Protecting Your Information

Data breaches. Two words you really don't want to hear. Whether it's at a major shopping outlet, your local bank or your home computer you need to be confident that your information will remain secure. Michael Liddicoat, Consumer Advocate with Alliant Communications says usually the harder it is for someone to get into your information, the less likely that they will try.

LIDDICOAT: Sitting inside my business is the physical copy of the data and so I've got that in a locked filing cabinet which sits behind doors which are locked at night, which also have windows that are locked which I have a digital keypad that I program a special code into that's tied into motion sensors, heat sensors, glass break sensors tied into and interior alarm and an exterior alarm. I feel very safe.

He says the question is what types of preventative measures do you have around your data. The other question people usually ask is, why?

LIDDICOAT: You guys have things that people want. First is we're all employers so there's financial value in the HR information you carry within the company. There's also intellectual property information that most of you carry that I'm sure somebody out there would be wanting to commoditize and take away from you and put out on the market. There's also something out there that I like to refer to as the "if it's there I'm going to do it effect.

Liddicoat says the first place to start protecting your information is with anti-virus and anti-spyware...but not free versions.

LIDDICOAT: The next is complex passwords. Here's what I want you guys to get out of complex passwords. A complex password is considered an upper case and a lower case letter, a number and a special character. Here's the really intriguing thing, that special character if you add it on is a multiplier of 8 to 12 of how long it would take someone to break through your password.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.