Top Secret File in C Drive, Not Cabinet

Recently, I came across an article, which discussed why precious Roosevelt papers are in peril of being sold to private organizations despite the years of monumental efforts to bring them to the National Archieves.¹ In contrary, many of the important documents announced by government today, are released in online. With the help of internet, we can easily read the full text of the State of the Union Address by President Obama through the White House website², pivotal governmental documents known as the Pentagon Papers³, and General McChrystal's report (declassified but still very important) on the war in Afghanistan.⁴ My point is that nowadays, the increasing ubiquity of internet allows at least some of the clandestine documents to be released to the public, partially under the passing of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

However, easier access means lesser security to certain degree, and this issue has been repeatedly brought up with the recent incident involving Google and unknown hackers in China. Hence, it is important that everyone knows the basics about how to keep their documents safe, whether they be work-related or personal.

Tip 1: Backup Your Files in CD/DVD

USB drive and emailing yourself are nice, convenient ways to keep your files safe, away from your computers. However, they are not best for "storing" important documents permanently. A problem with email is that emails, too, can be hacked, and with USB drive, while they are portable and convenient to carry around, they can also be easy to lose because of its small size. On the other hand, CD/DVDs can be easily labeled and stored in a safe place. I recommend either using Roxio or Nero for this purpose of burning the files. Furthermore, when you do make backups, I suggest you to label the date as well, so you know how recent the files in CD/DVDs are.

Tip 2: Own Several Different Passwords and Write Them Down Somewhere Safe

I hope that you don't have one of the passwords listed in this article. Having different passwords that are difficult to trace are crucial. One thing I recommend for people who have their lap top in offices or college campuses is to make sure that their passwords to the lap top and to the work/college network are different. Once you have mastered the craft of juggling several different passwords, consider writing them down somewhere safe and label which passwords refer to which websites. This is especially great for older people, who have difficulties managing even two or three passwords.

Tip 3: Use Right Browser and Security Programs

In my article here in Associated Content, I analyzed three popular browsers. My suggestion remains the same: stick to the Mozilla Firefox for safety reasons. Why? This is because Internet Explorer tends to struggle in terms of its development compared to Firefox. According to the words of the analyst in The New York Times article back in 2005, "innovation in much of the company's [Microsoft] software [Internet Explorer] tends to move in lockstep with Windows development, and that pace has slowed as the operating system has become larger and increasingly complex."⁵ On the other hand, Firefox has gone a series of development in a regular basis - a clear distinction form Internet Explorer. In terms of the security programs, my only advice is this: stay away from Norton Antivirus at all cost. Associated Content has many articles like this one that warns people about this deceptively helpful program.

Tip 4: Be Cautious on Clicking the Websites

After suffering through several computer crashes in my life, I have developed rather keen eye for discerning possible threatening websites on the internet. These internet websites often have words like "free" and "download," and lead the users to believe that the websites provide something that they would not normally access without paying. This is often likely to be a scam, so do not even click those websites. Now, for many other people who use computers for transient needs (e.g. only checking emails, catching up on news, etc..), they may not have had time to develop such perception. So, consult using McAfee SiteAdvisor. This is a free and trustworthy (at least for me) website to use if you are not sure about clicking the website.

Tip 5: Print Out Hard Copies

No one is perfect. Mistakes will happen, and no computer is completely safe from viruses, which often develop at faster rates than those of vaccines and virus programs. The only way to combat this is to print out hard copies of documents you need and store them in a cabinet. In other words, go back to the old days. In fact, I was watching one of the episodes of a popular TV show in USA Network called White Collar, where the bad guy (for lack of a better word; a villain did not exactly appear in this show yet) stored all of his personal documents in a vault with his cherished comics. Hard copies are the really difficult items for someone to steal, and no matter how advanced the viruses may become, they cannot invade your hard copies, away from cyberworld.

1. Chan, Sewell. "Bankruptcy Complicates Deal for Roosevelt Papers." The New York Times. February 2, 2010.

2. The White House. "Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address." Accessed: February 7, 2010.

3. The Mount Holyoke College. "Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Summary and Chapter I." Accessed: February 7, 2010.

4. "COMISAF Initial Assessment (Unclassified) - Searchable Document." The Washington Post. September 21, 2009.

5. Lohr, Steve, and John Markoff. "In the Battle of the Browsers '04, Firefox Aims at Microsoft." The New York Times. Novemeber 15, 2004.