Best Methods of Achieving Encryption Security for Your Laptop

There is nothing so irritating and time-consuming when the security of your data on your laptop has been compromised.

But there are so many companies out there that claim they can keep your data safe, even the operating system vendors.

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But what can you do to keep your laptop safe from prying eyes and your secrets safe from hackers and crackers? We look at a few good ways to keep your laptop safe.

Bios Password

This may seem like a waste of time, but most people will not get past the bios password, and this may just buy some time. For the normal curious snooper, this is quite a big hurdle and might stop them in their tracks from stealing your data.

Normally in the private environment or small business setup, it will be someone that wants to gain access to bank accounts. So they will be trying to use obvious passwords like birth dates or family names, you should avoid that.

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Disk Encryption

This is when someone gets physical access to your hard drive, and you need some way to prevent them from access to your files. This will typically happen if they did not get passed your Bios password; they would try to access the hard drive on another computer.

It may not stop the internet hacker, but it will at least protect your data from someone that has physical access to your hard drive. See this website on how to do full disc encryption in Windows 10.

Screen Lock

This is also a good way to protect your data when you leave your laptop unattended for a short while. You can let the screen lock after a few minutes while you are away from it and can only be opened with a password.

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You can easily set your laptop up to automatically lock with the Bluetooth settings on Windows 10 when you step away from it.

Firewall

Make sure the firewall that is provided with the operating system that comes with your laptop is activated. This will be another hurdle for the would-be hacker to get access to your laptop via the internet through your service provider.

It is not difficult to activate the firewall on your Windows 10 laptop at all and can be done by anyone with user experience.

Free Encryption Software

There are other ways of encrypting your data and passwords on the laptop that will allow it to be password protected. 

LastPass

This software will allow you to store all the passwords you used on the laptop in one single place that is protected. So with this software, it is like putting your notebook with all the passwords in it inside a safe with its own password.

Bitlocker

It comes with the latest Windows operating system and will help to encrypt your data locally so it can not be accessed. This software is easy to use and can be managed for different types of encryption of your data up to full disc encryption.

VeraCrypt

This is software that does the same job as Bitlocker, but it can be used with Linux as well as Windows and Os X. This software supports the advanced encryption standards and can hide volumes inside volumes to make it very difficult for those hardcore hackers.

7-Zip

This is free and open-source software that can be used to encrypt single files that contain sensitive information to hide it. The software features a strong encryption method and will extract most archived files as well as directories.

Microsoft Security Essentials

All Windows from Windows 7 to the newer versions have the ability to protect your computer from all malware and is free. In the latest versions of Windows, this is automatically enabled, but with Windows 7, you need to activate it to protect your data.

This software and the firewall that comes with the operating system is one of the first things you need to do.

Summary

Go ahead and secure your laptop from all those snoopers and hackers before you regret it later on. You also need to start thinking like those hackers who are evolving as technology advances, so they become better.

So instead of being worried about your passwords and online data, you can start living and let the hackers be worried.

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