Top Tips for Selecting Antivirus for PC Security

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The importance of your Internet Security: 

The internet has re-invented the whole way in which we interact with each other; the world has shrunk into a global village thanks to the internet and now people sitting in distant countries can share stuff with each other simultaneously. But with all this access, there also comes the potential for abuse.

The internet makes you incredibly vulnerable to external threats and exposes you to the risk of losing your personal information like credit card and banking data. Hackers can gain excess to your most intimate personal information by tricking you to click on certain links that take you to fake websites or initiate the download of dangerous viruses, thus the purpose of antivirus software at its most basic; implies the following three steps:

How Trojan Malware Tricks Us Into Believing It's Safe

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Subterfuge tactics has had quite a bit of time to evolve. Stemming from the infamous tale of the Trojan war where the Greeks deceitfully bestowed a large trophy horse to the credulous fortress of Troy. The Greeks’ plan to infiltrate Troy was a successful one because the Greeks appealed to the Trojans’ own self-worth. That is, the trophy horse was viewed as Troy’s triumph after an idle 10-year siege between them and the Greeks.

Software Terrorists: Scams and Viruses

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We've all been there. Emails saying you've already won money, pop-up ads that want you to click and claim a free prize. Online scams and viruses can not only put your computer at risk, but also your privacy, identity, and money. Each year, the number of trojans, worms and viruses steadily increases to a point where we can hardly feel safe while logging on. Here is the plain and ugly truth about this epidemic of computer threats. 

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Computer Invaders: 25 Infamous Viruses Over the Last 25 Years

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A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly, but erroneously, used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have a reproductive ability.

Malware includes computer viruses, computer worms, Trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware and other malicious or unwanted software, including true viruses. Viruses are sometimes confused with worms and Trojan horses, which are technically different. A worm can exploit security vulnerabilities to spread itself automatically to other computers through networks, while a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but hides malicious functions. Worms and Trojan horses, like viruses, may harm a computer system's data or performance. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious or simply do nothing to call attention to themselves. Some viruses do nothing beyond reproducing themselves.

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Keep Your Computer Healthy: How to Avoid Contracting a Virus

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What do you do to keep yourself healthy? Perhaps you stay active, take vitamin supplements, eat fruits and vegetables and get lots of sleep to keep your immune system strong? If you feel a little run down, you go to bed early and give your body the rest that it needs to fight off an impending illness. However, although you take care of yourself to prevent illness, do you take the time to protect one of your most important possessions; your computer?

Your computer is just like you; if it gets exposed to viruses and it’s immune system is lowered then it is at risk of coming down with an illness. However, rather than causing stomach flu, headache or sore throat, a virus in your computer can compromise your personal information and even destroy the computer completely. Even though viruses have a devastating effect on your device, many people pay very little attention to the health of their personal computer until it is too late.

However, there are many ways that you can keep your computer healthy and ensure that it has a great “immune system” for fighting off potential viruses. Here are a few ideas of what you can do to stay one step ahead of computer viruses and keep your device safe:

Vaccinate with an Anti-Virus Program

When it comes to computers, an anti-virus program is like a vaccination, it allows your computer’s immune system to recognize any invading viruses and stop them before they cause infection. You should always have a quality, trusted anti-virus software installed on your computer from the very first day that you use it. Every time you surf the internet you are exposed to countless malware, viruses and spyware so it is crucial to be protected.

Keep Your Immune System Strong

Every now and then, your anti-virus software will ask you to do an update. You should always click “yes” because this is very important to the strength of your computer immune system. Internet hackers keep coming up with new viruses and so your anti-virus software needs to keep updating itself so that it stays one step ahead of infection. If you miss this step, your computer could be infected by a virus that your anti-virus software doesn’t recognize yet.

Avoid Possibly Infectious Websites

You wouldn’t lick the handrail on the subway, or share a straw with someone in an infectious disease ward, so why would you hang around suspicious websites which could harm your computer? If you have a good virus protection program it will warn you whenever you are visiting a website that will put your computer at risk. Whenever you get this warning, close the browser window or navigate away from the website; it’s not worth the risk.

Be Careful What You Download

If you are like most internet users, you will probably download music, movies and other fun things. However, these downloads could be hiding a virus. Make sure that you only accept them from websites that you trust and that you scan them before you open them.

