If you were a computer user in the late 1980s, virus infections would not have been a major concern for you. However, by the mid 1990s virus infections had become common place and this trend has worsened with the arrival of always on broadband internet.
Why is this a problem? Simply put, viruses arrive on your computer not to lay idle, but to do a job of their own. This is called the virus payload. In nearly every case, this payload will have some kind of negative impact on you, the computer user. Typical payloads include: to make the infected PC send out spam e-mail to others, to damage the host computer making it unreliable/unusable, to collect information that could be used for identity fraud or to frighten users into buying fake antivirus applications. The bottom line is that virus infections should be kept out of your PC in the first place. Prevention is much easier than virus removal, so where should you start? Below are some valuable virus prevention steps that you can take now.
If you havent already got some antivirus software, remedy this immediately. Remember that not all antivirus software is equal. In fact, some perform very poorly. What is the best antivirus software? Well, before buying, do some research, read some reviews & ask questions. Group reviews will always be more useful that someone giving their own personal opinion of one product. In my experience, antivirus software by itself is much better than bundled products from the likes of Norton & McAfee which includes antivirus, antispyware & firewall components all in one. These extra features are usually not all that well implemented, and their firewalls in particular cause no end of headaches for end users. Its much better to buy the best antivirus software that you can, and then look for the best antispyware application separately. If you are using Windows XP or Vista, it has its own firewall already which performs admirably.
As well as decent antivirus software, another vital part of your security strategy should be updating. You should update not only Windows istself but also other applications that you use like Java and Flash. This is because older versions of software often contains small faults (security vulnerabilities) that can easily be exploited by virus authors and hackers. If you leave these things unpatched, you are asking for trouble so make sure you spend some time each month getting the latest versions of your software installed.
Antispyware software has always been one of the traditional ‘absolute necessitys’ when it comes to good internet security. The reality is that moden antivirus software, no matter how good, cannot possible detect all of the various established and emerging malware. It therefore needs help and this is where a competent antispyware software will come into its own. Do you research to find the best antispyware and get it installed as soon as possible.
Learn your way around the internet. Just as in real life, danger lurks in certain places. You must learn to spot these dangers in advance and avoid them in future. Some things to avoid are p2p downloading, e-mail attachments, pornpgraphy sites and warez websites. All of these things carry with them a much higher risk of immediate virus infection.
Follow all of this advice and you will have a much better chance of staying virus free for longer.
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