University of Tasmania, Australia

The following advice is designed to provide a few ideas that can help reduce your exposure to a range of potential problems. Following a few easy steps can help make your work more secure, minimise the risk of virus' and spyware, and decrease the chances of losing important work.

Strong Passwords

Try to:

Choose passwords that are at least 8 characters in length

Use a combination of UPPER and lower case characters.

Try to use numbers and special characters in place of letters.

Example:

Bad Password: password

Good Password: Z3pp3l!N (Zeppelin)

To test the strength of a password, try using the password checker available here.

Keeping Software Up To Date

Remember to:

Apply updates to your operating system and to the applications that you use.

Take advantage of automatic updates if your software supports it.

Antivirus

Remember to:

Always use an anitvirus package.

Make sure your antivirus software is up to date.