Virus Awareness - What You Can Do

Online life has a lot to offer: you can find out about virtually any subject, you can buy things...lots of things, you can talk to someone overseas for free with voice instant messaging...the world is getting smaller and smaller.  You can meet new people, find a soul mate, the possibilities are limitless.  But there is another side to that coin.

There are people who have nothing better to do (it seems) than to wreak havoc on the computer systems of the world.  They create various programs and scripts that can harm your computer, and even gather personal information creating a risk for identity theft and financial problems from which it could take years to recover.

There are several different types of attacks that can affect your computer such as spyware, malware, adware, trojan horses, worms, and viruses.  It's not all the same, and it's not all used for the same purposes.  Often a virus is nothing more than someone's "practical joke" on the world.  These and any system vulnerabilities affect how secure your computer really is.

So what can you do, it seems so overwhelming?  There's so much talk about being "careful" and how "scary" it is to be online and that someone could give your computer a virus and you'll never know, and it's completely out of your hands, and.... whew, what a tailspin we could go into!  The good news is that a lot of it is hype; the part about it being out of our hands that is.  The viruses, the spyware, adware, all of it is very real and very damaging...but there is an element in this that we miss out on; our control...our own actions and awareness.

Sure there are several programs out there to help us in case we make an "oops" or in case there really is an unavoidable "attack"...something that we had no control over.  Those programs are golden, for sure, but there are also so many things we can do ourselves to further guard against these sorts of issues.  In fact these things are really the first line of defense against those programs which have the potential to harm our computers.

Email Threats

Even when an email comes from someone you know, an attachment still may not be safe.  When you receive any unexpected email with an attachment verify with the sender that it was indeed them who sent it.  Do this by starting a new email to them to ask; don't reply to the email you received.

If you get an email that asks you to click on a link, it may not be going where it claims it is.  You should never click on a link in an email unless you are sure that it is safe; even if the link looks like it says it's going to a site you know, it could be going somewhere else entirely...text can be deceiving.  This is why it's best to type in the URL for a website instead of just clicking a link.

Never ever agree to go to a website and enter personal information about yourself.  No matter how convincing this is 99% of the time a false attempt to steal your data and most often your money.  If you get an email from a company that you do have an account with, do not use the link provided in the email to accomplish their task.  Be sure to manually type in the address to their main website, login as normal with your login information and update information as normal.

What do you do with an email that is from an unknown source; has a suspicious attachment; perhaps claims you've won the lottery or asks you to help someone from a foreign country send money to the US?  Delete it right away.  Don't second guess yourself; you're not missing out on anything, delete it and move on to avoid potential harm to your computer.

There are many different ways that those who wish to harm your computer and perhaps steal information and money will try to use email to get you in their clutches, but there is more you can learn about being smart about your email and having other helpful safeguards.  Lean more about email threats in the 'Secure Your Email' section of Symantec's website.

Threats While Browsing the Internet

It is rare, but possible that you could visit a website and be infected with something simply by visiting a site.  This is where your firewall (one comes with Windows...be sure it's on) and virus protection software comes in.  On the whole, if you are going to trusted websites, the threat for this is extremely low.  You can check on the "threat level" for this sort of attack in the 'Browse the Web Safely' section of Symantec's website.

Remember that even with all the protective software in the world you are still vulnerable.  Even trusted "name brand" programs aren't 100% "foolproof".  Just because protection is on, does not mean that you will only receive legitimate emails, and that all web browsing will be safe.  Your email inbox can still be a potential playground for shady characters.  Do you click on everything you see?  Slow down and consider what you are opening, reading, and clicking on.

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