With the internet becoming more prevalent in our societies lives, making sure your computer is secure is becoming a priority.<\/p>\n
Between the use of social networking sites like Facebook or college based sites like College Humor, the chances of someone picking up a virus by the click of a button is growing.<\/p>\n
Chief Information Security Officer Dan O\u2019Callaghan says that one the easiest way for anyone to make sure there computer stays secure is to \u201cthink before they click.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people have been getting emails saying \u2018don\u2019t click on links or accept mail\u2019 for strangers but just ignore them.\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said. \u201cWell that applies to different sites, but even more so for social networking ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Callaghan advises people to think twice when doing things like accepting random friend request because it may not actually be them. Another issue is sharing photos and videos online for everyone to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese sights are open to anyone, which means you don\u2019t have to identify yourself when signing up,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said. \u201cHackers frequently compromise accounts and they first way they try to compromise others is by the accounts of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facebook applications can also lead to compromising your computers safety. Any Facebook user can write something and put it as an application.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe site is very user friendly and because of that most of the problems come from the people themselves,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n
Internet surfers should also be weary of \u2018drive-by attacks\u2019 from hackers. Many websites have vulnerabilities, and what the hackers are trying to attack through them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hackers scan the internet for trusted websites and they try to poison the websites by inserting malicious code into them,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n
The \u201cdrive-by\u201d affect is to make the user run an unwanted program. The viruses, which normally center around Java applet of Active-X control, pop up and may tell say that your computer has a number of viruses and that you should download there internet protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a window like this shows up, you should not many free antivirus programs online touch anything that has to do with that window. Not even the red \u201cX\u201d button, if you do so that could tell your computer to download the virus,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n
Your best option is to press control\/alt\/delete to bring up task manager and try to close the window from there. If that does not work, then turn off your computer manually by pressing the off button.<\/p>\n
When using antivirus software, O\u2019Callaghan says there are good free ones online that can help make sure your computer is safe like Microsoft\u2019s offered protection.<\/p>\n
The user should always have their Internet Firewall up, turned on, and configured.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re using a PC, you should log on under your own account and not the \u201cadministrator\u201d account. The best use for the administrator account is installing software and system maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number one thing people can do to protect themselves from viruses is to make sure there computer is as secure as possible,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said. \u201cAlthough there is not a perfect protection its best to have as many protections on your computer to keep yourself safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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