Security Guards

Last month, Live Wire discussed how Wirettes can maintain a certain mystery about them when computing. This month, we turn to privacy's Siamese twin, security. Privacy preserves your anonymity and lowers access to you. Security gives you ways to do both, while also protecting your computer data from theft, loss or - horrors! - corruption.

It's worth the effort. Home PC users can protect, say, financial data-everything from your checkbook to tax records and retirement plans. Small-business owners can protect their livelihoods, from billing records to actual client files. And employees of larger organizations can protect vital competitive information. All of this information shares one thing in common: it's impossible to replace.

With thanks to Lance Hoffman, professor of computer science at George Washington University and director of the School of Engineering's Cyperspace Policy Institute, here are some tips on staying secure.

First, assess your needs. What are the risks to your information? What do you have to protect, and how much is it worth? Draw the security line at a level that's right for you. You want a reasonable way to recover from theft, loss or disaster-without measures that dramatically disrupt or limit your daily routine. Decide how much you're willing to do, then do it-faithfully. As with any security plan, consistency's the key.

Protect your property-your machine-and its more important commodity, the information you store on it. Insurance can help with physical property, your hardware; check with your agent about the special riders that cover home computers or home-office equipment. Save receipts and keep an up-to-date inventory of your hardware and software (both systems and applications), including purchase date, price and serial number. Then stash a paper copy of this inventory in your safe deposit box or spouse's office-somewhere secure away from your computer and the threat of fire, flood and other freakish fun.

Your personal files-whether love letters or product-development plans-are another matter. Passwords and back-ups are the big helps here.

Hoffman says people are careless with passwords. Wirettes, are you? Do you give your password to your secretary so he can retrieve files while you're on a business trip? Would you give away the code to your bank ATM card? If you can't or won't keep your password to yourself, then be sure your PC doesn't have anything you wouldn't want someone else to see -- such as letters to prospective employers.

"Pick a password that's not in the dictionary," Hoffman advises. Plus: No pet names, either animal or human. No anniversaries, birthdays or addresses. Some systems ask you to use special characters in your password, or combine alphabet letters with numbers. For example, you can substitute the number "1" for any "l" letters, or the number 0 for the letter O. Hoffman advises picking a song title or catch phrase that you'll remember and using its first letters as your password. How about ILMHISF? I left my heart in San Francisco, too.

You must also back up your data. Sure, it's a nuisance-but consider the alternative. Besides, newer software and storage devices automate backups and make them go faster. Live Wire would not exaggerate: You must be more paranoid than John Malkovich in a Hollywood thriller. Back up (make a compressed copy of) your files according to a regular schedule. Use software that runs this job daily, automatically, on files that have changed. Then, every week or so, make a complete copy of your hard drive and send it packing. Why, Mr. Live Wire routinely takes a tape cartridge with the contents of his beloved's C: drive to his office and brings back the previous tape for re-use. It's a small-scale version of how big companies send files by cable to an off-site data warehouse.

Hoffman also suggests that you think about who comes into your home or office. Is there anything you wouldn't want your kids to know or play with? If you're at work, your employer owns your PC part and parcel. Try whatever security devices seem most convenient and suit your needs, from keyboard locks to software controls, including code that "encrypts" your files like secret spy stuff.

A virus could cripple your computer or disable your data to the point where it might as well have been stolen. "Don't swap media such as diskettes with people you don't trust," says Hoffman. Even a trusted source can pick up a virus; install an anti-virus program on your hard drive and let it scan for bugs automatically. Make sure you update the program monthly with new inoculation files, available from the software maker via the Web or a dial-up bulletin board. And don't open any file attached to E-mail from a stranger.

Security is more complex when you get on a network-whether you're on a company's local area loop or on the Internet. For one, in June, Netscape announced that a bug in its Navigator browser could allow savvy Web site owners to peer into anything on your hard drive-an unnerving discovery. It's up to you to obtain any software "fixes" and, well, fix it. The Navigator flaw is a prime example of how networking allows unprecedented access to files we once thought private.

"If you want basic protection," says Hoffman, "err on the side of security and not utility." Using sensible passwords, doing daily backups, sending data off-site, and scanning for and disabling viruses, don't have to make computer use a drag. Rather, these precautions structure your computer use and help you handle it responsibly. Think of it as safer techs.