How Safe Is Your Tech? Take Our Free 3-Minute Cyber Safety Checkup

Most of the people who call us after a hack, a scam, or a dead hard drive say the same thing: I didn’t think it would happen to me. Usually it wasn’t one big mistake. It was a handful of small gaps that lined up at the wrong moment.

That’s why we built the Mt. Vernon Computers Cyber Safety Checkup — a free, three-minute self-assessment that shows you where your gaps are before someone else finds them.

How it works

You answer 12 multiple-choice questions across five areas. Each one takes a few seconds, and you can use the number keys to answer if you like.

• Accounts — passwords, two-step verification, and shared logins
• Backups — whether your files are copied somewhere safe, and whether that copy actually works
• Devices — updates, security software, and phones
• Wi-Fi — your router and who’s on your network
• Habits — how you handle suspicious messages and pop-ups

What you get

At the end you’ll see an overall safety score, a breakdown by area, and — most useful — a fix list ranked by priority. High-priority items are the ones attackers exploit most often; medium items are worth handling soon. You’ll also see a short list of what you’re already doing right.

There’s no sign-up and no email required. Your answers stay in your browser; nothing is sent to us. If you’d like help, you can copy your results and email them to us so we can look before we talk.

Who it’s for

Families who want a quick sanity check, seniors and their adult kids, home offices, and small businesses — realtors, therapists, law offices, nonprofits — who don’t have an IT department but still hold sensitive information. If you’ve been meaning to “get around to” your tech security, this is the easiest place to start.

The five things we see most often

After 20+ years of house calls across Alexandria, Fairfax, Arlington and Falls Church, these are the gaps we find again and again:

• The same password reused on email, banking and shopping sites
• No two-step verification on the main email account
• Backups that were set up once and never checked
• A router still on its default password, or more than five years old
• Computers still running Windows 10 with no plan to upgrade

Every one of these is quick and inexpensive to fix — far cheaper than cleaning up after something goes wrong.

Take the checkup now →

Got a score you don’t love? That’s what we’re here for. Mt. Vernon Computers can work through your fix list on-site or remotely, in plain English, with no upselling.