Keeping your computer safe is as important as keeping your home and your children safe. All it takes is one click on the wrong link, one piece of malware, or one virus to wreck havoc on your computer. And contrary to popular believe, this is true of both Macs and PCs alike. Luckily, great computer protection like Bitdefender exists.
In the past 1.5 years, many of us have been working from home. This means that our work laptops have not all been safely behind work firewalls and may not be getting monitored by high powered company security. And, for some, we may be working from our home computers. In either case it is important to protect them. This is also true of our smartphones.
Good computer protection will prevent the spread of viruses, adware, malware, and ransomware. And for the past couple of years ransomware has been a problem at several big companies and universities. But, even if you do not work at a huge company, you have to protect your computer.
Here are some tips to prevent a computer infection:
Install Reliable Virus & Malware Protection
The first line of defense for your computer is virus and malware protection. I have been working in IT for the past 25 years. I have seen my share of computers brought down by viruses and malware. In most of those cases, the user was not running reliable virus software. If that is the case, cleaning up can sometimes be impossible. That can lead to possible data loss and having to reinstall the entire OS. No one wants to deal with that.
Bitdefender is available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. It protects your computer by not only scanning on demand, but monitoring in the background and protecting you from things that can infect your computer. You can download Bitdefender free antivirus or choose to go with one of the upgraded packages. Bitdefender also offers secure VPN that keeps your online identity and activities safe from hackers, ISPs and snoops. I have actually used Bitdefender several times in the past on many of my computers. I trust it.
Learn How to Recognize Suspicious Links
Suspicious links are one of the most common ways for malware to infect your computer. You may receive emails claiming that you ordered a product that you know you did not order, telling you that you have won a contest, that you’ve won a million dollars (just click this link to claim your prize) or your computer is in peril right now so install this great product. These are just a few example emails that might be phishing attempts or lead to clicking harmful links. Be suspicious, be vigilant and learn to distinguish between real emails and the fraudulent emails. Never click on the link in an email if you are not sure where it came from. Check the content, look for misspellings, and check the from address. If that address looks weird, do not trust the email. For more information on phishing emails, see my post Protecting Yourself From Phishing Emails.
Beware of Social Media Links
Some friends and older family members sometimes spread bad links. Sometimes they just do not know. Other times, their social media account may have been hacked. Be sure to check before clicking on links from friends, social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, or through instant messenger applications could potentially infect your machine. And never click on a link from an unknown source.
Install Security Updates
Making sure that your computer’s OS is kept up to date is very, very important. Both Microsoft and Apple often release updates that include vital security updates to protect your computer against vulnerabilities. Keep your computer up to date by installing the software updates in a timely manner. Even though it may take a little time to install and restart your machine, you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run by making your computer less vulnerable to malware.
And you also need to remember that your antivirus software needs to be updated. Sometimes this involves updating the virus definitions, or installing the latest version. Please don’t wait 5 years to update your virus software!! Bitdefender’s Total Security license allows you to protect up to 5 devices for one year. Be sure to renew every year.
These are just a few tips to keep your computer protected. This is especially important now as we head into the busy holiday season when more and more of us are shopping online and the hackers are running rampant looking for security vulnerabilities. Check out the Bitdefender blog for more tips on protecting your computer.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Bitdefender. All opinions are my own.
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