Know the Symptoms

Sometimes your computer can be ill for a while before you even notice, because you don’t know what symptoms to look for. You should have an idea of what normal pop-up windows on your computer look like and be able to spot the tell-tale signs that your machine is coming down with something. This will help you catch virus risks right away and fix them before they cause too much harm.

These are just a few ways that you can keep your computer strong and healthy and avoid a virus which will erase all of your important data. Your computer is important to you, so take the time to look after its health and it will run smoothly for a long time.

Taking care of your computer’s health such as by installing a program like&McAfee antivirus , will help prevent the loss of your valuable information.

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The Growing Threat of the Mobile Malware

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Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain unauthorized access to computer systems. While it is sometimes software, it can also appear in the form of script or code. Malware is a general term used to describe any kind of software or code specifically designed to exploit a computer, or the data it contains, without consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software.

The mobile world has not been spared from malware infection and attacks. Please have a look at a very nice information graphics about the current states of mobile malware.

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What to Look for in an Anti-virus software?

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Antivirus or anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worms, trojan horses, spyware and adware. Computer security, including protection from social engineering techniques, is commonly offered in products and services of antivirus software companies. This page discusses the software used for the prevention and removal of malware threats, rather than computer security implemented by software methods.

No matter how useful antivirus software can be, it can sometimes have drawbacks. Antivirus software can impair a computer's performance. Inexperienced users may also have trouble understanding the prompts and decisions that antivirus software presents them with. An incorrect decision may lead to a security breach. If the antivirus software employs heuristic detection, success depends on achieving the right balance between false positives and false negatives. False positives can be as destructive as false negatives. Finally, antivirus software generally runs at the highly trusted kernel level of the operating system, creating a potential avenue of attack.

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How to Secure Your Computer System

As we use the internet more and more for work or other things, the threat of online attacks seems to have increased more. Particularly vulnerable are computer which is least protected from the most common attacks by malware and viruses. Today, more and more people are using their computers for everything from communication to online banking and investing to shopping.   

As we do these things on a more regular basis, we open ourselves up to potential hackers, attackers and crackers.  While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others simply just want to use your computer as a platform from which to attack other unknowing targets.  

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Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure.

1.              Always make backups of important information and store in a safe place separate from your computer.

2.              Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently.  If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running the update wizard.  This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer.  Also go to www.officeupdate.microsoft.com to locate possible patches for your Office programs.

3.           Install a firewall.  Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet.  Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.

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4.            Review your browser and email settings for optimum security.  Why should you do this?  Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers.  While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you.  At a minimum set your security setting for the “internet zone” to High, and your “trusted sites zone” to Medium Low.

5.                Install antivirus software and set for automatic updates so that you receive the most current versions.

6.               Do not open unknown email attachments.  It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address.    

7.               Do not run programs from unknown origins.  Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers because they contain funny or amusing stories or jokes.  They may contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect a computer.

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8.              Disable hidden filename extensions.  By default, the Windows operating system is set to “hide file extensions for known file types”.  Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows.  Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.   

9.               Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer.  A hacker can not attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off.

10.     Consider making a boot disk on a floppy disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program.  Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system. 

As more people uses the internet to access more information the threats of attacks also increases. We must always be vigilant and alert every time we access information in the web.  Instead of getting the correct information sometimes things that we get from the web also have a of other issues that is connected with them, so we must be very careful in what we download into our computer.

How to Protect you Computer from Computer Viruses

Computer virus is just like its human counterpart where it infects quickly to a unprotected person. Computer virus has become synonymous with computer that no matter who you talk to, everyone has either had a computer virus or knows of someone who has gone through the agony of trying to get rid of the problem. Computer viruses are a topic that seems to affect everyone who owns a computer system, whether at work or at home. The companies that produce software programs that catch and delete these computer viruses are constantly updating their databases for virus types and definitions so that they can better protect your system against all the newest viruses. Creating virus protection programs is a multi-billion dollar business that is growing more and more everyday. The number of viruses being created and uploaded to the Internet is growing at an astounding rate of a new one every eighteen seconds! This definitely keeps the virus protection companies on their toes with research and development. 

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Because these viruses copy themselves to any computer system they come in contact with, the spread of viruses throughout a computer network or the Internet is a very fast and deadly thing to happen to your computer. Because computer viruses are a hot topic, they routinely are the subject of magazine articles and forum topics online. While some viruses do nothing more than frustrate you with pop-up ads or other messages, others are completely malicious and set out from the start to destroy the files and operating systems of your computer. 

