Safety Computer Tips

 #1: Use Anti-Virus Software

Anti-virus software is your best protection against the worst kind of computer problems—viruses. Although most viruses spread through email and Internet downloads, some spread directly through the network and other spread through USB disk drives.

There’s too many ways for an virus to get on your computer for you to try to guard against all of them, so the first step you take to secure your computer should be to install good anti-virus software.

But even more important than installing the anti-virus software is keeping it updated. Most anti-virus software will update itself—just make sure you don’t disable updating in the configuration or go too long without connecting to the Internet.

Anti-virus software can only protect your computer against known viruses. Hackers are writing new viruses everyday, so its important to also follow the rest of the tips in this article to keep yourself safe.

Safety Computer Tips #2: Beware Downloading

The easiest way for hackers to install malware (bad programs) on your computer is by convincing you to install them yourself. Most malware on the Web hides as small but useful-sounding programs. For example, new screen savers, new chat applications, and minor desktop improvements.

The software you thought you were installing quietly installs a few extra programs you didn’t ask for. Some of these programs display ads, some of them report details about your computer to hackers, some of them may even open ports—short for portals—that allow hackers to access your computer.

It’s hard to tell which software is legitimate and which software is genuinely useful, but if you have any doubt about a program, it’s best left uninstalled.

See our list of 10 precautions to take before installing any software.

Safety Computer Tips #3: Don’t Trust Email

Do you trust your mother? Of course you do, so why wouldn’t you download the attachment she sent you in her latest email?

Viruses know that people trust their friends and family, and they often exploit this by sending rouge emails containing viruses to unsuspecting users. It’s not that your mother would ever intentionally try to infect your computer with a virus—she doesn’t know the attachment she sent you contains a virus.

A specific type of hacker called phisers also use fake emails from respected Internet companies to try to get your passwords. After they get your password, they’ll try to use it to empty your online bank accounts.

All of this means only one thing: don’t trust email. Don’t download attachments unless they’re in in a safe file format. Don’t click on links in your email and enter your password. With the state of email today, it’s ok to be a little paranoid. There are a few things for you to do to try and stop spam emails, but again it takes common sense mostly.

Safety Computer Tips #4: Investigate

Is there something goofy about your computer? Is it running slow? Are you getting strange error messages? Is your ISP complaining that you’re sending too many emails?

All of these problems need to be investigated. Viruses often use your computer processing power for evil, making your computer run slow. Viruses often try to hide among other programs, causing strange error messages. Viruses often send spam emails, making your ISP complain.

If you see a problem, start investigating it and don’t stop until you figure out what the problem was. Otherwise you risk letting a small virus install bigger, worse viruses.

Safety Computer Tips #5: Restrict Administrative Access

In a household or office where many people share computers, everyone is at the mercy of everyone else. No matter how safe you try to keep your computer, anyone else with administrator access can install a virus-infected program.

In these multi-user environments, it pays to restrict administrator access to only the users who know how to keep the computer safe. In fact, I suggest you create just one administrator account for each computer and then give every user their own non-administrator account.

Only when you need to install a program or change a setting should you use the administrator account. For everything else, you should use your own user account. This helps avoid the situation where you accidentally leave your administrator account logged in and the next person on the computer uses it to accidentally download a virus.