Stay Virus Free With Your Computer

There is nothing more infuriating than getting a virus on your computer. We should be more focused on protecting our computers when surfing the internet and stay virus free with your computer. Why not check out Chair Despair: The Dangers of a Sedentary Lifestyle! which will help you to stop sitting at a computer all day.

Ensuring you have a good firewall and anti-virus is very significant. This will ensure your computer is continually protected whilst you are surfing.

The most legitimate looking website can carry malware and infect your computer.

If you open emails frequently, you need to be extra vigilant that you are only opening attachments and clicking links from people you trust.

Even our friends and family can get hacked and send us malware emails. I know, I had quite a few!

If you suspect a virus, then read this about Computer Revival and ways to know you have a virus.

Here is some tips below to keep your computer safe

Stay Virus Free With Your Computer

Install an Anti-Virus and a Firewall

The most important tip is to ensure you have an up to date anti-virus and firewall.

You can get free ones if you don’t want to pay out, but make sure you check the authenticity before downloading.

Windows has an in-built security system so make sure this too is always turned on/

Keep your computer updated

Another important note to make is to keep your computer updated with the latest updates as they are always bringing out bugs and fixes which can secure any holes there might be within Windows etc.

Ensure any programs you use are also regularly updated as again, this ensures your computer is running at it’s best and making sure any fixes are done to what you are using.

Avoid opening attachments and links in emails

We all get bombarded with spam, but sometimes we also receive emails laden with some form of malware or phishing.

Do not open attachments unless you are expecting it, if friends or family sent it, ensure they really did and give them a quick call or message to check.

Avoid opening links unless you know the email is legitimate.

Avoid Phishing emails

We will receive many fake emails from large companies saying we owe money, they owe us money, accounts have been blocked or warnings and so forth.

Even have emails from banks about our accounts.

Avoid opening any email that looks suspicious and remember that banks, government companies and various other companies will not ask us to share our log in or bank details.

Give them a call if you are concerned by searching the contact number online from Google. That way we can ensure we are speaking directly with the company rather than a scammer.

Take notice of warnings when opening links

When surfing, you may come across a warning from your designated program for surfing the internet advising to avoid this website for a variety of reasons. Click off straight away.

Sometimes we will visit a website and get bombarded with ‘You won an iPhone’, do not click on these and do not provide any details.

If you visit a website and it downloads something automatically, do not open it and delete right away.

Recently there have been updates on data protection including the use of cookies and internet data, as well as protecting your personal information you may have supplied to websites to order, sign up and so forth. There are many ways to find out more about this in your area such as Google.

Passwords

More importantly, we should be changing our passwords often to random letters, numbers and symbols.

This will help keep your accounts safe.

Don;t use the same passwords for your emails, bank accounts and other accounts.

Have 1 separate password for your email. Then another for your bank. Finally another for everything else.

This will help avoid your accounts being hacked easily.

Don’t use things like pets names, family names, abc123 or even password. These are the most common passwords that people will use and the easiest to hack.

Staying safe online is always something that should be at the forefront of your mind as it will help avoid your private details such as passwords, address and bank details stay safe.

*This is a collaboration post