Five Ways To Protect Your PC

This month’s article discusses five ways you can protect your computer from virus or spyware attack and recover in the event that damage occurs. A significant portion of machines that land on my desk for repair suffer from some form of virus or spyware infection. In many cases the owner is unaware of the infection but notices that their machine is slower and behaves abnormally. The authors of Virus and spyware programs are no amateurs when it comes to concealing their activities and will not reveal themselves until they are firmly rooted on your computer. Increasingly the objective is to steal your money in whatever way they can.


Backup Your PC Frequently
There is really no excuse for not securing you information these days. Backup devices are relatively cheap and easily available. I’ve written a series of articles on backing up which you can find on my blog at http://reidyonline.blogspot.com/ Take the time to read them and backup your data.

Generate Your Recovery Media
Most modern computers come with a recovery system which will generate system recovery DVD’s. These DVD’s are invaluable when it comes to restoring the system to a working state after a serious system failure. You will need at most three blank writeable DVD’s and a five pack of blank dvd’s will run you around 6-10 euro. These are available locally at ALDI, LIDL and Tesco. Take the time to generate these dvd’s and keep them safe.

Install A Proved Anti-Virus System
This is the most obvious but least observed step to protecting your pc. Choosing an anti-virus program requires professional advice. I stress the word professional as too often people rely on hearsay and the recommendations of those they deem to have computer expertise. Free versions of anti-virus programs, while better than nothing, are not a solution to virus defence and do not provide full protection from virus attacks.

Avoid Illegal Websites
Teenagers love music and video and will download it from wherever source they can. These can include illegal music sites on the internet. Many contain viruses and spyware and accessing or downloading from them can result in your computer becoming virus or spyware infected.

Exercise Caution When Browsing
We have come to rely on the internet as the source for information but you need to exercise caution when browsing. Virus authors target certain types of sites which include holiday sites, free software sites, and as previously mentioned music sites. I’ve even seen them infect children’s story sites so you must be careful when browsing.