Smith College TechNotes blog

This is the third in a series of posts on Digital Security from TechNotes.

Setting up an account password for your personal computer protects you from two kinds of “snoops”: hackers who try to login to your computer remotely; and curious roommates, friends, neighbors, or strangers who have physical access to your computer. For further protection, don’t set your computer to auto-login and have it prompt you for a password when the computer goes to sleep.

If you share your computer with roommates, friends, or siblings, consider setting up multiple user accounts, each with their own passwords. This will protect your information and allow you to control how much access other people have to your computer and what they’re allowed to do.

Windows XP

• How the right user accounts can help your computer security
• Change Account Password
• Turn Off Guest Account
• Turn On Screen Saver Password

Windows Vista

• What is User Account Control?
• Change Account Password
• Create a Password Reset Disk
• Turn On Screen Saver Password

Mac OS X

• Adding a New User Account to your computer
• Change Account Password (Click the key button to the right of the Password field to see how secure your new password is.)
• Turn Off Auto Login
• Locking your computer screen

On the same note, it is important to protect the passwords stored on your computer (for websites and online accounts accessed through an internet browser).

• Secure Your Saved Passwords in Firefox [Lifehacker]
• Safari saves your passwords in the Keychain, which uses your login password by default. So. keep your login password secret and don’t share your user account, or change your Keychain password.
• There is no way to secure passwords in Internet Explorer, and they can be vulnerable to theft, so be wary of saving passwords in IE.

Previous “Digital Security” Posts: Online Identity & Passwords

Got questions about security (or anything “tech”)? Leave them in the comments or email technotes@smith.edu