1. Always make backups of important information and store in a safe place separate from your computer.
2. Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently. If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running the update wizard. This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer. Also go to www.officeupdate.microsoft.com to locate possible patches for your Office programs.
3. Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet. Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.
4. Review your browser and email settings for optimum security. Why should you do this? Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. At a minimum set your security setting for the “internet zone” to High, and your “trusted sites zone” to Medium Low.
5. Install antivirus software and set for automatic updates so that you receive the most current versions.
6. Do not open unknown email attachments. It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address.
7. Do not run programs from unknown origins. Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers because they contain funny or amusing stories or jokes. They may contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect a computer.
8. Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to “hide file extensions for known file types”. Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.
9. Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker can not attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off.
10. Consider making a boot disk on a floppy disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program. Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system.

Everyone in the United States has heard of the leading antivirus vendors Mcafee, Symantec, Trend Micro and Computer Associates. In the United States, these companies are the leaders in the market. To add another leader into the mix, Microsoft acquired intellectual property and technology from GeCad software in 2003, a company based in Bucharest, Romania. Along with that, they also took over Pelican Software, which had a behavior based security as well as Giant Company Software for spyware and Sybari Software, which manages virus, spam, and phishing filtering. So from the looks of it, Microsoft is looking to make their presence known within the antivirus industry.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether Microsoft will ever be able to be a dominant force in the antivirus market by simply bundling it technology along with it’s operating system at no charge. Something that has been done in other markets such as word processing and internet browsers.

There are many antivirus vendors who operate in this market. In other countries, there are quite a few companies with great market presence that are beginning to get better known. Just to name a few, they are GriSoft out of the Czech Republic, Sophos in the united Kingdom, Panda Software out of Spain, Kaspersky in Russia, SoftWin in Romania, F-Secure in Finland, Norman in Norway, Arcabit in Poland, VirusBuster out of Hungary, and AhnLab in South Korea.

No one is really sure where the industry is heading and the market faces a rapidly changing landscape over the next few years or so. The malicious programs that are coming out are getting more complex as well as the number of them are increasing. The effort being put forth to provide fixes for viruses is staggering. It’s amazing to see the viruses that are being released on companies and individuals, they are getting “smarter” in the way they propagate themselves quickly while they hide themselves by moving around a system and renaming themselves to make it harder to remove them.

Whatever you do in regards to a antivirus program, make sure you get one, if not two of them to protect you computer and laptop.

There are some people out there who are phishing for your personal information and identity to use against you. While others just want to use your computer to attack other unknown targets. You need to protect yourself as much as possible from these types of characters. Here are just a few easy and cost-effective ways to secure you computer.

Make backup disks and store them in a safe place away from your computer. update and patch the operating system, web browser and the software frequently. If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running the update wizard. This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer. Also go to www.officeupdate.microsoft.com to locate possible patches for your Office programs.

If your computer does have a firewall, install one. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet.
Review your browser and email settings for optimum security. Why should you do this? Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. At a minimum set your security setting for the “internet zone” to High, and your “trusted sites zone” to Medium Low.

You need to install an antivirus software and make sure you set it for automatic updates to assure that you get the most recent versions. There are many different programs out there to choose from.

Don’t ever open any attachments from sources that your not familiar with. If you don’t trust the source, delete it. It not enough to recognize the address because many virus can spread from familiar addresses.

Never run a program that originates from an unknown source. You will see one the claim to be from legitimate companies like Microsoft, but you will see in the box that it’s from an unknown origin.

Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to “hide file extensions for known file types”. Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.

Don’t leave your computer on and connected to the internet. I know some of my friends that never turn off their computer as well as the internet, they’re just waiting for a problem to happen. A hacker can’t get into your computer if you’re not connected.

Don’t wait until something bad happens to your computer. Do it now and save yourself a lot of headaches.