De-Clutter Your Digital Life

In the digital age, cleaning is less about dust and more about data. Take a few minutes to scrub your digital life at least once a year to keep everything running smoothly.

Out with the old…and the really old. Still holding on to that copy of Minesweeper? Ditch it along with any other programs and files collecting digital dust on your computer to free up memory and make it run faster.

Clean up your contacts. Your address book can get a little messy if you don’t give it a good scrubbing every now and then. Every few months, clean out your contacts list — merge duplicates, delete outdated info and fix any format or spelling issues.

Have a backup plan. For many of us, our entire lives — photos, music, movies, contacts and financial information — could be wiped away by one computer crash. By regularly backing up your data to an external hard drive, you can make sure you never lose what’s most important you.

Every week, 140,000 hard drive crash in the United States¹

Beef up your security.  In order to stay one step ahead of cyber criminals, it’s recommended that you change your passwords on a regular basis (every 90 days is ideal, but once every three to six months is acceptable). For increased security, use unique passwords for all your important accounts — email, online banking and shopping websites.

DID YOU KNOW? It only takes 10 minutes to crack a six-character lowercase password. By adding two extra letters and a few uppercase letters, that number jumps to three years. If you then add just one more character as well as a few numbers and symbols, it will take 44,530 years to crack.²

Keep your kids safe online

Here are a few tips for keeping your kids cyber-safe:

• Get involved: Sit with your kids when
  they're online
• Set limits: Set time restrictions for
  Internet use
• Stop sharing: Teach kids not to share
  personal information online
• Install protection: Install filters to prevent
  access to unwanted sites

The best ways to back up your stuff

Cloud Services
Internet-accessible, cloud-based services provide storage that’s easy to access from any computer.

USB drives
External drives are available in a variety of memory sizes and price points.

CDs and DVDs
Writable CDs and DVDs are an affordable backup option.

Source: Allstate Ins.