There seems to be a lot of confusion about what is necessary to adequately protect your computer from the gremlins of the internet so I thought it would be a good idea to outline the 3 main methods we should all implement to make our computers safer from attack. Namely antivirus, PC firewall and anti-spyware software.

Make no mistake, there are literally thousands of menaces out there designed to make your life a misery. What motivates somebody to create a virus that wreaks havoc on computer networks is anyone’s guess but I want to concentrate on how we can safeguard our systems. And don’t worry about costly software because all my recommendations are free.

Antivirus Software To protect yourself from the majority of threats, it’s absolutely imperative that your system has antivirus software installed and running at all times. If you suspect your system is infected, you should perform a full system scan immediately. The longer you put it off, the more damage can occur. If your system takes longer to boot up, longer to open programs, displays unexpected pop-ups and generally performs sluggishly, chances are you have a virus or spyware infection. One of the most popular antivirus programs is AVG Anti-Virus Free which can be downloaded at:

http://free.grisoft.com/softw/70free/setup/avg75free_432a861.exe.

PC Firewall Connecting to the Internet is a two way exercise. While you visit your favourite sites, hackers can visit your computer. Hackers want to steal your personal data, such as bank account numbers and passwords. They also want to hijack you computer to launch attacks on other computers, even on entire networks. All this can be done without your knowledge.
You can prevent hacker attacks by installing a PC firewall. This will stop unauthorised access your computer and at the same time allows your computer complete, unrestricted access to the Internet. Although antivirus software protects you from known viruses and can help clean up after a virus attack, a PC firewall is needed to block unauthorised access to your computer and protect against malicious software and Internet threats. One of the most popular PC Firewall programs avaliable is ZoneAlarm which can be downloaded at

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp.

Anti-Spyware Many people underestimate the harm that spyware can do to their computer. Spyware has surpassed viruses as the #1 threat to identity theft. Spyware sometimes referred to as Malware performs a range of behaviours such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of your computer. Symptoms include pop-up adverts when you are not online, your browsers home page changing, unwanted toolbars appearing on your browser, a general slowdown in performance and sudden increase in erratic system crashes. Spyware can be introduced to your system when installing new programs or via Phishing. Phishing is when a fraudulent email encourages you to supply personal information such as credit card numbers or usernames for bank accounts. There are a few popular Anti-spyware programs available.

Spybot-Search & Destroy can be downloaded at:

http://www.safer-networking.org

Microsoft Windows Defender can be downloaded at:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware can be downloaded at:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/.

In closing, I cannot stress more the importance of installing antivirus, PC firewall and anti-spyware software on your system. I hope this post gives you enough information to protect your system from harm. As always, please contact me if you have any questions.

Jon