Scott Larson Consulting

If you make hasty choices while using your computer, no protection in the world will help you. You must think about what you are or are not capable of and adjust your habits accordingly.

1. Do you become agitated when something isn't going smoothly?

2. Does your curiosity get you into trouble?

3. Do you become so invested in what you are doing on your computer that you forget to take breaks and take in the world around you?

4. Do you use your computer when you are emotionally unstable?

    

If you find yourself being a repeated victim of, "your own worst enemy" syndrome here are some questions you need to ask yourself. If you answer yes to any of them its time to start thinking about how you are going to handle yourself the next time it happens.

Here is how I answered some of these questions to give you an idea of what you can do to be your own protector.

Do you become agitated when something isn't going smoothly?
(Causes most people to make mistakes)

Yes from time to time. What can I do in these situations?

1. Take three deep breaths before continuing.

2. Move onto something else for the time being.

1. Take a 10 minute break.

    

Does your curiosity get you into trouble?
(Causes most people to put themselves in situations they would rather not be in)

Yes.

1. Is this really worth it?

2. What if something happens and I don't know enough to fix it.

I know all of this sounds crazy, but hey trying new things almost always gets you different results. So on A sheet of people take some time and write down your answers to these questions. Post it near your computer and when ever you get into a situation that is going to get you into trouble, remember you have some ways to respond. You don't have to feel powerless.

Things that are out of your control for the most part.

Browsing the net keeps getting more dangerous even with all of the security software that is out there, and even visiting legitimate websites you are familiar with. Legitimate websites use 3^rd parties to serve up advertisements and sometimes those adverts have malicious payloads. To protect yourself I recommend you stop using Internet Explorer right now and switch to Firefox. From a security standpoint, Firefox is built better for security.

Firefox by itself is still vulnerable to threats, So I recommend you download and install the no script plugin. Here is a guide that shows you how to do that. NO script has some basic protection against attacks from website advertisements and let you control which sites are able to run content on your computer.