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What can I do about all of these Internet threats?

Viruses, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Blended Threats, Hackers, Crackers, Cyber Attacks, SPAM and Phishing. Will it ever stop? Probably not. So, the question of the day is: "what can I do to protect myself?"

The answer is..........a lot! There are many ways to protect you and your computer against known threats and keep your valuble data and personal information safe. There are also a few things you can do to protect yourself against unknown threats. The good news is, most of these solutions and tools are reasonbly priced, and some of the best ones are free!

It is important to always remember: the best defense is a good offense. Don't wait for a problem to find you, take a few surprisingly simple steps to protect yourself and rest easy knowing that you have just removed your name from the "easy target" list.

Protecting yourself and your computer falls into two catagories: good Internet practice and good protection tools. Good Internet practice is definitely half the battle. I never cease to be dumb-founded when a client tells me that they went ahead and clicked "yes" to question posed to them through a web site or pop up window. Most of the time they cannot even tell me what the question was!

The first rule of "Good Internet Practice" is never click yes or agree to anything you do not completely understand or are not expecting. For example, if you are visiting a web site and a window pops up asking you some random question or informs you that your computer is at risk and all you have to do is click OK to fix your problem, never click anything inside of that window! Close the window by clicking the X on the top right of that window and leave that web site. I can't think of any question that requires my response that is worth infecting my computer over. Keep in mind that virus and worm writers are getting good and figuring out new ways to infect your computer without any action on your part. Pretty much all you have to do is visit the wrong web site. Keep that in mind the next time you are "surfing".

Another good Internet practice is to not open any email that you are not expecting, period. Infections via email are probably the easiest threats to protect yourself against but are still surprisingly effective due to the overwhelmingly curious nature of most people. The promise of instant wealth, cheapest drugs, mortgage rate or software is just not worth the risk, is it?

 

 

 

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