The world is full of scammers today that are going to try and trick you in a phone call or steal your information online. As such, sometimes it can be hard to tell who is the real deal and who is trying to hurt you. One of the places that you need to be most careful is your computer, and this is often the place that people are the most liberal. If you’re looking for ways to clean up your technological life and its potentially dangerous parts, here are some great tips on computer security.
Get good quality protection
These are tons of free anti-virus software programs out there that you can look at for your computer. While no one is arguing against the fact that free = awesome, there are some things that free programs won’t do that paid ones will. So, strongly consider the paid anti-virus software programs with the free ones and make sure that you are getting the exact same service. If you see differences, make sure you go with the one that is going to actually help you out the most. Free might be awesome, but it’s not worth anything if it doesn’t properly protect your computer.
Actually use it
This is the point right here. When you get the anti-virus software installed on your computer, you have to make sure that you actually, you know, use it. That means you need to keep the firewall on, and allow the computer to do its scans and updates regularly. It’s understandable that you want to simply say “do later” when you have the option to allow it to happen, but that’s how you get into situations of vulnerability. So, you need to make sure that you allow the scans and other tasks to happen on schedule. One great option that doesn’t interfere with your day would be to allow it to do scans when you have finished your work and are done with your computer. That way it can do its jobs without interfering in your day. There are plenty of options to explore this idea properly.
Use discretion when visiting new websites
Even with your anti-virus in place, you must be careful when you are using new websites, even if they look fine and dandy. Computer viruses are sneaky now days and it doesn’t take much to allow one through your firewall into your computer. So, make sure you are on a good website and don’t click on anything unless you know for sure what you’re clicking on.
If something seems fishy, get out of there
On that same note, you have to remember to trust your gut as well as your computer skills. If you are on a website and something seems fishy or strange, just close the browser and immediately do a scan. It could be a new toolbar that pops up, or something strange that makes your computer sluggish all of a sudden…whatever this is, you have to make sure that you are careful in watching how everything comes together around you. So, no matter what leads you to believe so, trust yourself to know when something is off, and get your computer safe from that website as quickly as possible. You know so much about computers that the odds are that you’ll notice something is out of whack pretty soon after it happens.
Get a browser that will protect you
There are several browsers to choose from when you are picking the one that you use as your main one, and don’t be afraid to shop around and take a look at what’s out there. Check online and compare them against each other. The goal is to pick one that is going to take care of you in a rough patch, security wise. There are browsers out there that aren’t good for protecting you against a strange website (Internet Explorer, Safari) and others that tend to have a better understanding of the fact that you’re looking for protection against the weird websites that you may not detect as dangerous right away (Chrome, Firefox). These browsers will automatically redirect you before you can go to strange websites and will let you know why and how they are doing this so that you can learn from the experience, too. These are the ones that you are going to want to allow your computer to use for further protection. Remember, it only takes one wrong click to potentially jeopardize your computer and all of your personal information.
Do deep scans regularly
The last thing about computer safety when it comes to your anti-virus protection is remembering that you need to make sure you allow your system to do the deep scans on a regular basis. That is, those deep scans will want to go into every single file on your computer to make sure there is no virus hiding out and waiting to strike. These take a while and tend to slow your computer down, so many people don’t allow them to happen very often. This isn’t a good idea, however, and you need to make sure that you do, in fact, allow it to happen so that you can keep your computer protected. These are critical for making sure that nothing is corrupted at all and your information is kept private and completely safe.
Computer security is getting harder to enforce as hackers get smarter and faster, and kids of the internet get sloppier. No one wants to think that way, but is the way that the world is headed without question. So, use these tips to keep yourself safe and feel free to send them on to your friends and family so that they can get in on the idea, too. There will be some who read this and think that it’s overkill, but you have to remember that your personal information is worth a lot more than you want to think, so take the extra precautions to keep yourself safe.
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