Your Computer With Antivirus Software
A good antivirus program is nothing to sneeze at! In the Internet age, security software is essential for every computer. The problem is that the people who design viruses are always developing new ways to spread their destructive programs. To dodge these viruses, computer users have to get back to the basics of network security.
A computer virus is a program that reproduces itself. It may attach to other programs and/or create copies of itself. Once a virus evades security protection and finds its way into your computer it can damage or corrupt data, change data, or degrade the performance of your system by utilizing resources such as memory or disk space.
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A computer virus can be a Boot sector computer virus, Master Boot Record (MBR) computer virus, File infecting computer virus, or a Macro computer virus. A computer virus which displays characteristics of more than one of these categories is known as a multipartite computer virus.
The Internet is a minefield of viruses that can damage your computer before you know it. For safer surfing, don’t download unknown programs from the Web. This includes freeware, screensavers, games or any other executable program, which are files with an “.exe” or “.com” extension. If you do have to download from the Internet, be sure to scan each program before running it.
Save all downloads to one folder, then run virus checks on everything in the folder before using it. You should also avoid newsgroups or unfamiliar sites because they can be virus providers. If you receive emails from an unknown sender that comes with an attachment, delete the email without opening it no matter how tempting it may be.
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Floppy disks are one of the most common ways viruses are transmitted. If you are using a disk, remove it when you shut off the machine or the computer will automatically try to boot from the floppy, perhaps launching any viruses on the disk. You should always scan floppies before using them, especially if you’re moving from one computer to another.
You could easily pick up a virus from an insecure network and introduce it into your system. Email is another common culprit. It may be tempting to quickly whip through your email, but you should carefully examine attachments and scan them for viruses before you open them.
Even if you do recognize the sender, the attachment could still be infected. In fact, some viruses are designed to copy information from your contact list and spread the virus to everyone on it. Your email program should have safety options, a spam filter or a preferences menu for instructions.
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It’s important to remember that no antivirus software is infallible. Because they only recognize a virus’s most recent configuration, new worms, viruses and Trojan horses can slip by.
To prevent this from happening, it’s a good idea to run an on demand virus scan at least once every month or two. Norton automatically updates its virus definitions whenever you’re online.
