How Can I Protect My Computer Against Malware?

Malware is software written to infect computers and commit crimes such as fraud and identity theft. It has become big business in the past few years. As a result, if you use a computer for web surfing, shopping, banking, email, instant messaging, and gaming without proper protection, you are putting yourself at high risk of being victimized.

Keep your computer up-to-date

The vast majority of malware infections exploit security holes, so the most important part of PC hygiene is to keep all your software up to date. Microsoft releases patches on the second Tuesday of each month, so either let your PC install them automatically, or install them promptly. Once a patch is released, malware programmers can reverse-engineer the fix to find the security hole and exploit it.

Some other programs – including the Firefox and Google Chrome browsers – will also install patches automatically. This is almost always a good idea for home users.

Install Anti-virus software

Anti-virus software safeguards against Trojans, hackers, spyware, and more. The anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, anti-spam, anti-phishing, and backup technologies work together to combat today’s advanced multi-faceted attacks. It scans disks, email attachments, files downloaded from the web, and documents generated by word processing and spreadsheet programs.

Call PC Geeks

Malware is not just a nuisance issue. While malicious software can be cleaned from a system, newer generations also introduce data miners that can store that information and sell it. That could mean that if banking or tax information was in the computer when the malware infected it, personal information could be all over the world in no time.

Some companies offer to clean it for you, but that may not be the right solution.

Our technicians evaluate your computer to determine whether a cleaning or a re-installation of your operating system is needed. People are often surprised at our affordable pricing for these services, call PC Geeks today to learn more!

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