Most people in the United States have a computer that they daily use and it is safe to say that everyone depends on computer functionality daily to live the kinds of lives we have become accustomed to as a society. Ensuring your computer is safe and in optimal working condition is a daily task, hopefully. Both consumer and personal use computers and professional or business computers are important to ensure the safety of. Humans and technology have a role to play in securing the devices.

The first protection is from the physical environment. Computers are meant to operate in dry, clean, temperature-controlled environments. Storing and using your computer in a dedicated space free from wet conditions, debris, and liquids is among the simpler ways to ensure your computer remains in an optimal condition. Unless ruggedized computers are sensitive to vibration and impact. The computer should be transported with the same environmental conditions in mind and with a protective layer that provides some assurance that minor disturbance won’t cause a breakage.

Ensuring your computer’s firmware and software is safe is best done with the help of other software tools. We can examine the situation in three parts, network, operating system, and applications. The network(s) the computer is connected to should be protected from unauthorized access using best practices. Other computers on the same network should be equally protected. The operating system and applications should be kept up to date with the latest, official, releases and patches. Most computers have a pre-configured mechanism to check for updates daily, but often rely on a stable network and power source. Users should ensure that when the updates are occurring the network is reliable and a constant power source is available. Monitoring for unexpected and unauthorized behavior is a human intervention that is necessary. If systems and tools do not operate as expected than that should be noted and investigated.