How to Protect Your PC

So you’re cruising around on the internet, minding your own business. A few clicks here, a few clicks there and before you know it, you’re computer is acting odd. You thought you were pretty safe, or thought that the box that had popped up was just another annoying pop up. Uh oh! Now you’re infected, but you might not even know it! Or maybe you have all sorts of pop ups showing up left, right and center. Or maybe there’s a new program showing up that you don’t recall installing lately. YIKES!

There are a lot of threats out there and more are developed every day. I could go into the details of network security, but then I might as well dedicate an entire website or book to that, because there is a lot of information to cover. If you do a little bit of searching, you will surely find someone out there that has been nice enough to have already gone through the trouble of gathering all the information in one convenient spot.

For those of you who are curious as to what some of these threats can do, here’s a basic overview from of just some of the threats out there, from less critical to most critical:

1. You click a link or open an email attachment and you get:

• Popups galore!
• Programs that mask themselves as legitimate programs, but actually are not. Sometimes they will say “hey! Your computer is at risk! You need me, but first you need to buy me. Give me your credit card number.”
• You try to go to a legitimate website, but get directed to some other website(s)

2. You download something off a website that you think was legitimate, but the download has been compromised and when you go to run it, in the background it installs a backdoor program to either:

• Sit in the background and collect every keystroke you make (including when you log into your bank account online!)
• Corrupt your files on your hard drive
• Wipe or physically wreck your hard drive
• Get remote access to your computer and do what they want
• Make your computer send out massive amounts of email
• Make your computer become part of a botnet (network of computers that carry out tasks that the hacker can instruct them to do)

You’re probably thinking, “Who has the time to be doing this? Who is doing this?” or “Why would they do this? What benefits would they see from it?” These people are usually referred to as hackers, but that’s such a loosely coined term and not correctly used. Depending on the intent of the attack, hackers will either do it for one of two major reasons, but not limited to: the shear challenge of the hack or to collect information about you and your financials.

At this point, you probably just want to disconnect your computer and never to look at it again, because let’s face it, it’s just easier to not deal with it, right? Don’t let all this scare you, because there are things you can do to be better protected while you surf the internet. The best thing is to just be well aware of the risks and what to watch out for. By searching the web, you can find a wealth of information to help educate yourself about these threats. This can help you be more aware before just clicking that link, or opening that weird email attachment. You can find some good pieces of information and whole websites that are dedicated to helping guide you in protecting your computer system. A good start is heading over to http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1044
 or http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-protect-your-computer-from-hackers-spyware-and-viruses/

There you will find articles that will better explain all the components that go into protecting you while you enjoy your web browsing experience. Nowadays, security is such an important part of everyone’s world. Many websites (banking institutions, webmail providers, etc) implement highly secured connections for when you go to enter your financial or sensitive information. They put in place security functions (like entering security questions, picture codes, etc) to ensure your information is not compromised. So feel a bit more at ease, but don’t rely solely on this to protect you. The more protection you can setup for yourself, the better.

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After doing some reading, the first thing you should do is build your protection system. Start with the basics and work your way up. A good place to start is getting a highly successful anti-virus and anti-malware software package. There are a lot to choose from out there and not all of them will guarantee 100% protection and some will do a better job than others. Some will catch what others won’t and some will miss what others can do better at. One of the best pieces of software protection for consumers is Malwarebytes. At Northern Computer, we recommend it to our clients as we’ve tested many software packages, and we’ve found the best success with the Malwarebytes’ software. So if you’re looking to get a start on protecting your computer, come on in and someone will be more than happy to help you with all your computer protection needs.

- Jeevan T, Network Support Technician

Northern Computer - Your Trusted Partner
#1 - 495 Banks Road Kelowna, BC V1X 6A2
Phone: 250.762.7753 Fax: 250.861.1861 Toll-Free: 1.877.257.2896
Email: sales@northerncomputer.ca or service@northerncomputer.ca
Web: http://www.northerncomputer.ca/