Just like your house, your digital devices can become cluttered and need yearly maintenance. This maintenance can be done any time, but there's something about spring that makes us want to get things in order.
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Reset Your Passwords
It can be tempting to just set a password and forget it, but not changing password over time can lead to compromised security on your accounts. It's a good idea to reset your passwords at least once a year. This includes email, online shopping and online banking. If you'd like tips on creating secure password checkout our blog post on the subject here: Staying Safe Online ... With Passwords
Update Your Computer
It can also be pretty tempting to just ignore all those alerts for updates to the software on your computer, but skipping those updates can sometimes mean security risks. Often software is updated to protect itself against malicious attacks.
Make Sure Your Computer is Secure
Another way to make sure your computer is protected is to ensure that your antivirus and firewall are up to date. Don't have an antivirus and firewall? Get one! This is the simplest way to ensure that your information is protected.
Delete Unnecessary Files and Apps
Files, programs and apps can use up the memory on your computer or device, so make sure you only have the ones you need! Take time this Spring to go through the documents, photos and apps on your smartphone and you might notice everything moves a little faster! And as an added bonus: the battery on your phone will last longer without all those apps running!
Clear your Web Browser
Have you noticed your web browser, like Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, is moving a little slow these days? Believe it or not, browsers can get slowed down with files too. You can delete these unnecessary files and still not lose your data. You can find instructions for this on the TrendMicro website: Digital Cleaning Checklist. You'll also find some other helpful times on that checklist.
