subject: Why You Need To Protect Your Computer From These 3 Nasty Threats [print this page] If you have a computer and you access the internet regularly you may or may not be aware that your computer is at risk. These risks come in the shape of viruses and various types of malware.
Your computer can be infected in many ways. These can range from opening attachments from emails that you have received in your inbox and from downloading files from untrustworthy sites. In many cases you will not realise that your computer has been infected until it is too late.
The following are the most common types of nasty programs that can threaten the health of your computer:
Virus: These are most lethal as they can do the most damage to your computer. They are small programs that can do a variety of nasty things from changing your Window settings, deleting files, scrambling data. In some cases a virus can render your computer useless.
Spyware: These are programs that will track how you use your computer when you surf the web. They will track which sites you visit, the software files you download and the products and services you buy. This is information is then used by organisations and online businesses to determine how they can sell their products and services to you. Spyware can also be used by crooks to steal important security information such as passwords.
Adware: These are mostly annoying rather than threatening. When these get into your computer you will be graced with numerous pop up ads appearing all over the place selling you everything under the sun.
There are many solutions that you can protect yourself from these threats as follows:
Anti-virus Anti-spyware and anti-adware
There are various software that can help to protect you from one or all of the three threats above. There are many anti-virus software that you can buy. The most well known are Norton and McAfee. These are yearly subscriptions that you will have to renew in order to stay protected. You can also download free anti virus software such as AVG. This software will help to protect your computer from threats trying to get into your system as well as removing viruses and malware that has already infected your computer.
When you use any of these software you will need to update them on a regular basis because there are always new viruses coming on the scene. You should also run these programs so they are able to scan your computer for potential threats that might have leaked in to your system.
Why You Need To Protect Your Computer From These 3 Nasty Threats
