IS Magazine Blog

Three Steps to Prevent Virus Attacks

Feb 07 2011

computer virus

For anyone who uses a computer, whether they spend time online or not, there is always a danger of getting a harmful virus that can do any number of things to you and your PC’s system. Not only is there a danger of losing system resources to malicious programs but there is also the threat of your personal information being accessed by hackers. While many people believe the only way to get malicious software like Trojans, worms and viruses is through infected web pages, it’s also possible to get them through e-mail links and even USB drives that plug right into your system.

In order to properly protect you and your PC, there are three things that you should always remember.

Take Precautions

It sounds simple because it really is just that simple. One of the most basic things to prevent virus infections is avoiding sites that look suspicious or clicking on links that were sent to you from an unknown sender. While it can be difficult to distinguish safe sites from hazardous ones, this brings me to the next point, which is keeping your browser up-to-date. All of the top browsers will have a warning system in place that will tell you when you are about to access a potentially dangerous page.

One last point to remember is to be careful when sharing files. As mentioned before, it’s quite simple for someone to send you viruses in the form of innocent looking links and files. For example, there are many circulating e-mails that are disguised as friendly e-cards or fun prizes that require you to click link for access. The moment you click it, the malware will quietly get to work while you sit there thinking it’s just a faulty link.

Use Antivirus Software

There is a huge array of antivirus software available to help protect PCs from intrusion and infection. Once installed, you can run a full computer scan to ensure everything is clean. If there happens to be an infection, the software will quarantine it to prevent further damage. From this point on, many antivirus software brands will not have automatic scans, which is when you will be required to manually set up scheduled scans. One of the great things about most of the software brands is in the event of a virus entering your system, not only will they quarantine the threat, but also do it silently in the background so that it doesn’t interfere with any other programs that may be running at the same time.

While it’s important to remember to keep the antivirus software up-to-date to ensure the best protection against all of the newest known malware, it will never be a 100% effective source of protection.

Get Someone Else to Take Care of It

In the event of a possible virus infection or other threat to your system and data that the antivirus software did not catch, you’ll have to get out the big guns with Stopzilla. It’s one of the top services available that guarantee the removal of all of the latest viruses and threats. Armed with a team of professional technicians, they will access your computer remotely, locate the threat and safely remove it from your system. You can contact the trained technicians through Stopzilla.com or by calling their toll-free number during their designated availability times.

Resource Box

Eva writes articles based on a variety of topics including software and PC protection. If you would like more information about the different types of software available for protection against computer and privacy threats, check out http://www.software.com/antivirus

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