Away Security

"edevils" wrote in message
...
On 12/12/2015 05:07, mike wrote:
On 12/11/2015 8:33 AM, Dave C wrote:
We will be away from our house for ~3 months. My desktop PC (Win 10)
will be left at our house. While robberies are Extremely rare, I would
not want my data to be accessable to any potential thief.

How can I best protect my data, from a potential thief, while away?

Not broadcasting to everyone in the world that you'll be away for 3
months
would be a step in the right direction.

Thinking about it for 10 minutes, I'd have to rent a storage locker
to store all the stuff I have around here that might help an identity
thief.

Many robberies happen when you're not away for three months.
If you have sensitive info on your computer, you might consider
encrypting it.

Good advice.

Copy it to external media first so you'll have it
after you forget your encryption key...or you get run over by a truck
and your heirs need the info.

The unencrypted copy should be kept in a safe place, though.


Any passwords you care about should not be stored on your computer.

Nor in any other place, I'd say. Only store a reminder, whatever works
best for you (and for you only).
If your password is "1234" (just joking!), then store "I am being silly"



I don't care if someone reads my emails. I do care if someone
accesses my bank account. That password should not be stored on
the computer. I access my financial accounts from a sandbox,
so it leaves no (easily accessible) footprint on the system.

However, if someone can read your emails, they could also access some
associated accounts by asking a password reset link being sent to your
email address. Not your bank account, probably, but some other personal
accounts, maybe.

Remove the hdd and keep it between your butt cheeks
until you return home.