While defragmenting a platter-based hard drive is a necessary part of maintenance, attempting to do the same thing on a solid state drive is asking for trouble. This can lessen the lifespan of the drive and cause errors. Solid state drives don’t use platters, as all the data is in a, well, solid state, so […]

Making a robust password is only part of the password battle. If there’s a publicly disclosed data breach that affects your account, then you’ll want to change your password immediately. You also need to update your online passwords regularly to hedge against the possibility it may be compromised.

All major desktop and mobile browsers let you create bookmarks for individual websites, which can be clicked from a list to visit the site. It might seem like a minor feature, but it’s a good security improvement, since it spares you from needing to manually type in URLs or click on links in emails or […]

VPNs are exceptionally useful for protecting the data that goes through a network, and data doesn’t get much more important than your financial information. Any time you’re on a banking website or doing anything that has a connection to your personal financial data, use a VPN or VPN-powered browser.

Someone who has some of your personal information can usually find more of it, and they might use it to open credit card accounts in your name. Protect yourself by setting up alerts on Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. It’s okay to set up alerts on just one of these, as the others will be automatically […]

Many sites allow you to upload “avatars” of yourself which are generally posted next to your username any time you make a post. You don’t have to use a real photo of yourself, however. Instead, use any other image that doesn’t reveal who you are.