Password protection - the first stage of security information on your computer.

Using a password allows you to protect your information from computer:

unauthorized access (both on the person, including your computer without your permission, and from trying to climb up to you on the network);

from some (but very few!) viruses and trojans (mostly as "huliganyaschih" over the network - local or internet).

This implies the answer to the question - whether you need a password? Protect your computer password to anything if the all of the following conditions:

you firmly believe that in your absence no one to turn your computer without your knowledge, your computer is not connected to your network or you are confident that the exceptional honesty and integrity of all who have access to your network;

your computer is not connected to the Internet or other wide area network (in parentheses add that if you connect to the Internet via dial-up, spend very little time online and banned in your browser to perform such scenarios, the probability of an attack on your computer through the Internet rather small, whether you need in this case, password protection - decide for yourself).

If at least one of these conditions are not met, then you need to take care of data security on your computer, password protection and - the first step in this simple for you and very effective.

What's the password you choose? The basic rule - no password should be easy to open, password to be the most difficult. In a password should not be based on your name, birth date, nickname favorite cat, etc. There are more tricky nuances. So, according to specialists Microsoft, the Windows are best protected from hacking passwords of 7 or 14 characters, in addition, it is recommended that you use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters (such as handwriting, the lattice, the dollar, the dog, etc. ), where it is desirable to have at least one of these characters was present among the characters a password from the second to sixth (used in Windows encryption methods such passwords make it as safe). And yet. In systems where passwords are case-sensitive (as are almost all, including UNIX, and Windows), it is recommended to use passwords and lowercase and uppercase letters, with approximately equal and mixed. That is the perfect password in Windows - something like W% 5z_qS. True, remember these passwords ... th-th-s ...

Rule which is easy to say but difficult to implement: the password can not be recorded. And if you write it down (and how to remember, not writing down passwords, such as invented in the previous paragraph?), Then keep that piece of paper in the extremely reliable place such as in the safe. Often you can see a picture: a piece of paper with the password hooked to a monitor. And what is the degree of protection against unauthorized access to your computer? :)