The very fact that you are connected to a public network along with millions of others means that your PC is vulnerable. It is open to receiving thousands of little software programs that are specifically designed to either harm, disrupt, or exploit your computer.
** Protecting your computer against malicious intruders
Any time you receive a file from some other source on the web, there is a chance that file will be "infected" with a virus, or will contain an attached bit of adware or spyware. That applies to viewing web pages, and receiving email messages. It also applies to downloading image, audio, and video files.
Email attachments are especially notorious for harboring viruses and malware. You receive a message that has an attachment beckoning you to double-click on it. When you do so, it installs a little program that resides somewhere deep within your PC, ready to do whatever it has been programmed to do -- whether that is spying and reporting on your computer habits, hijacking your home page and redirecting you to some other site, or popping up aggravating ads for gambling or pornography sites.
Viruses go well beyond that. They are intentionally designed to run programs that damage important operating system files, and usually have some way of exploiting your email program to send the infected message to hundreds of others in your contact list. That is why they are called "viruses" -- because they can spread like wildfire to thousands and even millions of computers.
** Antivirus programs
Antivirus programs like Norton Antivirus 2006 were designed to do just what their name implies -- to guard against viruses. They do this by using a four part process. First when the anti-virus program is installed it "cleans" the system. Every file on your hard drive is scanned to see if it is infected. When an infected file is found it is either "quarantined" or deleted.
Second, the antivirus program stands guard and automatically scans any new files, email messages or web page files that are downloaded or copied to your computer's memory. If any of these files are found to be infected, the antivirus program blocks them from being copied.
Third, the antivirus program runs periodic scans -- usually every few days -- of your entire file system to make sure no infected files have made it past the automatic scan.
And fourth, the antivirus program has a system for being automatically updated. Since new viruses are being created every day, it is important to update your system of protection every day. Usually this is done by automatically downloading and installing updates to the virus descriptions.
** Guarding against spyware
Spyware is a relatively new problem confronted by the PC owner. The point of spyware is to monitor your keystroke patterns and use this information for some commercial or advertising purpose. The spyware program is usually installed along with some freeware such as a music or video sharing program. The user does not consent to the installation and is often not even aware of it.
Some spyware programs are relatively harmless, but others can have a dramatic impact on your computer's performance -- even bogging it down completely.
Newer versions of an antivirus program such as Norton Antivirus 2006 detect and remove spyware, keystroke loggers and other unwanted monitoring software. They also come with regular updates to stop new spyware from infecting your computer.
Many computer users have had the unfortunate experience of computer virus infecting their PCs. Make no mistake, these viruses are not the biological ones that spread from one sick person to another, but do have similar traits in that computer viruses are just as contagious, and spread and infect computers very quickly over the internet.
Technically speaking, a computer virus is a form of executable code. These viruses are designed to cause malfunctions on the affected computer. When other computers are connected to this infected machine, the virus replicates itself to enter and infect the other PC.
You might have heard of the Worms or Trojans, which are viruses that are designed to steal important personal information such as your ID or passwords or account numbers etc that reside on your computer. They can also enable the particular virus to gain access into a machine and then hijack control of the infected computer. Other viruses, especially the macro viruses, are designed in such a way that they can delete or overwrite system or data files in the affected computer.
Installing antivirus software is by far the best solution to protect your PC from attacks from these computer viruses. The best known antivirus software are the Norton, McAfee and Panda, which come with features such as inbuilt firewall and direct access to online back up. These antivirus software also have the ability to deactivate the malicious viruses.
The antivirus software protects your computer from virus attacks following two main methods, the first method being prevention, and the second one cleaning. The preventive function involves stopping new viruses from entering your PC, while the cleaning function involves detection and extermination of the old viruses. The protective tasks include such procedures as monitoring emails, P2P downloads and internet connections. On the other hand, the virus cleaning part includes procedures such as scanning of your computer, detecting viruses and then eliminating them from the computer system.
Antivirus software are generally very efficient in dealing with harmful computer viruses. Even so, computer users are recommended to follow certain safety rules to tighten the protection even more:
* A common mistake most people tend to make is to open unsolicited emails that contain virus, either unknowingly or absent-mindedly. Never open such emails if you want to protect your precious data from getting lost once and for all.
* Another precautionary measure involves not opening any attachment sent with an email. Unless you are sure of its source and what it contains, it is usually better to just delete this mail with the doubtful attachment.
Susan Jan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Data Recovery, Travel Insurance and Watches Reviews. Get effective to protect your computer against. Susan Jan's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.