A good question to ask yourself is how can you tell if your computer is safe? If you aren’t sure here are five things you can do right now to check. First, test your computer settings. A free tool to help you do this is Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, which examines your Windows and Office settings for any potential problems, especially contamination. MBSA also has guides to what settings are preferred and why. Just click the “What was scanned” or “Result details” links to read them. Also, pay attention to your shared folders. You may have opened up some private folders in the past, so anyone on your network can access files in these folders. Make sure you’re only sharing what you mean too. Second, update your browser logins. Only the latest, safest version will help protect you from infections and attacks. Just like an old browser, an outdated plug-in leaves your browser and your computer vulnerable. Open up the browsers on your computer, even the ones that you don’t use, and go to Mozilla’s Plugin checker. It will show you every plug-in installed on the browser and whether it’s up to date. Third, test your firewall. A firewall keeps hackers from seeing your computer online when they’re searching for victims. Even if they know where your computer is, the firewall keeps them out. But they’re not perfect. A port test service like PortTest scans your firewall to make sure your computer is invisible. If it can see you, so can the hackers. Fourth permanently delete files. Deleting your files doesn’t actually remove them. They can still hang around your hard drive for days or weeks. Anyone who knows what they’re doing can recover them. o confirm they’ve been deleted, fire up a file-recovery program like Recuva and see what it can even find on your system. If it doesn’t find the files you permanently deleted, you’re in good shape. Lastly, fifth, check your social media settings, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Your computer isn’t the only place you store information. What your profile looks like to the public or specific people matters. Having your phone number or address visible is not advised let alone an email address as well. Keeping those things private will be crucial to your success.