If your PC is connected to the internet for browsing the web or sending and receiving email, you need antivirus protection. This applies whether you have a dial-up connection or a high-speed connection such as DSL or cable.
The very fact that you are connected to a public network along with millions of others means that your PC is vulnerable. It is open to receiving thousands of little software programs that are specifically designed to either harm, disrupt, or exploit your computer.
** Protecting your computer against malicious intruders
Any time you receive a file from some other source on the web, there is a chance that file will be "infected" with a virus, or will contain an attached bit of adware or spyware. That applies to viewing web pages, and receiving email messages. It also applies to downloading image, audio, and video files.
Email attachments are especially notorious for harboring viruses and malware. You receive a message that has an attachment beckoning you to double-click on it. When you do so, it installs a little program that resides somewhere deep within your PC, ready to do whatever it has been programmed to do -- whether that is spying and reporting on your computer habits, hijacking your home page and redirecting you to some other site, or popping up aggravating ads for gambling or pornography sites.
Viruses go well beyond that. They are intentionally designed to run programs that damage important operating system files, and usually have some way of exploiting your email program to send the infected message to hundreds of others in your contact list. That is why they are called "viruses" -- because they can spread like wildfire to thousands and even millions of computers.
** Antivirus programs
Antivirus programs like Norton Antivirus 2009 were designed to do just what their name implies -- to guard against viruses. They do this by using a four part process. First when the anti-virus program is installed it "cleans" the system. Every file on your hard drive is scanned to see if it is infected. When an infected file is found it is either "quarantined" or deleted.
Second, the antivirus program stands guard and automatically scans any new files, email messages or web page files that are downloaded or copied to your computer's memory. If any of these files are found to be infected, the antivirus program blocks them from being copied.
Third, the antivirus program runs periodic scans -- usually every few days -- of your entire file system to make sure no infected files have made it past the automatic scan.
And fourth, the antivirus program has a system for being automatically updated. Since new viruses are being created every day, it is important to update your system of protection every day. Usually this is done by automatically downloading and installing updates to the virus descriptions.
** Guarding against spyware
Spyware is a relatively new problem confronted by the PC owner. The point of spyware is to monitor your keystroke patterns and use this information for some commercial or advertising purpose. The spyware program is usually installed along with some freeware such as a music or video sharing program. The user does not consent to the installation and is often not even aware of it.
Some spyware programs are relatively harmless, but others can have a dramatic impact on your computer's performance -- even bogging it down completely.
Newer versions of an antivirus program such as Norton Antivirus 2009 detect and remove spyware, keystroke loggers and other unwanted monitoring software. They also come with regular updates to stop new spyware from infecting your computer.
DOWNLOAD AVG 8.5 ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM
09 June 2009
Antivirus Update - Why Should You Update Your Antivirus Software? by Anu Kool
You took your time to research which among the existing antivirus software around best suit your computer and your usage. You took time to ask technologically savvy friends and relatives and you even visited some well known tech-related forums to get unbiased information about antivirus.
When you finally chose one antivirus program, you ordered your program online or you went to the local computer shop near your area. You install it on your computer and you leave it on working on the background while you do your usual stuff on your PC. You feel you have done your very best to protect your computer from those menacing viruses, Trojan horses, worms and malwares.
So you became tremendously disappointed when your computer suddenly crashes and you just realized it was infected by a virus and the virus basically wiped out your entire hard drive, taking with it your 1st year old baby's video on his first foot steps and that presentation for that client you were eyeing to bag, a presentation you've been working on since last month.
You try to consider where you went wrong. You feel you have bought the best of the best in terms of antivirus programs and you know you have turned it on for the past few days. What went wrong? Well, quite frankly, you just forgot the one thing that you should not have forgotten above anything else.
Antivirus update.
Once you have purchased an antivirus program, you have to make sure you do an antivirus update as often as you can, maybe even daily so what you may want to do is to put the antivirus update setting of your program in automatic. Some programs have their antivirus update settings turned on but some softwares are placed on manual mode so you may want to check your program's user manual just to make sure.
But why is an antivirus update important?
Initially, your antivirus program has set definitions for all sorts of worms, viruses, malwares, Trojan horses, bugs and other uninvited softwares. However, due to man's innovation (or sometimes boredom), new viruses and worms are introduced in a basis so frequent that your antivirus program needs an antivirus update to make sure it is up to date to the definitions of new viruses and worms.
Once your program is updated with the latest antivirus updates, then your computer is virtually safe from the latest line of computer bugs and traps. True there are some programs that have sophisticated intelligence that even if the virus is not defined in their knowledge, so long as it behaves in a "virus-like" manner, it is dinged and may be up for deletion, cleaning or is deemed for vault placing, depending on the action you would command it to do. However, this occurs in a very shot-in-the-dark manner as you can only hope that the new virus will behave like virus before it. Doing an antivirus update will make you very sure that you and your program are very much prepared for all those viruses and worms.
When you finally chose one antivirus program, you ordered your program online or you went to the local computer shop near your area. You install it on your computer and you leave it on working on the background while you do your usual stuff on your PC. You feel you have done your very best to protect your computer from those menacing viruses, Trojan horses, worms and malwares.
So you became tremendously disappointed when your computer suddenly crashes and you just realized it was infected by a virus and the virus basically wiped out your entire hard drive, taking with it your 1st year old baby's video on his first foot steps and that presentation for that client you were eyeing to bag, a presentation you've been working on since last month.
You try to consider where you went wrong. You feel you have bought the best of the best in terms of antivirus programs and you know you have turned it on for the past few days. What went wrong? Well, quite frankly, you just forgot the one thing that you should not have forgotten above anything else.
Antivirus update.
Once you have purchased an antivirus program, you have to make sure you do an antivirus update as often as you can, maybe even daily so what you may want to do is to put the antivirus update setting of your program in automatic. Some programs have their antivirus update settings turned on but some softwares are placed on manual mode so you may want to check your program's user manual just to make sure.
But why is an antivirus update important?
Initially, your antivirus program has set definitions for all sorts of worms, viruses, malwares, Trojan horses, bugs and other uninvited softwares. However, due to man's innovation (or sometimes boredom), new viruses and worms are introduced in a basis so frequent that your antivirus program needs an antivirus update to make sure it is up to date to the definitions of new viruses and worms.
Once your program is updated with the latest antivirus updates, then your computer is virtually safe from the latest line of computer bugs and traps. True there are some programs that have sophisticated intelligence that even if the virus is not defined in their knowledge, so long as it behaves in a "virus-like" manner, it is dinged and may be up for deletion, cleaning or is deemed for vault placing, depending on the action you would command it to do. However, this occurs in a very shot-in-the-dark manner as you can only hope that the new virus will behave like virus before it. Doing an antivirus update will make you very sure that you and your program are very much prepared for all those viruses and worms.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)