Once a hacker gets access to your computer, they can look at your personal files and copy them onto their own computer. Most hackers are thieves, so if you’ve got a folder on your desktop with all of your passwords, bank routing numbers and credit card details, you’ve made it easier for them to steal […]

When you’re traveling—whether domestic or international—it is always important to practice safe online behavior and take proactive steps to secure Internet-enabled devices. Back up your contacts, financial data, photos, videos, and other mobile device data to another device or cloud service in case your device is compromised and you have to reset it to factory […]

Hard disk drives eventually fail, especially if they’re heavily used. If you have been using the same drive for 4 or more years on a PC, consider replacing or moving on to another device to avoid any unexpected failure. Also be sure to backup everything before switching, either to an external drive or a cloud-based […]

If you have photos, documents and other data that you don’t want to lose, you should distribute it across multiple locations. Consider using local backup options like external HDDs with cloud-based services to diversify where your data lives and avoid creating a single point of failure.

Viruses and malware can compromise your devices and result in data loss. To keep your photos safe, consider using a combination of online backup and local media. For example, you might pair Google Photos with an external hard drive so that you have multiple backups in case something goes wrong with any one of them.

Ransomware is not new – it dates back to the 1980s – but it has undergone a renaissance throughout the 2010s, to the extent that it looks almost nothing like it did in its early days. Perpetrators have enhanced various strains with strong encryption (CryptoLocker), designed them to exploit protocols such as Microsoft Windows SMB […]