Computer Virus
Protection
Viruses pose great security risks. By the way they replicate and deliver their payload they represent one of the
greatest risks online, so at the very least have basic computer virus protection software onboard to protect your
machine from harm. You might say there are viruses that do not really do anything harmful. Their sole presence is a
sign of weakness and creates a security hole that can be exploited by other malicious programs. Never presume a
virus is harmless. There are viruses that simply infiltrate your computer and wait in silence for a trigger. The
trigger might be a predetermined date and hour. At that date and hour, your apparently friendly virus will erase
your entire hard drive. How does this sound?
To make sure nothing bad happens to our computers, we must make sure no virus will ever be allowed to infiltrate
it. How do we do this? We do it by looking carefully at computer virus protection options available to us and
implementing some basic security rules and policies.
Antivirus software
Antivirus software; its name clearly suggests what it is and what it does: detect and remove any kind of
computer virus from your computer. This is our second line of defense against these malicious pieces of code. We
are talking about it first because it is the most suggestive and easy to implement computer virus protection. All
you have to do to begin is buy a good antivirus and install it. There are a lot of great tools on the World Wide
Web, like Avast, BitDefender, AVG, Nod32, ZoneAlarm, and Kaspersky. All you have to do is find the
one suited for you.
Once you find and install your antivirus, it is time to strengthen it for best PC virus protection. You do this
by updating the virus signature database. Almost all of these tools have automatic updates. Turn them on and allow
the antivirus to update whenever it requires. This helps these amazing tools stay in touch with the latest trends
in virus creation, detect, and remove any threat.
Firewall software
Firewall software is a must for good computer
virus protection as this is the first line of defense against computer viruses. A firewall is basically a tool that
closes most of your computer’s ports. Whenever something attempts to connect to or from your computer, the software
will first appreciate whether it is or is not illegal. If it is, it will deny it. If the firewall is unsure, it
will ask you what to do. Never allow any connection your see! Read first, take action after!
Just like the antivirus software, firewall software must be updated frequently to make sure it recognizes any
type of threat. A good firewall will block all incoming viruses and the antivirus will stay idle most of the
time.
Backup
Backup is essential! This should be a major part of your computer virus protection strategy. Let’s presume a
virus manages to slip through our security suite. It will first replicate and then deliver its payload. Let’s
presume it erases the hard disk. Since you need most of the data back, you will look through your backups to find
the most recent one. You realize it is a year old. This is why you must perform frequent backups!
Email policies
Whenever you receive a mail containing an attachment, you are in serious risk. If you open the package, the
firewall is useless because the connection is legit. If the antivirus does not see the threat or does not act in
time, the bomb is ticking! So a serious computer virus protection strategy is to always delete suspect emails
without opening the attachment. Also, remember to turn off the “preview pane” in your email client. If the client
shows the contents of the attachment, even without your request, the connection is still legit and the virus is
released.
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