The Importance of Protecting Your PC from Viruses and Spam

By: Ken Katz

Today the internet is a mine field of malicious code looking to
harm your computer. Hackers want to have access to your PC for
both fun and profit. You must be diligent in your ability to
detect and then protect your important computer data.

Understanding what hackers are looking for, what doors they use
to gain entry into your computer and which programs are
available to help you protect your PC against any illegal entry
will give you greater peace of mind and protect your valuable
data.

There are three types of threats to your computer that you need
to be concerned about. The first are viruses. The definition of
a computer virus is a piece of code or a program that is that is
loaded onto and run on your computer without your knowledge.
They can attach themselves to other programs on your computer.
Some Virus' can reproduce at a great rate and in turn use up a
lot of your computer memory. This eventually can cause your
computer to crash. You get Viruses most commonly via email or
downloading programs and files. One way is in form of .exe
files. If you receive an .exe file you should never open it
unless it has been checked and approved as safe by your virus
protection program.

Viruses can come into your computer in many other forms. You
have to be careful with flash files, movies, mp3 and even .jpeg
files. This is a good reason to have virus protection software
installed on your computer. Companies like Norton, McAfee
(McAfee.com), Trend Micro who makes PC-cilliin (trendmicro.com)
and Grisoft (grisoft.com) among others make excellent virus
protection products. Grisoft makes AVG Pro which is competent
virus protection software. They have a personal edition which is
free to use and is very good.

The next piece of software that is needed to protect your PC
computer is a firewall. A firewall is used to block illegal
access to your computer or network. It will block suspicious
data from flowing into your PC and block unapproved programs
outside your computer from taking data from your PC.

Think of a firewall as a doorman whose job it is to open a large
locked door. When the doorman knows who is knocking at the door
either by an announcement or because he recognizes the person he
will let them in. With your firewall the firewall is unlocked
only on your authorization allowing data to be passed on or
received. It learns after awhile who is trusted and who is not.

A firewall comes standard with Microsoft Windows XP
(Microsoft.com). But in order for it to protect, you must turn
it on. Other solutions are Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall
which you can buy by itself or bundled in the Norton Security
Suite (symantec.com). McAfee (McAfee.com) also has a good
firewall as well as the free version of Zone Labs firewall
called Zone Alarm (zonelabs.com).

And, finally you should have good spyware software to protect
against hackers or companies from snooping to find information
about you through your internet connection. It is commonly used
by companies for marketing purposes. Free spyware software that
is widely used is Spybot's Search & Destroy
(safer-networking.org) or Lavasoft's (lavasoft.com) free version
of their Ad-aware spyware application. Spy Sweeper from Webroot
(webroot.com) is an excellent choice and does not cost very
much. Spy Sweeper has received many top reviews from the
computer magazines.

If you install a virus protection software, Firewall and spyware
software your computer will be well protected and you will have
peace of mind. And, you needn't spend a lot. In each category
you can find a free version that is very good and will help keep
your computer problem free.

About the author:
Ken Katz runs the Free Article Site: www.power-in-knowledge.com .