How To Protect Your Computer On The Internet

When you are connected to the internet, there are threats of different types like viruses, spywares, trogens, worms, and other bugs that are of plenty and are spread fast through the world wide web. No computer is safe from these hazards without adequate protection and shielding. You have to make sure that you are safe from these hazards when connected to the internet and while doing surfing. The good thing is that you can protect yourself from these threats by setting up your computer by proper protection by the use of computer programs and screening software.

This protective setup needs to be done as early as you begin with you new system and connect with the internet.

The protective setup includes:

1) Antivirus: An Antivirus is an important software program that can effectively maintain the security of a system. Antivirus programs provide both system security as well as internet security. These programs can scan the system for viruses, trogens, worms etc with a worldwide database of potential threats and notify of the security vulnerabilities that the system may have and quarantine or delete any threats from the system. As more and more virus programs are released into the world from different sources, the need for a virus database is essential in identifying these threats. All antivirus programs need to be updated with the latest database from its provider to be effective in detecting these culprits. Examples of good Antivirus software are AntiVir Personal, Avast, AVG Free Edition etc.

2) Firewall: The second program that is essential in providing system security is the firewall. A firewall is essential for shielding security threats that connects to the computer through the internet. There are various open ports for connecting the computer with the internet for all effective communications. Most of the computer viruses and other bugs get into the system utilizing some of these open ports in the system, which helps them to infect the system. Many hacking programs also utilize these ports to obtain connection in a vulnerable machine. So it is very important that only the secure ports that are essential are kept intact and all the other ports that are insecure are to be closed thus providing necessary security to the system. Firewalls also provide system security by detecting the internal processes that are carried out and allow only those processes that are security bounded. Examples of good firewall software are Comodo Internet Security, Outpost Firewall, ZoneAlarm Free etc.

3) Anti malware/spyware: The 3rd utility that helps in protection of the system is the anti malware/spyware program. There are many malware and spyware programs that are used for advertisement purposes and also 3rd party programs that are used for spying user behavior, personal choices etc. Many malware programs get automatically installed as part of the free versions of software programs and other offers. These malware programs run behind the programs and collect user statistics and other user relevant details. It is necessary to eliminate these programs because of the suspicious activities and also that it takes important processing power from the system CPU making the system run so slow. A good anti malware and anti spyware program therefore helps to eliminate these programs from the system and also save the speed and efficiency of the system. A precaution is also needed to be taken not to install any shareware programs or other trial offers. Examples of good anti malware/spyware are AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy etc.

4) Rootkit detection utility: Rootkits utilize the security vulnerabilities when using the browser, filling forms etc. to get information. They record the keystrokes and manage to extract data that is being entered into forms etc. Many of these information can be confidential and therefore highly risky when rootkits are in the system. However there are very effective rootkit eliminating programs available that contain these threats and eliminate them. Examples include Rootkit Revealer, ThreatFire etc.


5) Privacy cleaning tool: There are times we have to browse a lot of webpages and as a result we come across a lot of cookies and other internet cache files that are being saved into the disc which are possible security risks. Cookies are information that are collected by the web browser to provide with user statistics and can collect personal browsing history etc. Internet cache files are web page files that are stored by the browser so that there is less time taken to revisit the pages when the user returns back. There may be legitimate files as well as not potentially harmful files. So by regular browser cache cleaning is necessary after each browsing so that these files will not be as harmful. Privacy cleaning tools include CCleaner, Advanced System Care etc.

Installing and updating these programs can provide 98% security from viruses and other security threats. But it is also of utmost importance in preventing any security risks by not installing those programs that can harbor security risks to a system. Wish you take these measures and keep be secure from the threats to the system from the outside and most of all from the internet.

Hope you like these tips...