Basic Computer Security: How to Protect Yourself from Viruses, Hackers, and Thieves

When you own a computer, you would want to keep it risk-free of virtual theft or any viruses.

Because your computer is the only thing keeping and securing all your details, thus you wouldn’t want anyone outsider peaking in your computer.

You can take some precautions to prevent your computers from viruses, virtual hacking, and theft.

These methods are extensive and require some external software for the sole purpose of protecting your computer.

Some people might think of it as a complex process and some mind-worthy work when it comes to computer security.

Yes! It can be, but only if you get into the security system too deep.

Then it can be hard to handle, but the main parts and the vital security features are simple and easy. You just need to activate some tools already present in the operating system, and voila, there you have a well-set updated, secured system.

Here in this article, we will discuss some factors and some practical methods that you can use to keep your computer system up to date in the security options to have all the virtual privacy that you need.

Basic Computer Security Enhancements:

Basic Computer Security: How to Protect Yourself from Viruses ...

Here we will talk about a few factors that will help you understand your computer’s security system better. You will know how to enhance it as we have mentioned here some practical ways to strengthen your computer’s security.

Enable Automatic Updates:

How to Enable Automatic Updates: 10 Steps (with Pictures)

Every software that you choose to use is bugged or corrupted with security issues.

These security issues are constantly being discovered whether we use Windows software such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, the Adobe Flash plugin, Adobe’s PDF Reader, Microsoft Office, and the list goes on and on.

This software is essential, but from them also your computer can get security hacked or corrupted.

Nowadays, most yet, all of the programs and Operating systems offer an automatic update feature to help you make sure that your system is up to date and secure.

Those times are gone when you updated anything on your computer manually now. They update by themselves in the background without stopping your work. 

Some people would turn the automatic updates off. Why?

I don’t know that they might have some proper yet justifiable reason.

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Either they are avoiding the restart when an update is installed or don’t prefer any changes.

But when you take a security perspective, these automatic updates are vital for your computers and make sure that your computer system is up to date in the security category.

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If you have turned these updates off for some reason, then go and turn them back on and then continue reading this article. Good Job!

Use Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware:

What's the difference between antivirus and anti-malware?

When you research computer security, you will come across 5 out of 10 articles talking about the best Anti-virus software.

And to overcome that claim, three more articles come alongside that article, proving that their Anti-Virus option is best.

And at the end of the comments section, you see a security expert who says Anti-virus is a hoax and you are stupid for using them. 

Here is the thing Anti-virus is the most necessary software even if you are only browsing because when you are browsing, you don’t know which websites are virus-free or not.

Anti-virus fulfills that job.

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So, in my opinion, you should use Anti-virus, but the question arises which one?

And the answer is straightforward. This depends on your choice either you can use free, which will restrict some features, but it will fulfill the main task, or you can use paid software that gives you excessive features to go for.

But if you are satisfied with Windows Defender Windows own and built-in anti-virus software,” then that is also a good option as it is built-in free, and it automatically updates from time to time. 

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But in addition to any Anti-virus software, we recommend you to use Malwarebytes.

Please take this as when you need extra support for your belt alongside the waist belt of suspenders, then software like Malewarebytes are like suspenders. They give additional computer protection to your computer.

Craft Better and Innovative Password and Automate them:

Top 10 Digital Transformation Trends For 2020

How have a good idea that password protection plays a vital role in making your devices secured right? But you don’t know how important they are to be in mixed combination. Some people keep their passwords simple and of 4 to 5 letters.

This weakens their security as their password is easily guessed. Thus, anyone could guess their password.

The thing with password protection now is as everything is advancing, and the password protection method has also advanced since the golden days of the internet.

It is unlikely to use the same password everywhere you want and end the day with it.

Every time you have to set a different password on every website or access drive.

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Nowadays, most services and platforms get hacked, and if you are using the same password everywhere, you are giving access to and opening the door to the hacker of all of your accounts and details.

Thus using the same password everywhere for the sake of remembering it is childish and stupid.

So, now to have more secure password protection, you have applications such as LastPass.

This will generate some blended and mixed passwords for you, it will save them for you, and you don’t need to remember them as it will autofill as you sign-up or login.

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Having a good and authorized password in your hand feels like you are putting a heavy lock on your computer that neither can be broken nor can be removed.

It will keep your computer like a bunker.

For these, we recommend you use BitLocker if you are on windows simple Windows.

