12:03 PM
Kinsz
Computers run such a lot of our lives these days. They run our payroll, our bank account, our school and business records, our governments and, for many individuals, our entertainment, so anything that disrupts computers has the potential to entirely muck up our lives temporarily.
This state of affairs is awful enough, but there are also people out there who get their thrills out of composing and releasing viruses to infect our computers and screw up our lives. I am not talking about criminals, we have always had to put up with them, I mean kids and others who write and release viruses to damage our computers for fun.
These days, a lot of families are dispersed because members have travelled to other cities to study or work and sometimes this means going to other countries too. Most of these people rely on computers and the Net to stay in touch. A infection could mean the disruption of these contacts and even the obliteration of family photo albums.
You might come to the conclusion that we rely on computers too much and lots of people would agree with you, especially those who have lost crucial information to computer viruses. At worst, you could have your identity stolen and have our financial life completely disrupted, but even losing your computer for a couple of days whilst it is repaired 'in the shop' is bad enough.
In my case, this would mean loss of earnings, for others it may mean a violation of privacy or even theft. So, what can we do to protect ourselves?
Antivirus software is the solution.
Antivirus software used to mean a program to scan files coming into your computer, but nowadays it means much more. Decent AV software will now include a firewall to protect your computer from being hacked and a malware scanner to stop incoming files from dropping trojans and worms etc onto your hard disk.
These small programs can read the keys that you press and send the data back to their creator. These key presses can be analyzed to disclose your preferences on search engines (in order to spam you) or your log in details to your bank (in order to steal from you).
So, you have to install either a good antivirus software suite, which will include all of the above or you could get the components individually. Not so long ago, you would have had to purchase all these things, but now some are built into Windows. Windows now comes with a firewall and antivirus software, which will also scan email.
This is good enough for most users, but if you want to take your computer's safety to another level, you ought to add a dedicated malware scanner, of which there are many good free ones. If you find that it takes too much time to run two or three individual programs and keep them up to date or if you want a higher degree of protection, you might consider purchasing an AV software suite.
There are plenty of good ones like Norton, Nod, Kaspersky and others which cost little more than $30 a year for absolute peace of mind.
This state of affairs is awful enough, but there are also people out there who get their thrills out of composing and releasing viruses to infect our computers and screw up our lives. I am not talking about criminals, we have always had to put up with them, I mean kids and others who write and release viruses to damage our computers for fun.
These days, a lot of families are dispersed because members have travelled to other cities to study or work and sometimes this means going to other countries too. Most of these people rely on computers and the Net to stay in touch. A infection could mean the disruption of these contacts and even the obliteration of family photo albums.
You might come to the conclusion that we rely on computers too much and lots of people would agree with you, especially those who have lost crucial information to computer viruses. At worst, you could have your identity stolen and have our financial life completely disrupted, but even losing your computer for a couple of days whilst it is repaired 'in the shop' is bad enough.
In my case, this would mean loss of earnings, for others it may mean a violation of privacy or even theft. So, what can we do to protect ourselves?
Antivirus software is the solution.
Antivirus software used to mean a program to scan files coming into your computer, but nowadays it means much more. Decent AV software will now include a firewall to protect your computer from being hacked and a malware scanner to stop incoming files from dropping trojans and worms etc onto your hard disk.
These small programs can read the keys that you press and send the data back to their creator. These key presses can be analyzed to disclose your preferences on search engines (in order to spam you) or your log in details to your bank (in order to steal from you).
So, you have to install either a good antivirus software suite, which will include all of the above or you could get the components individually. Not so long ago, you would have had to purchase all these things, but now some are built into Windows. Windows now comes with a firewall and antivirus software, which will also scan email.
This is good enough for most users, but if you want to take your computer's safety to another level, you ought to add a dedicated malware scanner, of which there are many good free ones. If you find that it takes too much time to run two or three individual programs and keep them up to date or if you want a higher degree of protection, you might consider purchasing an AV software suite.
There are plenty of good ones like Norton, Nod, Kaspersky and others which cost little more than $30 a year for absolute peace of mind.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the cheap antivirus software. If you have an interest in such software, please go over to our website now at Computer Antivirus Software
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