How To Keep Your Computer Safe

How To Keep Your Computer Safe

Author: jerrythomas

Cleaning your laptop parts and doing preventive maintenance, such as scanning for viruses, helps keep it running smoothly. Preventative maintenance saves you time, as well, since it saves you the hassle of dealing with systems failures and data loss.

Viruses,Trojan Horses, and Worms

Viruses
Just like a biological virus can make you physically sick, a computer virus can make your computer sick. A virus is a small piece of software that finds it way onto your computer without your knowledge, and causes trouble on your computer system. You may not even know your computer has been infected with a virus until your computer slows down, a program stops working, your computer crashes, or error messages begin appearing.
Many viruses are transferred by email. The virus will travel as an email attachment, and when the attached file is downloaded, the virus will begin to do its job. Often, email viruses will continue to spread by attacking your address book, emailing your contacts, and spreading the virus more.

Trojan Horses
Another destructive piece of software that is similar to a virus is called a Trojan horse. A Trojan horse is simply a program that claims to do one thing, but really does something else to your computer. For example, you may find a site on the Internet and download what you think is a solitaire game, only to run the program and have it delete files.

Worms
A third item you need to safeguard your computer against are worms. Unlike viruses, worms do not attach to other files or programs, but spread themselves over computer networks by taking advantage of the network setup. Worms can delete files or send emails like viruses, but usually they affect the computer's memory, which slows down your computer.

Protect Your Computer
You may be wondering where viruses come from. People are responsible for writing computer viruses. Some are meant to be funny, while others are meant to do damage to your computer. Since we can't control what people do, the real question is, how can I keep my computer safe from viruses?

Tips to Stay Safe
Use Anti-virus Software
The best thing you can do for your laptop replacement parts is use an anti-virus software. Anti-virus software is a program that protects your email, files, and downloads against viruses, worms, and Trojan horses; removes existing threats from your computer; and protects against new viruses if the anti-virus software is updated regularly.

There are several free options, or you can purchase a commercial one such as Norton or McAfee, which are relatively inexpensive when you think about the damage that can be done to your computer. If you already have anti-virus software, verify your virus protection is current. New viruses are written all the time, so it is important that the virus protection that you use be current. This doesn't mean that you have to continuously purchase new software. Most anti-virus software vendors provide updates to your software regularly, and some even provide automatic downloads and updates.
Read Lesson 15 of our Internet Safety tutorial to learn more about anti-virus software.

Avoid Downloading Programs from Unknown Sources
The Internet is full of unknown sources. If you are going to use the Internet, become a savvy web surfer. Learn to look and explore a website to determine if it is a credible site and most likely safe to download from. For example, if you spend some time on the GCFLearnFree.org site you will see that the site is organized and well designed. There is information about which we are, as well contact information in the form of a physical address and email addresses. We are a credible site. Think about who is responsible for the web site and make your best judgment before downloading games, programs, or documents from unknown sources.

Be Cautious of Email Attachments
Never double-click on an email attachment that contains an executable file with an extension such as .exe or .vbs. In generally, be cautious of email attachments and don't download or open files from people you do not know or were not expecting to receive an email from.

Check the Internet Security Options in Your Browser
Whether you use Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, or another browser, always check the Internet security options that are provided by your browser. Each browser is different, so use the Help tool in your browser to learn more about how it helps defend your laptop power cord against threats.

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