most important ways to protect your computer from viruses

Lock your phone and make the timeout fairly short.

The ubiquity of mobile devices makes them especially vulnerable.

Speaking of passwords: password protect all of your devices, including your desktop, laptop, phone, smartwatch, tablet, camera, lawnmower…you get the idea.Plus, they make frequent password changes easier. Newer routers allow you to provide guests with segregated wireless access. Some routers have vulnerabilities that are never patched. Protect your Wi-Fi with an encrypted password, and consider refreshing your equipment every few years. Do not use open Wi-Fi on your router it makes it too easy for threat actors to steal your connection and download illegal files.If the information you’d like to protect is critical enough, removing the platters where the information is stored then destroying them is the way to go. For those looking to pillage your recycled devices, this makes information much more difficult to recover. Consider using d-ban to erase your hard drive. Destroy all traces of your personal info on hardware you plan on selling.(You’ll want to check if your OS has both firewall and antivirus built in and enabled by default, and whether those programs are compatible with additional cybersecurity software.) Download up-to-date security programs, including anti-malware software with multiple technologies for protecting against spyware, ransomware, and exploits, as well as a firewall, if your OS didn’t come pre-packaged with it.Consider retiring particularly susceptible software such as Java or Flash, especially as many sites and services continue to move away from them. For extra protection, enable Microsoft product updates so that the Office Suite will be updated at the same time. This keeps hackers from accessing your computer through vulnerabilities in outdated programs (which can be exploited by malware). Update your OS and other software frequently, if not automatically.What can you do to protect it against cybercriminals? Instead of sitting back and waiting to get infected, why not arm yourself and fight back?īad guys, beware. Think of your home computer as a company.

They can then use that info to exploit weaknesses in the company’s security, which in turn puts the data you’ve entrusted to that company in jeopardy. If hackers want to target a particular company, for example, they can find vast amounts of information on that company just by searching the web. Hackers ( of the criminal variety) are a scary bunch-whether working as part of an organized unit or an idealist with a political agenda, they’ve got the knowledge and the power to access your most precious data.

Most important ways to protect your computer from viruses