Protect Your Computer From Intruders!

User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 

Protecting your home or office computer from viruses and malware gets more challenging every day.  In 2010, there were 27 Trojans designed to look like legitimate Windows antivirus software.  Toting names like “XP Security 2011,” they tricked users into downloading them, then stole personal information and browsing history.

As malware gets more sophisticated and harder to detect, how can you protect  yourself and your computer  from unsafe sites, viruses, and Trojan attacks?  Here are some answers, straight from our IT department.

Understand the difference  between antivirus software and Internet security software.

• Internet security software alerts you when you are about to visit an unsafe site and even restricts access to links and websites that contain malware and viruses.

• Antivirus software detects and removes malware and viruses once they are on your computer.

Think of your computer as a home and the internet security software as the bars on the windows and doors, while the antivirus software is both the alarm to detect intruders, and the police to remove them.

While we’re on the topic of brands of antivirus software, most of our customers who have called us to scan and remove viruses from their computers actually already had antivirus software installed.  They were using AVG, both the free and the paid versions.   It even costs a little more than Norton, but in our experience, is not nearly as proficient.

We typically do an initial scan with Norton, then a second scan with Ad-Aware, to catch any especially insidious malware that happens to get past Norton.  When it comes to getting rid of malware, there’s no such thing as being too diligent.

Not everyone needs paid Internet security software on their computer. If you’re an average-to-savvy home computer user, and know when to click and when not to click, Norton Antivirus is probably all you need.  There is a free Internet security application we recommend, as added protection, and we’ll discuss that shortly.

If you’re a computer novice, or you have less savvy computer users in your home (who click on “ok” on every pop-up window), or have several users in an office, then you may want to invest in Norton Internet Security 2011.  It’s around $70.00 and bundles antivirus software with spam protection, firewalls, parental controls, and other Internet security features.  It’s customizable and gives comprehensive Internet protection.

There are free programs that offer good Internet security. For the average-to-savvy computer  user, there  are a couple open-source  programs that we think are very effective and can be used in your home or office.

The first is OpenDNS.com.  This is an application that is simple to install and customize for your home or office.  It blocks spam, phishing sites, spyware, viruses, and inappropriate websites.  It also lets you customize the filters to suit your preferences.  It has an added community feature where members can submit websites they think contain malware, and other members can vote to confirm the claim or not.  If a website gets a certain number of confirmations that it’s unsafe, it’s added to a list of unsafe websites and you can block them with just a mouse click.

OpenDNS has both free and paid versions.  We recommend the free version for the average-to-savvy computer user, household, or small business.  Used along with a paid version of a good antivirus software, such as Norton, you should be pretty well protected from malware and viruses.

The second  is Untangle.com.  This program acts as a gateway to your network and also blocks spam, spyware, viruses, and inappropriate websites.  There is a free application called the Lite Package, as well as some paid packages.

Untangle provides excellent Internet security, but it runs on a dedicated server.  If you are computer savvy, you can set up your server and follow the step-by-step instructions on the website to download the program and get it up and running.  If you aren’t comfortable doing that, you may want to hire someone to set it up for you.  Like OpenDNS, it’s also customizable and the free version is very effective.

If you would like a virus scan, or assistance downloading and setting up the open-source programs, give us a call and we would be happy to make a service call and help you.

**Click here for a list of names (which sound like antivirus software) that Trojans use to try to sneak onto your computer.

Technology Tips