Of the 53,000 viruses that have been identified and classed, more than 80 percent of them have been classed as malicious and capable of harming your computer system or data files. These computer viruses behave in much the same way as biological viruses by contaminating any computer systems they come in contact with. These self-executing programs are generally very small and work at damaging the way your computer works or by damaging or completely removing key system files. 

Computer Virus (Photo credit: willandbeyond)

As more and more people find out about the destructive power of these programs. They look for ways to educate themselves. In this way a great many people find out about virus protection programs and rush out to get the newest protection programs or they ensure that their computer virus protection is up to date. Many magazine and news articles about computer viruses have the effect of sometimes panicking people into believing that their computers are at risk. Having a good anti-virus program and current updates is one of the best ways to protect your computer system against virus attacks. 

This must also be coupled with good file habits such as scanning all downloaded files with the anti-virus program before opening them. It is always a good idea to take the time to ensure that the file you thought you were downloading is indeed the file you have. For instance, a file that labels itself as a movie file and is less than one megabyte in size is not a movie file. Movie files are generally nearly a thousand times that size and therefore, the file you have downloaded is most likely not a movie file and may in fact be a computer virus.

Computer viruses become a problem at the office when a virus attack manages to get past protection protocols put in place by the network administrators. All it takes is one person allowing some executable files they have been sent to open and start replicating itself through the network of computers to make life Hell for that company. Virus attacks can cripple office systems very quickly resulting in lost revenue and consumer confidence which can affect the way that stocks in that company are traded resulting in even further financial losses. That is why it is so important for larger businesses to have comprehensive computer virus protection programs in place. 

Computer Virus (Photo credit: willandbeyond)

These virus programs are much more detailed and powerful than the anti-virus programs that many consumers have protecting their computer systems. Because the fallout from a virus attack is much more financially damaging to a large corporation, the virus protection program needs to be much more robust and capable of protecting multiple systems within the corporation. Computer viruses are a hot topic among businesses simply because of the way that they can affect the company financially.

Computer 101: Simple Measures To Full Registry Repair

On a normal set up of any Windows operating system, an entire registry repair is impossible as there is no built-in Windows resource that scans your entire registry for errors with the exception of the Windows Registry tool. That tool may permit manual repairing, but it is nowhere near being beginner friendly. This definitely won’t be a major problem if you don’t have issues with your computer and most likely you will not if your system is brand new and/or you haven’t included many other products to it.

When you begin using your computer, the more often you install other software, go to various other internet websites and change settings, your present system will start to show signs of slowing. You could possibly experience random freezes if you don’t do anything about it. No matter whether you treat the condition early or not, it’s rarely too late to carry out a total registry repair to resolve just about any troubles you may have discovered. By following the straightforward steps below, you can repair your Windows Registry without taking any drastic steps for example once again installing Windows or reformatting your hard disk.

Remove any Unwanted Packages

Probably the most common reasons why people have problems with registry issues are because they may have many third party applications installed which clutter the registry. There’s a big probability that you may not be using some of them and others probably have snick into your computer in the form of ad ware. Getting rid of these types of programs using standard uninstall procedures can trim some clutter in the Windows Registry even before you start performing any kind of actual registry repair procedures. Try to un-install several applications as you can and restart your personal computer afterwards to discover if there are any noticeable improvements in performance. If not, your registry might have been damaged by adware and spyware.

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Scan your computer for Adware and spyware

Before you can undo the damage a result of the adware, you need to first determine if you really have any spyware and adware present. Attempting to correct registry issues beforehand could be a total waste of time as active spyware may cause additional harm or could even directly hinder the recovery process. Buy any good commercial anti-malware software program or stay with some of the no cost programs if you cannot manage to acquire one. Do a fast check for any Trojans or Trojan’s that may be found. Update the scanner to the most recent definitions and perform a complete scan to get the best success. If any malware are found, make sure they are dealt with. Regardless of the outcome, you must do one more step to complete the entire registry repair procedure.

