How to Protect Your PC from Computer Viruses
In today's world a computer is pretty much a necessity. Most of us at
the very least will use them regularly for simple word processing
tasks, sending and receiving emails and browsing the Internet.
Unfortunately with this popularity has come an increasing risk from
hackers and other people of malicious intent. It seems that not a day
goes by without a news item about some new computer virus, trojan or
worm intent on wreaking havoc with your computer's hard drive.
The threat posed by computer viruses should not be taken lightly. They
come in many different forms depending on what their creators have
designed them to do. This could be feeding back to the hacker
information held on your computer; slowing it down and making it
unstable, or even deleting files from it.
Computer virus programmers will usually disguise their wares as the
type of common file that you're used to using everyday e.g. an mp3
music file, or they'll send an executable program file as an email
attachment that gets activated as soon as you open the email.
A lot of the protection you can give yourself from these nasty pieces
of code comes down to commonsense. Don't open emails if you don't
recognize and trust the sender. Make sure the security settings on your
Web browser are set to 'high'. Try to stay away from the 'shadier'
areas of the Internet. Don't use peer-to-peer file-sharing programs.
Make sure that you have up-to-date versions of the two must-have pieces
of software on your computer and that they are activated at all times.
What are the must-have pieces of software that everyone should have
installed on their computer? An Antivirus program and a Firewall.
There was a time when you could probably have gotten away with just an
Antivirus program but, especially with the advent of always-on Internet
connections in this era of high-speed Internet access, this is no
longer enough. You really must invest in a good Firewall program as
well.
Because new computer viruses are being invented virtually every day you
should invest in an Antivirus program that checks for updates
automatically every time you access the Internet. Most of the top ones
will do this as a matter of course.
Remember, this is definitely one area where prevention is much better
than cure. Don't leave your computer vulnerable to attack. If you don't
already have a reputable Antivirus program and Firewall installed on
your PC, make yourself a promise to sort out that omission today - the
potential consequences of not doing so don't bear thinking about.