The following is our advice on what is recommended and what is a must for online safety:

1. Get an antivirus:

Think of this like your alarm system. 99 times out of a 100 it will deter the intruder or give you enough time to stop the damage being done when it comes to personal, irreplacable items like businnes data or the photo of your baby's first steps. To protect that, 3,500Ksh a year is a very good investment.

2. Don't Mess!

Windows can be frustratingly slow and annoying, but unless you know what you are doing, don't meddle with computer firewalls, software or user control. Likewise IT Technicians are notoriously stubborn but again let them unrestrict your machine rather than you accidently leaving a back door open.

3. What was that?

A common mistake is to accept readily what the PC just said. "Do you want to install xyz" a cool thing your friend just send via email? NO! You get them to confirm they sent it first, otherwise leave it alone. It is very easy to assume the identity of a person and send malicious stuff which you then install. Rule of thumb: if you are not sure, press cancel/delete until you are.

4. Backup, Backup, Backup:

It's not hard, it doesn't take long, you don't need to be a rocket scientist and it is NOT expensive. For small businesses or personal use, you can backup all the data you have, and will probably have it for the next 10 years for under 10,000 Ksh. That is 1000 Ksh a YEAR or 3 Kshs a day!

Blank CD's are cheap, blank DVD's are too, portable/removable storage is relatively cheap and availalble in all good Computer stores. The software is easy to use and available (free on windows) so spend 10 mins a week and never worry again!

Rule of thumb:

0 - 4 GB data          - Back-up using a USB Memory Stick

4 - 10 GB data        - Back-up using blank DVD's

10 - 500 GB data     - Back up using external storage

Online backing is great - BUT-with large amount of data, small bandwidth speeds and high recurring costs, it's a non-effective system right now for Kenya. That said, the arrival of fibre and the increased local loop speeds mean that this will be viable very soon. 

Most importantly for backups...test them. Backing up is great,but if the DVD is blank when you have to get your data back - it's acomplete waste of money and time.

5. SPAM:

Ah, spam, the bane of your IT life, ISP's hate it, you hate it, IT Technicians hate it.....everyone hates it! So why is it there? Well, like everything else ,money. People make money sending it to you, so they will keep inventing new ways to get it to your inbox. Ever missed a valuble email because it's gone into your SPAM folder? Well no magic needed here...  just good advice and patience.

Rule of thumbs:

1. If you want to register for every offer you see on the internent use an email address you "accept" spam in. Create a Hotmail (Gmail/Yahoo) account for it and then don't worry about the spam, because it will definately come! Just don't use the same one you use for personal/business emails.

2.  Use "whitelists" and "blacklists" or equivalent filters on all your softwares: Outlook, Anti-spam software, your email server etc and spend a couple of weeks "training" them on what is Spam and what isn't

This is definately worth the tine as it minimises both the amount of spam you get and also the genuine mail you lose in your spam folder.

3. IGNORE IT! Replying to it, opening and reading it, forwarding to IT support or similar just confirms to the Spammers that they have a valid email address to send their junk to. Delete it, mark it as junk or leave it alone, but never justify it's existence because it will only get worse.