Computers are the tools of the century. They are the peak of improvement and the fact remains that experts are still intent on breaking boundaries to improve our current technology. The speed and impact of our progress has made the assimilation of machineries, both big and small, to our daily activities quite inevitable. It is now an integral part of our lives.
Owning these modern technologies is not the start and end of improvement on our behalf. Users bear the responsibility of caring for these devices for their sake and for others'.
It is not unusual anymore for people to find themselves in inopportune circumstances while using computers, especially when they are connected to the internet. Malicious software or simply 'malware' are tools used by cyber criminals to create entryways for them to victimize you with their online felonies. Once you are infected and penetrated by these criminals, you immediately become susceptible to the rest of the known computer problems in history.
That is why it is essential for all computer users to understand the nature of antivirus software to keep your PC safe; they are the basic unit of defence against cyber attacks and if you know the proper way of navigating them and their features, you are prepared for the worse.
What Does Antivirus Protect You Against?
Even legitimate websites, when hacked, can be the source of the worse malware infection. Cyber criminals are not desperate thieves who recently learned how to use the internet. Most of them are trained computer engineers and software designers with the right amount of knowledge and tools to do with the web as they will.
If your eyes are not keen enough, it will be very difficult for you to notice a hacked website. The hackers post references and downloadable files along with convincing posts that will urge internet surfers to click them. You won't even suspect that these files are dangerous because their sources are proven legit websites.
Another way of getting infected is through mass mailing. Despite the popularity of this method, many internet users remain ignorant of it. They continue to open and click messages whose senders are from their address book.
Viruses infiltrate address books and other sources of personal contact information and use them to spread themselves. Sometimes, urgent messages are included in the body of the mail in order to make it look like an authentic emergency.
Don't believe every email that comes from familiar addresses. Check the content of the message before you click on the link they are sharing. If the email looks suspicious, delete it immediately. Don't leave it in your inbox.
Severe malware infection creates opportunities for hackers to open backdoors for them to gain administrative control of your computer. From there onwards, the amount of felonies you can suffer from is innumerable.
How Does It Protect You?
Real-time protection is an important feature that your antivirus software must have. It's not worth having any defensive mechanism if it only alerts you of threats once you are done accumulating them.
Good antivirus software notifies you of threats the moment they enter your system. Advanced features even block dangerous websites and give you the option of whether or not you want to continue to enter it. If you do, then at least you are aware that you have purposely entered enemy territory. The antivirus warned you, and the consequences thereafter are yours alone to bear.
You normally have three options to choose from on how to handle existing threats: allow, quarantine, and remove. Obviously, it's never safe to allow an infected file to subsist in your system. The reason this option exists is for you to view the file before you decide what to do with it.
Some proceed to disinfect this kind of files; some opt to quarantine them only, but you'll notice that the antivirus will always recommend you to remove it. Why? Malware like viruses replicate themselves quickly. In addition to that, they are constantly evolving. This leads us to the significance of updating your software
Updates should be done regularly. When you update, lists of new threats are added to the directory of your antivirus. During custom or full scans, it will therefore be able to detect malware that it couldn't recognize before.
Scanning is one habit you should develop for efficient malware protection. Run custom scans on flash drives and other external hard drives that you insert in your computer. Opening them the moment they are acknowledged will activate the existing malware in them and spread to your own computer. To prevent them, go to My Computer, find the icon of the removable drive you want to use, right click it, and select scan. The antivirus software will give you options on what actions you can take. Once these removable drives are declared safe to use, refrain from opening them.
Author is a computer professional and blog writer who basically writes on various computer security topics. He informs readers about the latest cloud based software for virus protection in order to get better computer security and safety from malwares.
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