We have all heard
horror stories about the damage a
computer virus can do to your
computer and many of those stories
are true.
The good news is that you can
protect your computer with a little
thought and preparation.
The first thing to be aware of is
that there are people out there that
rejoice at the idea of causing as
much trouble, inconvenience and
damage as possible. Which means that
you need a good anti virus program.
There are the big names that you pay
for initially and think you have the
best and they do come pre installed
on new machines. I have noticed that
many people didn't realize that they
only got free updates for a limited
time. After that you were only
protected up to the time the
software expired and any new virus
that came out after that date was a
threat. You could subscribe to the
updates and pay the fee of course
and stay protected.
There are other programs out there.
The one I like and use myself is AVG
AntiVirus. The software has a
free version for personal use and
one you pay for. The free one has
worked very well for me and I update
it almost daily and even though I
haven't purchased a copy I would
feel comfortable with it if I did.
The next thing is
understanding how a virus is spread!
The most common is via an email
attachment: Be aware of what you are
opening! If the email comes from
someone you don't know it's a
potential threat! Even if you know
the sender be careful, a virus will
send itself out from an infected
machine to addresses in the address
book on that machine and it may fake
a from email address the same way.
Many times when a virus is sending
itself out it will put something in
the subject field that won't be the
way the person in the from field
would express themselves, if you
know them you should catch that.
Bottom line is that I delete more
emails than I read because I'd
rather be safe than sorry. When I do
open an attachment I save it to disk
first, AVG scans it when you save it
so I know it's virus free.
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Another common way for a
virus or spy ware to spread is by
piggybacking on other software that
you download. If you just can't
resist the latest toolbar,
file-sharing gizmo, coupon dispenser
or email enhancer, you may be at
risk. Often these and other
downloads come with malware, free of
charge. Running a good anti-spy ware
program will reduce your risk.
Next would be when you are on a
website and a window pops up telling
you to install and run something.
Unless you are at a site like
Microsoft doing updates or something
similar the best advice is to click
NO. I have personally been caught
like that myself so I KNOW it
happens and believe me it can be a
mess.
Next would be sharing your drive on
a network. If you don't have to
DON'T. The reason being that you can
never speak for someone else and you
don't know if they practice safe
computing or not.
Finally there is all that removable
media, floppy disks, cd's, usb hard
drives etc. Any file on any one of
them could be infected. Keeping your
Anti virus software enabled and
updated should protect you but YOU
make the difference.
One other thing that can help
protect you is to do an online scan.
The problem there is it takes some
time especially on a dial up
connection. The one I like the best
is at Trend
Micro. |