If you are on Windows Pro or Enterprise, then you can use Bitlocker. Or you could use Veracrypt if you are on Windows Home.

But if you are a Mac user, you don’t need to confuse yourself; just turn on the File Safe to turn on the encryption on the Mac.

Know Which Links to Click-on:

How to verify link targets before you click on links - gHacks Tech ...

There are various forms of hacking, and you don’t even know which Website is corrupting your computer.

So, be sure that you are attentive when you are opening any links, such as if you get an Email of a link then be sure that you have verified that link through a link verifier to make sure that it doesn’t contain any malware. 

You would have heard that some Emails lurking around the internet send you a link to take control of your computer.

There are various links that you will see.

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Let’s see an example take eBay, for instance, there are various promotional links that were conducted by eBay itself to promote the products. But if you see a link that says eBay.

Clickme.com is a suspicious link because eBay has a personal domain and doesn’t correspond through different domains.

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So, the original link for eBay would be eBay.com.

Until you see that link, it doesn’t open it because either the suspicious link will fill your computer with a virus or a virtual hack link.

Be Careful About Programs You Download and Run (and Stop Pirating  Software)

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Using some programs might affect your computer’s security system.

So, it would be best if you verified those programs from websites from where you downloaded them.

Why? The answer is simple and easy if the software of the program you use is harmful, then it can rapture the operating system. Sometimes some effective software directly targets your drives, forcing them to fry and get your data. 

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This is the worst-case scenario, but this software might kill you or damage your operating system in general cases.

So, be careful when downloading such software and programs and make sure they are safe before installing them on your computer.

So it would be best if you were careful when it comes to downloading and running random software.

You should trust only those software that is widely known and acknowledged, and widely downloadable.

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And you should download this software and programs that are available on reliable websites.

And try to download the software from its official Website as; if you want to download VLC, you should download it from the official Website of the VLC player. 

Avoid using those websites that give you illegal pirated access to this software and programs.

You should not click those links or download buttons that say download this and that software for a bundle, and then yes, you will get a bundle and some additional adware and malware with that too.

So, avoid that and make sure to download it from official websites.

Don’t Trust Your Popup Notifications.

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Similarly, avoid downloading anything from the internet or avoid clicking on anything that you never went looking for.

Suppose if a Website tells you that your flash player is out of date or your crime needs an update, or even it recommends you to add plugins for your chrome or browser, then hold back and stop right there.

These pop-ups and notifications are not correct; they want you to install a program to help the hacker access your computer or leave viruses or even malware.

And if you think that the notification or the pop-up is legit, but you don’t want to click on that because it can be harmful to your computer and your operating system.

Let’s take the flash players, for instance.

You have visited a website on which you want to play a video; then you will have a pop-up of you need your flash player updated to run this video.

Instead of clicking that download flash player button, you should visit a flash player website, the official Website of adobe. And from there, download the flash player update.

Don’t click the pop-up message if you want to prevent any damages to your browser or operating system, or even your computer.

This is the same case when you see a pop-up message ofWebsite has detected a virus in your system

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Then also, you should avoid it because that is a link to the pirated program that the attacker wants you to download. By this, the attacker will have all the access to your computer, and through that, he/she can attack your computer with a virus.

But if you think the pop-up is correct, then open the search bar in the navigation menu of your operating system, and from there, search for the preferred anti-virus software, and you can scan all the system viruses and malware through that software. 

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But you should never click on those pop-up notifications that say such messages because they are incorrect, and it is a simple technique to let you download their preferred program. Through that program, the attackers will get all the access to your computer and destroy your operating system.

Conclusion!!

We live in an age where our personal and professional data can be a valuable resource to hackers and other cybercriminals. You might think that old data might not serve any purpose to anyone else. However, for individuals as well as businesses, old data can be a minefield of information. This is why you need to go for secure data destruction in Malaysia to ensure that the information does not get into the wrong hands at any given point in time.

Having a proper security system for your computer is extremely important as nowadays everything is backed up in your computer, and you need to keep that data secured.

Nowadays, everyone keeps their identity computerized; thus, there are multiple possibilities of identity theft or virtual or physical damage. 

So, to prevent that damage, get a secured system and make sure that you follow every option that I have presented you to keep your computer system secured and protected.

Now in this modern age, you need to get some updates in your security to save all your data and account details because your personal computer is the only thing that is keeping your identity and account details secure.

And if that system is also infiltrated, then there is no hope for security. So, in the initial stages, you should keep your PC secured and well-protected.