How To Protect Your Computer Against Viruses & Worms

Viruses & Worms are malicious computer programs that can cause damage to your computer and to the information stored on it. These big bugs can access your computer through e-mail attachments, local networks or USB drives and possess the capability to spread to the computers of your friends, family and co-workers or for that matter to any other computer you come into contact on the web or via local network. And when this spreading spree gets viral, the entire web can also be infected.

To date there are more than hundreds of thousands of known viruses and worms and new ones are created everyday by hackers, online vendors and cyber criminals. With so many threats rambling all over internet these days, chances are good that your computer will be attacked sooner or later if you don't take necessary precautions to prevent them.

Here are the basic 'Steps to Protect your PC against Viruses & Worms'
1. Turn ON the Internet Firewall.

This prevents authorized users from gaining access to you computer through the internet or a local network.

Windows XP SP3 & Windows Vista automatically provide better protection against viruses, hackers and worms with their built in Windows Firewall, pop-up blocker for IE and new windows security center.



As far as online security is concerned, Windows Vista is the best to opt for as it provides the most advanced security and management capability. But for PCs that cannot be upgraded to Windows Vista right now, Windows XP SP3 provides all necessary security updates and hot-fixes. As SP3 is cumulative, users can install SP3 on top of Windows XP SP1 or SP2 and it comes through Windows Update for a download size of just around 70 megabytes (MB).

2. Keep your computer up-to-date installing the most recent updates for your Operating System and Software programs as they become available.

It is a best practice to Automatically download and install high-priority critical updates when they are available.You can also choose the settings that notifies you as these updates become available if you don't want to automate the downloads or installations.

3. Use any up-to-date Anti-Virus Software and do check for regular updates and download them, which are essential to find the new strain of virus as they arrive on the web. Also perform full system scan at-least once a week to make sure you PC is free from virus and other malicious programs.

4. As e-mail attachments are the main source to spread these bugs on the internet, never open/download an e-mail attachment from a stranger unless you know exactly what the attachment is.

5. Scan the USB flash drives immediately after you connect it to your PC, with your updated Anti-Virus software and delete all the infected files found.

By following the above preventive measures, you can definitely defend your computer against all sought of viruses, worms and malicious software.