How To Make Your Computer Protected Against Viruses
December 7, 2009 by Dorthy Weatherbush
Filed under Computers
The fear of getting a personal computer infected with a virus was not heard of in the early days of in its early days. Maybe because internet wasn’t widely used in most areas and there were no websites to visit. But after several years the story is much different. The threat of the dreaded virus is seen and has already cost a lot of machines to break down.
If you are asking yourself the reason for this unfortunate state that internet users face every day, there is no better answer than the advent of high speed internet. Most people in North America and other industrialized countries use high speed internet access, allowing people to go to a vast amount of sites quicker. Sadly, this also allows to unauthorized download finish quicker.
When the only form of internet access people had was dial up it would often take several minutes to download a small file. Any viruses or software trying to forcefully download themselves could be seen, and in some cases stopped. As download speeds increased it became almost impossible to stop an unwanted download. This led companies to develop pop up blockers and spam blockers to combat these threats.
Of course high speed internet isn’t the cause of the problem; it’s simply the delivery medium. Viruses and other malicious software were developed by people who hated certain operating system manufacturers. Some just enjoy making programs to destroy people’s computers. Of course the main threat has evolved from destruction to identity theft. This is usually accomplished by spyware infiltrating your system and monitoring your keystrokes.
Site names and passwords are recorded, and the data is sent out to its creators. The info is then used for identity theft related crimes. This makes having an antivirus software suite installed essential for safe computer operation. It also helps to have antispyware, adware, and malware programs installed for a full range of protection. There are free programs that are legitimate and easy to use, but some paid programs have all of these in one.
Some people are hesitant to purchase paid antivirus suites because most can come with a price. But if you take a good look at the $80.00USD for the program suite to the $400.00USD it would cost you to have your computer restored, the choice isn’t hard to make. Free and legitimate antivirus program suites can also help you to protect your computer from unwanted breakdowns. You can get the lowdown of these programs by the ratings they receive on websites and review articles.
Making your computer safe from threats is becoming a full time job. These threats that come in forms of viruses, spyware, adware, malware, pop ups, and a whole lot of other problems are in every corner of the World Wide Web. But there are ways to protect your machine, and save yourself from frustration and unwanted cost. For one, when going online, make it a point to keep safe internet practices.
This consists of avoiding suspicious links altogether, and ignoring emails that you do not expect. Make sure to have a firewall if you are using high speed internet. Oftentimes, built in computer firewall are not sufficient to protect your computer. And lastly, remember to back up important data on a weekly basis, just in case.
Dorthy Weatherbush keeps her computer healthy and in good working order by using Webroot. She gets anti-virus software, spy sweeper and much more with Webroot so she doesn’t worry about her computer getting swine flu! Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
