, I know that it is not easy to remember a large number of passwords, and that sudden requests of the form "Your password has expired, please enter a new password at once!" generally result in some of the most absurd choices of passwords. But you still ought to look at phrases and then choose the first letters of them or just use multiple short words, including a couple of numerals and a punctuation mark. These can actually be remembered, and if you have trouble, you can write down reminders that do not include the actual password.

By the way, you may want to be really careful when you log into any system. Some systems keep track of your login name and this record may be accessable by all sorts of people. If you accidentally type in your password instead of your login name, you really ought to change that password.

This book covers threats from worms and viruses, as well as a variety of e-mail hoaxes. It does discuss firewalls. And it reminds us that pocket PCs are computers too, and that their use can entail the same sort of risks as using a larger computer.

As this book explains, if you leave your computer unattended, others may simply take advantage of this to gain access to all sorts of confidential material. To top it off, they may even swipe your computer, especially if it is a laptop or PDA and not physically secured.

One can read this book in a short time, and I think doing so is a good idea for those of us who use computers, especially at work.