Computer virus prevention methods

How did someone else send an email that looked like it was from me? Why do such emails seem to be from someone who is not in my organization? How viruses spoof the from-address in emails? You have effective anti-virus software, so your computer is clean, You send an email to Fred, Now your email address is in Freds address book in his email software, Fred does not have effective anti-virus software, and his computer has a virus, The virus on Freds computer scans his address book for all of the email addresses on it, The virus sends email to every address on Freds address book, The virus emails do not say they are from Fred!

The virus may combine the name from one address and the domain from another, creating a 'from address' that does not exist. By entering Web addresses manually, users can help ensure that they arrive at the actual page they intend. But even manual entry isn't foolproof. Hence the justification for step Deploy DNS protection.

More on that in a moment. Technology professionals and others argue the benefits of software- versus hardware-based firewalls. Often, users encounter trouble trying to share printers, access network resources, and perform other tasks when deploying third-party software-based firewalls.

As a result, I've seen many cases where firewalls have simply been disabled altogether. But a reliable firewall is indispensable, as it protects computers from a wide variety of exploits, malicious network traffic, viruses, worms, and other vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately, by itself, the software-based firewall included with Windows isn't sufficient to protect systems from the myriad robotic attacks affecting all Internet-connected systems. For this reason, all PCs connected to the Internet should be secured behind a capable hardware-based firewall. Internet access introduces a wide variety of security risks.

Among the most disconcerting may be drive-by infections, in which users only need to visit a compromised Web page to infect their own PCs and potentially begin infecting those of customers, colleagues, and other staff.

Another worry is Web sites that distribute infected programs, applications, and Trojan files. Still another threat exists in the form of poisoned DNS attacks, whereby a compromised DNS server directs you to an unauthorized Web server. Users can protect themselves from all these threats by changing the way their computers process DNS services. While a computer professional may be required to implement the switch, OpenDNS offers free DNS services to protect users against common phishing, spyware, and other Web-based hazards.

Strengthen your organization's IT security defenses by keeping abreast of the latest cybersecurity news, solutions, and best practices. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays. Erik Eckel owns and operates two technology companies.

As a managing partner with Louisville Geek, he works daily as an IT consultant to assist small businesses in overcoming technology challenges and maximizing IT investments. He is also president o Blinken: Why properly educating users is the best defense against future cyberattacks. A Firewall app can notify you when a virus or a worm is trying to connect to your computer.

It can also help you block viruses, worms, and attackers from trying to download potentially harmful apps on your computer. Windows has a built-in Microsoft Defender Firewall. Usually, it is safe enough to only use this tool. However, there are still other available choices. It can mitigate the impact of malware.

When some changes need the administrator-level permission on your computer, UAC will pop up and give you the choice to refuse or approve the change. When you use a web browser to visit webpages, they can keep your personal information you offer like your name, address, some passwords, and more. The direct way to do this is to clear caches and view history for the web browser. Usually, you need to pay for genuine software. But cracked software is free. You may want to download and install cracked software on your computer.

To protect your computer from viruses, you should not do this. Cracked software always subjects your computer to hard-to-detect bugs, causing more issues to your computer. Some cracked tools are even implanted with viruses that can easily attack your machine and the data in it.

So, you should not use cracked software. You may like to download some files like music files, movies, documents, etc. This activity includes some potential risks.

If you download files from an unsafe site, the download files can be infected with a virus. So, just pay attention to the files you want to download. If Windows or your third-party security tool gives you a warning, you should manually check whether the files are safe.

If you suspect that your downloaded files are infected by viruses, you can use professional anti-virus software to scan your drive for viruses and malware, and then remove them from your computer. Click to tweet. If you lose your important files due to virus attack, you can use a free files recovery tool to get them back. But it is all in the details. Be sure to notice the URL of the web site, check on official sources if the website is real and actually is what it presents like.

While obvious, the lock icon next to a URL is one of the first signs that you might be on a potentially malicious website. One of the oldest ways of infection, and one that made computer viruses so notorious in the early days of the internet is through email. Some people send viruses to their friends and not even know that they did it. At Altitude Integrations, we have encountered many situations where our clients have had their email accounts hacked. Once hacked, the attackers would use that account to send malicious content to the entire address book list.

The most reliable way to make sure you are safe is to open an email attachment or click on a link is to scan it with anti-virus software. Your mail provider or email service you are using should also have some sort of email protection against viruses. In Gmail, for example, attachments are automatically scanned for viruses. If a virus is present, the email will be rejected and you will be notified. Anti-virus is important and you should invest in a robust solution, there is still a possibility for the virus to slip through the cracks and get downloaded to your computer.

It can often lurk in your network, you being unaware of its presence. Many of these programs are easy, affordable and sometimes even free and they can be used in combination with a backup, so to ensure no malicious files are backed up with your other files.

We can take all of the steps there are to prevent computer viruses, but an infection can sometimes just happen, and they can slip past your defenses. There are however, some tell-tale signs that your computer has been infected with a computer virus:. We love to help our clients when they are in trouble.

We also love to educate our clients on how they can stay out of trouble in the first place.