How to Safely Store Important Documents on Your Computer

Let’s take a deep dive into storing files, such as medical records and financial documents, on your computer to help you keep sensitive information away from prying eyes.

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Why Store Secure Documents Differently?

Isn’t it adequate to keep your tax and medical files in your computer’s Documents folder? Maybe, but that doesn’t guarantee strong protection. Someone with a little technical know-how could potentially access those files and sensitive details, even if your user account requires a password.

We’ll guide you through several strategies to better protect your digital documents and share tips for improving your computer’s overall security posture.

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Securing Your Computer With Encryption

Start with the fundamentals.

Your computer keeps files on either a traditional hard disk or a modern solid-state drive. We won’t dive into the technical differences, just understand that your important documents live on these internal drives for easy access later. To make sure only someone with your password can read those files, you should use encryption.

Encrypting a drive ensures its contents can only be decrypted by someone who knows the password. Encryption protects your data even if a thief removes the drive and connects it to another machine for inspection. That’s why it’s crucial for storing sensitive documents.

Some systems enable drive encryption automatically. Here’s how to verify and enable drive encryption on both macOS and Windows.

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Drive Encryption on macOS

1. Start by opening the Settings app on your Mac.
2. Then select Security & Privacy.
3. At the top, click the FileVault tab.
4. Make sure FileVault is enabled. If it isn’t, click Turn On FileVault and enter your password when prompted.
5. When you enable FileVault for the first time, you can choose how to unlock your drive if you ever forget the password. We suggest selecting Allow my iCloud Account to Unlock my Disk.
6. After clicking Continue, the encryption may take some time, but you can keep using your Mac normally while it finishes in the background.

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Drive Encryption on Windows

1. Open a File Explorer window and go to the This PC area.
2. Right-click your primary drive (typically the C drive), then select Turn on BitLocker.
3. Choose Enter a Password and type the password you want to use to protect your PC.
4. Select Encrypt Entire Drive and choose New Encryption Mode when asked.
5. Finally, click Start Encrypting to begin. The process may take a while, but you can continue using your computer as normal while it operates in the background. You might be asked to restart.

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Using a Password Manager to Secure Documents

We at Savinly are big proponents of password managers — they make securing your digital life much simpler with minimal effort.

Besides storing passwords in an encrypted vault, password managers can hold important files and notes. Below we outline how to keep documents in our top three picks — 1Password, Bitwarden and LastPass.

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1Password

1. Open the 1Password desktop app on your machine.
2. Click the NewItem button, then pick Document and AddDocument.
3. Select the file you want to save into 1Password and click Save.

Bitwarden

1. Open the Bitwarden desktop app on your computer.
2. Select an existing item to which you’ll attach your document. For instance, if you’re saving tax files, you might attach them to your TurboTax or H&R Block login entry.
3. With the item chosen, click Edit and pick Attachments.
4. Select the file you want to store in Bitwarden and click Save.

LastPass

1. Open your browser, go to the LastPass site and sign in to your account.
2. Create a Secure Note, which can contain attachments. Click the red + icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.
3. Choose SecureNote from the pop-up.
4. Give your secure note a title under Name.
5. Click AddAttachment, then select the documents you want to save in LastPass.
6. Click Save to complete the process.

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Keeping Your Computer up to Date

Applying the steps above — encrypting your drive and storing sensitive documents in a password manager — will significantly improve the safety of your most private files.

Also remember routine security maintenance, including:

• Keeping Your Computer Updated: It’s vital to keep your system software current so you receive the newest security patches and fixes. Follow these links to learn how to update your Windows PC or your Mac.
• Ensuring Security Software is Running:Whether you use a Windows PC or a Mac, running security software can help monitor your system and block malicious programs. If you want a free option, AVG Free Antivirus is a reasonable choice.
• Keeping Your Passwords Secure:Whether it’s your computer login or the password for your password manager, follow best practices for creating strong passwords. (Hint: “password” is not acceptable.)

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