Candlesticks

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Practicing Safe Computing
Brian Cox 3/31/12
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Practicing Safe Computing

• Develop a Plan
• Type of Connection
• Login Tokens
• VPN Software
• Computer Type
• Power Backup
• Data Backup

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Practicing Safe Computing
Develop a Plan
Computers breakdown, hard drives crash, internet
connections stop working, do you have a plan on
what you will do if something goes wrong? What if
you are in the then middle of a trade and gotta
get out? What are you going to do? Have you even
thought of how to recover.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Develop a Plan
I know of a couple that have included their data
recovery plan in their business plan. Maybe you
should too.
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Practicing Safe Computing
DSL or Cable
Ken Hodor points out that the DSL connection is
part of the telephone system that by regulation
is required to be 99.9 reliability. The
performance of then connection is more constant
as well. DSL is less likely to be affected at
peak times. Security is likely to be greater with
DSL since the connections are wired directly to
the phone company offices where the traffic on
cable are shared with other users in the area.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Hardwired or Wireless
Ken Hodor also says use a hardwire Internet
connection to an DSL modem and do not use
wireless due to security issues. It would be
very troublesome if someone stole your login and
password. There have been many security breaches
of wireless networks. I will only use a wireless
network in extreme cases. There are several
neighborhood wireless networks that I can pick up
if absolutely necessary.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Log-in tokens
Tokens are a device that provides changing digits
that are used as part of your sign-in
sequence. TOS will supply one to you
if requested.
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Practicing Safe Computing
VPN software
Secure VPNs use tunneling protocols to
provide confidentiality by blocking intercepts and
 packet sniffing, allowing sender authentication t
o block identity spoofing, and provide message int
egrity by preventing message alteration Google
VPN to learn more.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Computer Type
Ken knows a lot, he also says Use 2-portable
computers with large high resolution screens
(1600 x 1200 or higher). These already have
built in battery back up just in case power goes
down and you have double modular redundancy. For
a big display buy a large LCD monitor. This way
you can get 2 displays on one machine. One
additional plus is if your connection at home
goes down, you can pick up your machine a find
the nearest Starbuck or MacDonald's.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Power Backup
A UPS will provide power to your computer if the
home power fails. A UPS (Uninterruptable Power
Supply) provides AC power in the event that the
AC power in your home fails. The backup power is
provided by batteries. The length of the power
backup depends on the size of your
batteries. The backup time is typically 5 to 30
minutes, but allows you to shut down your
computer in an orderly manner. Check out office
supply locations such as Staples.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Data Backup
Your computer contains critical personal data
that in many cases, is irreplaceable. If you hard
drive fails and you dont have a copy of then all
your data can be lost. This includes financial
records, person records, photos and more. Besides
picking the correct connection, the correct
computer type, hard drives occur. You must have a
method to archive your data regularly.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Archive Software Backup
There is a archival format call RAR that is
useful in archive files (adrive.com)
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Practicing Safe Computing
Data Backup(external hard drive)
You should backup your data an external source. I
recommends an External USB drive. You can get
1TB often for less than 100.
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Practicing Safe Computing
Data Backup(Network drive A.K.A NAS)
Excellent if you more than one computers, or want
to store lots of archival data including video
and music. For more info http//tinyurl.com/netw
ork-drive
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Practicing Safe Computing
Data Backup(Internet)
There are services on line that allow you to
store your data in secure internet data
locations. Typical services Mozy
(httpmozy.com)Carbonite (http//www.carbonite.co
m)IDrive (http//www.idrive.com)
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Practicing Safe Computing
Summary
Your data is precious and in many case
irreplaceable. If your data link is broken or
your computer fails to work, losses because of
pending trades can cost you a lot of money. Take
the necessary steps and prevent this from
happening. What is your plan?