Young people love their tech, and love sharing content — movies, music, pictures, software and games, not to mention information for classwork and projects. They also go all over the Internet to make purchases, sign up to websites and access information, often putting important personal and financial data online. The fact that most colleges do not offer great Internet in dorms or on campus can only mean that there’s often a great deal of sharing that goes on.

The problem is that as tech savvy as college students usually are, they haven’t had much experience facing up to the consequences of carelessness. Malware infections could wipe out important data, projects included, lose people money, and spread among friends.

There is of the problem of actual theft and damage, too

Hundreds of colleges publish detailed antitheft guides for the benefit of students. They do it because it’s a prevalent problem — each campus reports around 100 laptop test thefts each year. Libraries, study areas and cafés tend to be high-risk areas.

Colleges aren’t well-prepared

Going by a study by BitSight Technologies, colleges simply aren’t well-prepared when it comes to protecting the interests of their students when they use their tech in college. Not only do college students experience high levels of infections by trojans, worms and viruses, there is often the possibility of adware infection, as well. Surprisingly, Apple computers, which tend to be popular on campuses, tend to be particularly under assault with malware such as Flashback that is specific to OS X. Colleges are not particularly well-prepared against physical theft, either. Most colleges do not buy insurance to cover their students. It’s every man for himself.

Students, who tend to be under considerable financial strain paying for college, can hardly afford to have their tech stuff damaged by malware, to lose money to identity theft (which tends to be a particularly serious problem in Britain), or to lose or break their stuff. It’s important to take precautions. 

Protecting your tech against online attacks

Malware: Colleges tend to offer students free anti-malware scanning and security software such as antivirus. It’s always a good idea to ask for it, rather than pay. When it comes to mobile devices, it’s important to use devices that haven’t been jailbroken or rooted. These processes can undermine inbuilt security measures. It is also important to learn how to discriminate between good software and bad (usually free) software.

Theft of financial information: Since students tend to do a lot of their internet use at public access points such as cafés and libraries, they tend to be exposed to a far greater level of risk than people who do their work at home. It’s important to remember to never access bank accounts or use credit cards at public places. It’s a far better option to do such work on a safe, personal connection — such as might be provided on a mobile Internet access plan. 

Protecting your tech against physical damage

College tech stuff tends to not be very long-lived. Whether it is dropping a laptop or gaming console or spilling liquid in one, bad things happen to good equipment in colleges. Improper use is also a prevalent problem. Students, for instance, may attempt to save money on their personal printers by using ink refill kits, or purchasing remanufactured cartridges at stationery stores. It’s a far better idea both for print quality and equipment life to simply look for discount cartridges online. Discount HP, Epson and Canon ink cartridges can be sourced here, for instance.

Protecting against theft

Finally, making sure that no one steals your stuff comes down to simple common sense — you don’t want to leave your equipment in a dorm room that isn’t locked, or leave it on a table at the library when you go to the bathroom. Theft is common.  Installing encryption and tracking software can be a good idea, too, if someone does get their hands on your computer.

John Sollars started Stinkyink.com in 2002, a printer cartridge supplier in the UK. He knows a thing or two about printing and he enjoys sharing his ideas and insights online through blogging.e