How to Properly Protect Your Computer From Viruses and Spyware.
Install antivirus and live in peace!
Many of you have probably already come across computer viruses "face to face", although it is possible that free antivirus software was installed on your computer. So why did the virus hit the computer anyway? What went wrong? What should be done to minimize the risk of a virus infecting your home computer? Next, we will try to get answers to these questions.
What are we losing
First of all, let's understand what we are at risk. For simplicity of presentation, all software that got on our computer against our will be called a virus.
Here are some of the most dangerous actions of viruses:
Viruses steal personal information. If your computer had credit card numbers, usernames and passwords for accessing payment systems, etc., then you can easily part with some of your money.
Viruses, or rather, virus writers, take control of the victim computer and use it at their own discretion (send spam, attack other people's networks on your behalf, etc.).
Viruses are used for extortion. An attacker infects your computer with a virus that encrypts information on the disk.
Typical misconceptions
I will install an antivirus program and viruses are no longer afraid of me.
Have you downloaded the latest anti-virus database updates for a long time?.
I have installed antivirus, I download updates every day and am not afraid of anything.
I use antivirus, regularly download updates, and my antivirus has a heuristic analyzer. Even if a new virus appears, the heuristic analyzer (or proactive defence) will definitely detect it.
He also downloaded the latest updates to the anti-virus databases, installed the deepest heuristic mode that antivirus is capable of. And then he "drove" the code of his virus through all this deep protection, made sure that no heuristics would detect it, and got a fresh virus ready to spread, which is not detected by an antivirus program.
So what do you do? How to properly protect your computer from viruses?
What do we have:
- the virus is always ahead, the virus enters the anti-virus database already when it was "released from the bottle";
- the heuristic analyzer cannot 100% protect the computer from the virus.
Here are some tips to help you minimize the risk of viruses and other malicious code on your computer:
- install an antivirus on your computer, make sure that the antivirus checks not only files but also Internet traffic (HTTP, FTP), email (SMTP, pop3) and other Internet services (ICQ, etc.);
- Install the latest available critical updates for the operating system and applications. Enable automatic checking and downloading of updates (for operating systems of the Windows family and the Microsoft Office suite of office programs);
- connect your computer to the Internet through a firewall (firewall). You can use the built-in firewall in Windows XP, but it is better to install a third-party software or hardware firewall.
- periodically save important information to alternative media - CD-RW or DVD-RW disks, "flash drives", etc .;
- do not open mail messages from unknown recipients, remember about phishing and social engineering methods. Do not share password information, credit card information, etc. via questionable websites.
- Before opening an attachment file from a trusted source, make sure that the text of the message itself is trustworthy. Often, a computer infected with a virus spreads itself by mail, taking email addresses from the user's address book of the infected computer and adding some standard text;
- do not open questionable websites. Pomie: Free cheese only comes in a mousetrap. When visiting such a site, with a probability close to 100%, you will download some kind of "infection" to your computer.
Which Antivirus to Choose
Modern antivirus products for personal use from different manufacturers have almost the same set of features. It is rather difficult to single out any one of such a large number of similar products. Every antivirus is good in some way and bad in some ways. Additional criteria can be - price, availability of a Russian-language interface and good technical support (and its real availability for you), the stability of collaboration with your set of applications, etc.
Less rash actions and more common sense. That's all. Good luck!

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