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Understanding PC Security

By: James Madisons

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When we talk about PC security, the very first thing that comes to our mind is antivirus software like MacAfee or AVG. However, it is the holistic approach to PC security including the security of data where it can be retrieved whenever required, is what that matters the most. In the present day situation, the people with knowledge but lesser ethical values are finding out newer ways to fool the vulnerable common people by leaking out their personal and vital information related to business, credit cards etc. Are you really aware of certain software that sneak in to your computer and keeps a track of what keystrokes you are making so that your passwords and other vital data can be accessed with malicious intentions? According to the type of malicious software we know them by different names like adware, spyware, malware, virus, Trojan, phishing software and worm. It is better to know our enemies so that we can fight them in a better way. Some technical support may help you learn more about it.

Let us take the “Trojan” for an example. The Trojan Horse reminds us of a great mythological event where the enemy soldiers hid inside the horse to get into the enemy territory. Similarly, there are malicious software present in the computing world that would pretend not to do any harm at all but the moment it gets entry into your computer it starts eating up your system files and doesn’t let you work properly. You might face problems with the internet, opening up of various weird pop-ups, Word or other applications closing up abruptly and even the computer restarting itself abruptly in the middle of some vital work that you are doing. Have you faced a situation where unwanted sites including advertisements are popping up when you are engrossed with important work in the internet? Have you ever felt that something else is actually controlling your computer without waiting for you to click on anything? Well, it is the malicious software that are to be blamed for. But the question remains that, in spite of an active antivirus present in the computer how can such malicious software get into my computer?

There could be a number of ways that we even do not think of. Do our antivirus software have an updated database for recognizing the new viruses? Are we very careful about the content of the email before actually opening the attachments? Let us say that one day a pop-up showed up saying that “your computer is infected with virus and you need to click on this button to remove the virus”. So without suspecting, you actually clicked on that button in order to remove the virus, but unfortunately that pop-up was from the virus itself. So you have given entry to a virus unknowingly. The internet connections are opened by some “software doors” which we know as “ports”. These ports, if not secured in a proper way, might lead to a security breach in your computer.

The issue becomes complicated when we are discussing PC security in an office where more than one computer is involved and we need to make sure that peripherals like printers are supposed to be used by one group of people whereas the access is to be denied for another group. One group of people is supposed to get access to a specific group of computers and the others are to get access to a different group of computers. A lot depends on which account you are using to log on.

So after discussing the problems related to PC security one might think what exactly needs to be done so that we can safely use computer with the internet? You can get help desk support to learn more about it. The golden rules are as follows:

1) Keep any password secure and do not share it with others. The password should be easy to remember but not so simple as to be easily guessed by anybody. If you have the password saved in a separate disk then make sure to keep that disk under lock and key.

2) A good antivirus software should remain active and configured properly. By the word “configuration” we mean that we need to create a rule for the antivirus. We need to tell the antivirus to allow and disallow a few things on the internet.

3) It is NOT always good to keep more than one antivirus software in the computer as active. It slows down the computer and often clashes with each other.

4) Always keep a restore point. Whenever there is a problem with your computer you can tell your computer to go back to a point of time when the computer was working properly.

5) Always keep a backup of your vital data on a different media. You can keep a copy of vital data on a DVD. This is useful because if you have to format your hard drive, you will still have your important data with you, saved in a DVD or any other external storage devices. Here, it can be mentioned that, it is NOT good to keep the data back up on the same drive where the system files are. For an example, use the D drive to store your data instead of the C drive where the systems files are located.

6) Whenever you try to use an external hard drive or a flash drive or a CD/DVD that you have brought from outside, make sure to scan it first for a virus and only then open it.

7) Check whether your antivirus software is up to date and always use a full version instead of a trial version.

8) Last but not the least, if you are not that computer savvy, then make sure to do a complete PC health checkup of your computer by a technician at least once a month. He will take care of everything and you can do away with the fear of PC security breaches.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

In these days, we are all concerned about PC security. How can you make your PC more secured? Get some technical support to learn more about it. You can also use our help desk support to protect your PC.

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