Spyware Protection Virus
If you read tech news with any degree of regularity, you will notice the sheer amount of viruses, worms, spyware and malware showing up all of the time and all of the spyware protection virus software which is being developed to combat it! It leaves people like you and I often wondering how those hackers and virus creators have all the time to build these things which are mostly designed to crash your computer! It’s frustrating, isn’t it?
What’s the Threat of Viruses and Spyware?
Over 200 new computer viruses are discovered each month. Two hundred! And thousands of variants on viruses are also created. And they’re getting sneakier every month; viruses are infiltrating email, downloads, social media, websites, advertisements, games, music sites; everywhere you go, viruses are popping up. They range from being simply annoying (such as making it easier to get hit with pop up ads), to being downright malicious (crashing your computer and wiping your hard-drive) to stealing your information and passing it on to someone else!
There are several kinds of malicious threats to your computer:
- Malware: Software designed to disrupt your computer in a variety of ways. Anything from slowing it down to crashing it to wiping your hard drive, to stealing information… Malware is generally the blanket term for a wide number of problems.
- Spyware: Just as it sounds, spyware is software which infiltrates your computer and lifts out sensitive information such as passwords, sites you visit and even banking information! Spyware can also install things on your computer without you even realizing it.
- Trojan Horses: Trojan horse programs are programs which are snuck into your computer and let hackers in. They often come in the guise of programs promising to cure viruses on your computer and instead let one in.
- Worms. Worms are self replicating programs which spread through a network. They generally do things like eat up bandwidth.
- Adware. Adware may not be dangerous, but it’s very annoying. Adware allows advertisements to pop up on your screen without your say-so. The main problem with adware is not the code itself (though it’s annoying), but rather because they are very insecure and it’s easy for viruses to attach to them and thus hit your computer.
Other kinds include: spam, virus hoax, crimeware and mobile viruses. Phew!
The Importance of Spyware Virus Protection
The world of the internet is growing (exploding really) and there is no way for an overarching group of people to track and destroy every single piece of malicious software that comes out of some bored or deranged programmer’s head. It therefore falls upon the user to protect his or her computer under his or her own power. To that end, there exist a wide range of spyware virus protection programs you can purchase. BUT FIRST!
Protecting Yourself Using Your Good Common Sense
The place to start protecting your computer lies with you. A high percentage of computers are infected through their owner’s complete naïveté when it comes to doing things online. Whether it’s opening email attachments that you don’t recognize, downloading content from a site you don’t know or answering those ‘You Won!’ advertisements, people are constantly opening themselves up to viruses and infections. When you are using the internet, there are some good, common sense things to do to protect yourself:
- Never EVER download and open attachments from people you don’t know. Furthermore, never EVER open attachments from people you do know unless they’ve included a personal message with it. Lots of hackers hack email lists and send out the virus that way. And if you send attachments to others, make sure to include sort of message to prove it’s really you.
- Never ever download content from a site you don’t know and trust.
- Do not click on ads promising things that seem too good to be true. Not only will you likely get scammed, but many of these ads (in particular, the pop-ups) carry viruses and malware on them.
- Clean out your cache after browsing. Don’t know how? It’s pretty easy and we’ll get into in future articles.
Got that? Now let’s get to Spyware Virus Protection programs.
Spyware Protection Virus Programs
Spyware protection virus programs are software which shields your computer from incursions. The best ones are updated regularly to keep up with the deluge of new and mutated viruses. They also scan sites to make sure it’s safe before you enter, run regular scans on your computers for viruses, scan your email before you open it to make sure it’s safe and scan your downloads to make sure they’re safe. They are quite simply a great way to gain some peace of mind. Common spyware protection virus programs include:
- Norton
- AVG
- McAfee
- Bitdefender
The software you choose will largely depend on how comprehensive you want your coverage to be and how much money you spend.
Viruses and malware abound on the internet and it’s up to the individual to protect their computer from it. In future articles, we will explore more about malware and what to do about it. For now, simply know that spyware protection virus software is a very good thing!
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