While You’re On Vacation, Is Your PC Safe at Home?

Ahhh, vacation. Who doesn’t love it? An escape from stress, work, and the general grind of our daily lives. But while on vacation, is your computer safe at home? Or is it being targeted? What about your home itself?

Fortunately, some common sense measures will help keep your home — as well as your PC and the information on it — safer this winter.

Common Sense Trick #1: Don’t Broadcast Details

Would you go to one of these preholiday busy stores and loudly announce your vacation plans and your home address? Of course not. So don’t post this information online. This means on any of your social networking accounts. Remember, unless you have your pages specifically marked as private, anyone can access this information.

Common Sense Trick #2: Procrastinate on Posting Updates

Instead of keeping a running commentary on your vacation via Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, wait until you return to post the pictures, cute comments, and funny stories. If you want to reach out and share with your friends, an old-fashioned text message or email will do. They already know you’re on vacation anyway, and trust me, they really don’t want to see how much more beautiful the weather is on the beach.

Common Sense Trick #3: Log Out, Shut Down, and Unplug

Before you leave your house, it’s a good idea to log out of all your online accounts and shut down your computer. You may even want to shut down your Wi-Fi or Internet access as well. This way, you won’t have to worry about people stealing the information on your computer either from the outside, via the Internet, or from simply sitting at your unprotected PC and having a good look around.

By the way, I unplug all my equipment when I leave for vacation just in case there is a power surge. But that’s just me.

Common Sense Trick #4: Be Wi-Fi Wary

Finally, when you’re on vacation, be wary of using Wi-Fi Internet. Even if you’re on the password-protected Internet of your gorgeous Caribbean guesthouse rental, try not to use any account that requires login information. You’re better off using the Internet connection on your smartphone. If you absolutely have to login, be sure to change the password the moment you are on a secured network. And then change it again when you get back home for good measure.

Nothing ruins a good vacation faster than a horror story. With a little common sense, you can minimize the chances of a tech-related horror story happening to you.

And remember to turn to TechSperts when you have computer questions at any time of the year!

Featured image credit: 123rf.com