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Find and Make use of a Good Registry Scanning Application

This task requires you to use the internet and search for very good registry scanning software. Almost all of the very best scanners require a purchased license therefore be sure to shop around for those with very good testimonials. Many versions permit a down loadable trial version that you can use in order to scan your laptop or computer at no cost. If lots of registry errors are found, buy the software program and do a complete scan while ensuring a back up application really backs up the registry in advance.

From there it is possible to relax as the registry scanning application does the rest. As soon as the scan is finished you can restart your computer and make use of the system realizing that you just repaired many of the systems difficulties.

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Computer 101: Keeping your Computer Safe from Viruses and Other Threats P-2.

On my previous post, I emphasized on the self practice of safe browsing. Meaning do not just surf anywhere but be objected, think first of what you really need to do to get before surfing the internet that way you'll be able to get the information the you want at much faster time and less hazardous to your computer. Another thing about practicing self safe browsing technique is do not just click on the link or any link, there are a lot of link out there that once click will open the box of bad news for your computer. Also email, your email is one another source of those potentially harmful threats. The safe practice for avoiding virus from email is that avoid opening email that you do not know. Meaning if an email has been sent to you and the sender is a total stranger to you. DO NOT Open or click it, for once you click it then if it contains viruses those viruses will be let loose in your computer even if you have a anti-virus. Is that possible, my computer being infected even if i have an anti-virus installed? The answer is very big yes. Not all anti-virus can detect all viruses especially those new type and variants of viruses, especially if your anti-virus database is not updated regularly. Wait what do you mean Anti-virus database? Well you see all anti-virus as a list of virus and there corresponding mark. The terms for this are virus definitions files or database. Yup each one has this list of threats and only the virus listed on that threat and all its variants is the only detectable virus for the anti-virus. You will need other type of anti-virus to detect others. But there are anti-virus who offers complete detection from regular virus to, malware, ad-ware and spyware. This anti-virus suite does not come free. You have to buy them. Most free version can only scan and protect your computer for a certain degree that why is it recommended to practice safe browsing and opening of email on a regular basis. It's better to be safe than to be sorry.

 

Another potential source of virus is the very useful USB flash drive that rights that very small but very big container that is very easy to use. You just plug it in and presto you have an additional storage space. This is also their weakness, if this Flash disk contains an infected file or itself is infected with a virus, chances are when you plug it into your computer your anti-virus will detect and remover the threat or it will do nothing and will allow the virus to load itself onto your computer's hard drive. Some virus the commonly infect this type of devices, create a replica of itself but the picture is a folder or a file. When the user click on thinking it was the file or folder, presto there goes all your files and folder. Imagine a virus that looks like a folder. You can verify this by viewing the directories in detailed mode. A folder does not have an extension name correct. In an infected folder it has a DOT EXE as an extension name and it is not a folder but an application as verified by the directories listing. What happen to the real files? Well it's there; you just can't see it because it is hidden. To view it you need to unhide all system files and hidden files using the file view option in the control panel. But this is dangerous you. All system files and protected system folder are hidden for their protection. Un-hiding the greatly exposes each item of being deleted or manipulated so be very careful. A word of CAUTION and WARNING do not do the things mentioned above if you are new or not familiar with the procedure, it may cause more harm than good to you computer system. I try to provide with a step by step procedure in how to it complete with picture on my future blog. So before you plug one of these handy devices to your computer make sure you scan them first thoroughly and properly. Also if you one of this does not just plug it anywhere and everywhere, this will minimize it from being infected by viruses. So practice self know and restrained in using these devices. And lastly but not the list make sure to update your anti-virus database or virus definition file regularly. This at least will help you in keeping the most common virus away from your computer.

Another potential source of infection is chatting; yup your computer could also be infected via this avenue if you are not careful and vigilant. What even in chatting? Yup that correct, how is this so? Well there are a lot of ways where you talk or chat with friends on the internet. Also a lot of programs that offers this kind feature and much more.. More than that in chatting sometimes you talk about a lot or you request a file to be sent to you, not via email, but who want it sent through the chatting software that you are using. If that is possible so the virus being sent thru is also possible, disguise as an important file or picture from a supposedly friend of yours, when you click on it to download it. It will immediately activate and infect your computer. So while chatting with friends practice being vigilant to avoid unnecessary problems with virus infection in you computer. Whenever your computer is connected to the internet and attaching devices to your computer, being vigilant and thorough will help keep your computer from being infected and therefore more productive time and usage from your machine.