Protecting Your Computer Against Viruses

Computer viruses can spell disaster, and though it may be one of those things that you think will never happen to you, protecting yourself before something goes wrong can be an extremely important avoiding what could be a great deal of regret later on.

From photographs, to emails and documents, computers are becoming an increasingly central parts of our lives on a personal level and on a business level too.

What is a computer virus?

A virus is set loose on your computer when you launch a program, file or disk that has been previously been infected. Viruses may not be immediately detectable, and for this reason they can easily be spread from computer to computer before making itself known.

Protecting against a virus:

Effective security software and firewall protection, installed and updated regularly can provide a degree of protection against computer viruses. Threats are continually changing so it's important to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date. In addition keeping your Windows operating system (if you use Windows) and other software is kept updated to give you maximum protection on this front.

Exercise caution when opening email attachments that are unexpected or from unknown senders. You may also want to check that your anti-virus software will scan email and message attachments and and change your settings so that your email does not automatically display graphics or attachments.
Only engage in download activity if you're sure that your anti-virus software and firewall protection is fully up-to-date.
Likewise, don't click on unsolicited links in instant message or emails, unless you're certain of the.
In case things do go wrong in spite of all the precautions you have taken back-up your files regularly to avoid losing everything should you fall prey to a computer virus.

Protecting yourself against computer viruses can often be a challenging aspect of computing, to say the least and it may seem all too easy to adopt the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. Nevertheless protecting your computer or computer network can be important. If you notice your computer behaving in an unusual matter you should take action immediately to prevent any further damage being done. There may be free tools and information available out there to help you do this, or you may want to engage the services.