| There is nothing wrong with taking less than adequate | | | | The most critical software that you should have in you |
| measures to prevent a bigger damage to anything you | | | | PC is: |
| treasure if you have financial or other constraints, as | | | | |
| long as this is done temporarily over a short time. | | | | 1. Firewall - To protect your PC from hackers and |
| Similar reasoning applies when it comes to computer | | | | internal malware that maybe trying to "phone home" |
| security threats. | | | | 2. Spyware/Adware - To detect the "ETs" that are |
| Unfortunately some (if not most) computer users tend | | | | "phoning home" from your PC, endangering your |
| to forget this. They search on the internet for free | | | | sensitive information such as passwords, credit card |
| computer security software which they dump into their | | | | numbers and other sensitive information. These |
| computers and hope for the best. Most of the free | | | | programs also use lots of your critical computer |
| software developers consistently forget to inform the | | | | resources. That's why your computer is slow and |
| downloaders of the inadequacies of their software - | | | | crashing lately! |
| and they are many and significant! | | | | 3. Anti-virus Software - These can either completely |
| A simple search for free anti-spyware programs on | | | | wipe out your critical data or render it or your |
| any search engine yields significant results. If we | | | | computer useless. The most dangerous thing is that |
| exclude genuine beta-software from these results, | | | | you may end up (unaware!) being a source of the |
| almost all of these anti-spyware programs operate on | | | | virus (e.g. through email or infected website pages). |
| the principle - "Get infected first, then call us". In other | | | | Here are common-sense measures you can take to |
| words these programs are reactive. They scan and | | | | protect your PC: |
| destroy spyware as it's found in the user's computer. | | | | |
| The real downside of these programs is that they | | | | 1. E-mail - Avoid replying to chain letters. Also be very |
| offer no real-time protection. Are you surprised? | | | | careful of image attachment. Hackers attach malicious |
| Maybe you've forgotten that "there's no such thing a | | | | JavaScript program on these. |
| free lunch"! | | | | 2. Regularly update your anti-virus definitions by running |
| The big computer security software developers spend | | | | the update function of your security software. |
| millions of dollars every year developing products that | | | | 3. Before buying a computer security software or |
| can quickly detect and destroy new computer security | | | | package make sure that it offers regular updates to |
| threats like spyware, adware, viruses, hacking | | | | keep up with new viruses, adware, spyware and other |
| techniques, Trojans, worms keyloggers etc | | | | computer security threats. |
| Do you think the developers of free computer security | | | | I want to repeat what I said at the beginning of this |
| software inject millions of dollars in order to bring users | | | | article: There is nothing wrong in taking temporary |
| of their software regular software updates? I think not! | | | | security measures as far as your computer security is |
| Computer security software is such a critical purchase | | | | concerned (i.e. using free software/downloads). What |
| that I think one should actually buy the software | | | | is wrong is forgetting that the measure was supposed |
| before bringing home a new PC! | | | | to be over a temporary period in the first place. |