Tips to Combat Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses on Your Computer
Keep The Operating System Updated
The first step in protecting your computer from any malicious there is to ensure that your operating system (OS) is up-to-date. This is essential if you are running a Microsoft Windows OS. Secondly, you need to have anti-virus software installed on your system and ensure you download updates
frequently to ensure your software has the latest fixes for new
viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Additionally, you want to make sure
your anti-virus program has the capability to scan e-mail and files as
they are downloaded from the Internet, and you also need to run full
disk scans periodically. This will help prevent malicious programs from
even reaching your computer.
Use a Firewall
You should also install a firewall.
A firewall is a system that prevents unauthorized use and access to
your computer. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Hardware
firewalls provide a strong degree of protection from most forms of
attack coming from the outside world and can be purchased as a
stand-alone product or in broadband routers. Unfortunately, when
battling viruses, worms and Trojans, a hardware firewall may be less
effective than a software firewall, as it could possibly ignore embedded
worms in out going e-mails and see this as regular network traffic.
For
individual home users, the most popular firewall choice is a software
firewall. A good software firewall will protect your computer from
outside attempts to control or gain access your computer, and usually
provides additional protection against the most common Trojan programs
or e-mail worms. The downside to software firewalls is that they will
only protect the computer they are installed on, not a network.
It
is important to remember that on its own a firewall is not going to rid
you of your computer virus problems, but when used in conjunction with
regular operating system updates and a good anti-virus scanning
software, it will add some extra security and protection for your
computer or network.
Did You Know... CodeRed,
a blended threat, launched DoS attacks, defaced Web servers, and its
variant, CodeRed II, left Trojan horses behind for later execution.
CodeRed was processed in memory — not on a hard disk — allowing it to
slip past some anti-virus products. Computer Economics has estimated the
worldwide cost of CodeRed at $2.62 billion dollars. [Source:Symantec Web site]
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