Simple Security

I try not to be depressed by the following thought: Protecting a computer against viruses and similar problems is like protecting a country against bombings and similar terrorist threats. Worry too little about the danger, and you end up exposed to risks you might easily have avoided. Worry too much, and you end up sacrificing the very things—flexibility, freedom, simple peace of mind—you were trying to protect. Here is the thought that helps me avoid being depressed: In our individual computing lives, we have tools that allow us to set the balance of worry in a way that suits our own risk tolerance and taste. Not all users know about these tools, so here is an overview of some of them, plus guidelines about which threats are serious enough to worry about.

I am talking here about purely personal computers, not those that are part of ...