Miriam Brown The Internet has slowly become an integral part of our daily lives and as such it is important to learn how to defend our computers from the new online attack types that are common. This is the chief reason every computer user ought to understand well the various ways in which they can use to protect their computers from various viruses and worms that are prevalent online. Below are some of the tips that you could use to defend your PC against viruses and worms.
Tips to protect your computer
Turning on the UAC (User Account Control)
This ensures that every change taking place in your P
C requires some administrator-level permission. The UAC usually gives you a notification of any intended changes and offers you the chance to approve or disapprove the change. This helps in keeping viruses away from being capable of making changes that are unwanted on your PC.
Desisting from Untrustworthy email attachments
It is common for most Information Technology specialists to warn people about opening email attachments that are suspicious and especially those that they were not expecting. This is because most of the viruses that exist are usually attached to such email messages and as soon as they are opened they spread on your PC like a bushfire. It is therefore important to ensure that email attachments that were not expected are not opened at all times. This will protect your PC from worms and viruses contained in such attachments.
Using a Firewall
If your PC uses Windows, then there is the Windows Firewall that helps alert the PC user of any suspicious activity when a worm or virus attempts to connect to your PC. It is also important as it is also capable of blocking these worms and viruses from their attempts of trying to download anything to your PC. These could be programs that are potentially harmful to your PC.
Installing an Antivirus Program
This is also another important tip when it comes to defending your PC from the various viruses and worms present online. You should ensure that yo
u install an antivirus program on your PC and ensure that it is kept up-to-date to help defend your PC from these worms and viruses. The antivirus program will be able to scan for any viruses that could attempt to enter your email address, files, and operating system. This action stops them from infecting your PC and thereby affecting its performance.
It is important to note that some new viruses and worms appear daily and thus the PC owner ought to be on the lookout for antivirus updates to guard their PCs entirely from them. Pop-up blockers in browsers ought to be also used to block the various pop-up windows that may appear when one is browsing. Advertisers create most of the pop-ups, but there are also some that could contain unsafe or malicious codes. All these are some of the important tips that can help you defend your PC against viruses and worms.
