This quick guide offers 7 tips Women in Ecommerce™ suggests you should be doing to keep your computer from getting any undesired bugs, viruses and Scammers.
Number 1. Protect Your Computer ~ Make sure you have antivirus software installed on your computer. There are paid programs such as McAfee and BitDefender and there are also some that are free such as AVG free and Avira . My computer guy suggested that there is little difference between the open source (free versions) and the ones you pay for because they really don’t protect a computer like we think. Mostly they tell us when we have issues we need to address and bugs we need to get rid of. When in doubt ask a professional.
Number 2. Firewalls are important ~ Make sure you have a firewall installed on your computer. A firewall filters all the information coming from the Internet to your computer and helps to protect it from viruses, spam and other dangerous programs. It also protects your personal information and files from being stolen or hacked by others.
Number 3. Don’t open Spam ~ delete spam without opening it. Set the spam blocker in your email program to medium or high. (Be sure to check your junk mail folder in case it accidentally catches mail from someone you know.) Don’t reply to spam (this lets the spammer know your email is good).
Number 4. Email Attachments ~ Don’t open any email attachments from anyone you do not know. These emails and attachments may contain viruses or spyware. I seldom add attachments to emails as most information I send can be put in the body of an email. I only send attachments to people who are expecting them from me
Number 5. Browsers Do Make a Difference ~ Always use standard browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Also according to my computer guy, they are more secure (than Internet Explorer) and have lots of added security features you can install.
Number 6. Surf Safe ~ Check out Web of Trust , a program that you install on your computer that tells you if a site is malicious or not. Another one is Peerblock. PeerBlock acts like a firewall and will stop you from connecting to bad IP addresses such as servers with spyware on them.
Number 7. USE Your Antivirus Software! ~ Most people install their antivirus software and then forget about it. Do a scan of your computer at least once a week or every 10 day to deal with any threats that might be floating around.
With the advances in the Internet and the sophistication of today’s Hackers, Spammers and cyber criminals, it is virtually impossible to protect yourself 100% of the time. These tips will however, give you added security that without, your computer would be much more vulnerable.
In the next post How to Practice Safe Surfing and Other Internet Safety Tips Women in Ecommerce™ will share tips to Stay Safe Online ~ to keep from being harrassed, scammed or threatened. This advice is intended as a guideline. Please use caution when doing business online and in all your online dealings. And always, ALWAYS remember this: “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
