End-user Computer Security/Main content/Simple security measures

=𓆉≅

End-user Computer Security
Inexpensive security

for	⦾ individuals ⦾ sole traders ⦾ small businesses

Simple security measures   /  Chapter 7

Put computer to sleep when not at it

When not at your computer, it may be a good idea to put it to sleep. The reason being is that if an intruder has remote control of your computer, and you only leave your computer locked when you are not there, without your knowing, they may start to do screen-visible things on your computer when you are not there. When you are at your computer, the intruder may be frustrated in trying to do such things because you are then monitoring your screen. So putting your computer to sleep when you are not there, may be a good idea in order to frustrate such remote-controlling activities.

Shut down device when not in use

Shutting down your phone or other computing device before you go to sleep is probably a good idea—it’s an easy precautionary measure. Doing the same at other times when they are not much needed, might also be a good idea.

Play sound continuously on computing device

A simple security measure to monitor whether someone, with physical access to your computing device that is near to you:

• ⦾ has taken it away from you,        _🄾🅁
• ⦾ is shutting down or rebooting the device

^{(as well as maybe doing some other things to the device that potentially compromise security)}

is simply to play some continuous sound on it that is heard through its speaker. This could be simply playing the radio on the device. If someone then were to take it away from being near you, normally you would notice the absence of, or lowering of volume in, the sound (due to the greater distance of the device from you). Also, if someone were instead to shut down or reboot the device (perhaps as a precursor to tampering), normally you would notice that too because normally the sound would disappear.

Do note though, it could be possible to replace the sound playing on your device with the playing of the same sound on another device, such that you don’t notice the occurrence of any of these security compromising actions. In light of such, it may be good to play sound that is hard for others to reproduce precisely, perhaps something as simple as music from your own personal favourites playlist.

Obviously when using these measures, screen locking should also be employed.

Chapter 6 Mind-reading attacks

Contents, Index, Foreword

Chapter 8 Broad security principles