Mention computer security, and most people immediately start thinking about software options. Software can offer a variety of security options that protect information from hackers, but they aren’t the only option. Hardware options, called dongles, can also help protect your computer from hackers and thieves.
The Advantage of Security Hardware
Security software can make it harder for someone to access your computer from a mobile location, but it doesn’t always offer the protection you need when a thief has your computer sitting right in front of him. Given enough time, a computer-savvy thief can break your password and browse your files freely.
Dongles, however, make it much more difficult. Dongles are small pieces of hardware that you connect to your computer via its USB port. When you insert the dongle, your computer asks it for a pass key. Without the dongle, the computer will not start.
Advanced Hardware Technology
Today’s dongles offer much more effective security measures than those used a decade or two ago. Older dongles were easy for hackers to replicate. They simply had to discover the pass key and load it into a similar device. Voila, they could bypass the security measure by recreating the dongle.
The most recently developed security hardware, however, uses encrypted pass keys that make it much more difficult for hackers to replicate. It takes much more than acing a few online Bachelors programs in computer science to break these codes.
If you are serious about protecting the information on your computer, then consider using software and hardware options. That way, you have protected yourself from theft in the virtual world and the real world.
