Are you using the administrator account on your computer as your day-to-day login?Many people do this, and as you might have guessed it isn’t a very
good idea at all. Doing so leaves your machine vulnerable to risks and
exploits; should you miss something obvious (a fake pop-up informing you
of viruses on your PC and insisting you download a removal tool, for
instance) or visit a non-secure website, there is scope for remote
scripts on that site to cause problems.
Files might be deleted, and drives can be reformatted. A new secret administrative account might even be created without your knowledge, and used by an attacker to monitor your activity, record keystrokes (anti-keylogging tools are available), steal your data and even your identity. The ultimate malware attack.
Unless you require administrator rights for a particular task (such as installing hardware or software) make sure you’re logging into your computer with a standard user account. Don’t worry about losing the Administrator password through under-use – it can often be recovered.
Files might be deleted, and drives can be reformatted. A new secret administrative account might even be created without your knowledge, and used by an attacker to monitor your activity, record keystrokes (anti-keylogging tools are available), steal your data and even your identity. The ultimate malware attack.
Unless you require administrator rights for a particular task (such as installing hardware or software) make sure you’re logging into your computer with a standard user account. Don’t worry about losing the Administrator password through under-use – it can often be recovered.
