Security on the Internet

It is quite often that someone in serious need of some computer assistance calls us or visits  our live chat and states that their computer is no longer working as it previously did. One of the first things we will check is if they have a firewall. Often we find that people are using high speed internet connections with no security - This is a disaster waiting to happen.

This is very important to understand -  if you have a computer that you use on the internet then you absolutely must use a firewall. This is such fundamental information but often goes overlooked. If you do not or choose not to then not only will your computer start to go wrong, you also risk private data getting into the hands of hackers or worse. Hackers can gain full access to your computer, install what they like, watch what you are doing, take your passwords, bank details and even steal your identity.

Well…..  hopefully the above is enough to scare you into getting a firewall and to and so it should.

The internet is an extremely valuable resource and is becoming more and more popular. It is also a breeding ground for people who have nothing better to to than spy on you, force advertisements on you, try and obtain access to your computer or create viruses that can damage your data. There are different categories of nasties to watch for.

Hackers - These can be people,   machines or bots (programmed by people). They are there to try and access your computer. This could be to install something on there or steal your personal data. This is high risk and it is honestly one of the most fundamental things to protect against.

Viruses - These range from mildly annoying to completely devastating as far as your computer goes. These can be files that slow your computer down, download more malicious software or cause strange things to happen with your PC. At worst, some viruses will delete all your data beyond recovery.

Spyware - This is where data is collected about what you do on the internet. This could be which sites you visit, what you are looking at etc etc. This is generally used for blackhat sales and marketing purposes but can have darker objectives.

Adware - The lesser evil of this topic but still annoying and potentially dangerous - do you have adverts popping up at random for seemingly no reason? even after visiting trusted web sites? The chances are you are infected with adware. Quite simply, adware is thereto try and advertise products to you even though you haven’t requested them. Somtimes it goes hand in had with Spyware. Spyware checks what sort of thing you are looking at, adware then provides the adverts based on this data.

Generally these evils will do no obvious harm to your computer and subsequently can often go unnoticed for long periods of time.. The main tell tale sign that something is wrong is that that your wonderful speedy new computer that was really quick when you got is, has now slowed down to the point of almost stopping. This is where you most likely have so many infections that you are overloading your machine.

So what can you do about this?
Well the first thing we would always advise is that a firewall be used. A firewall is something that stops programs accessing the internet unless you say it is fine for them to do so. This will eliminate large amounts of all the nasties listed above from even getting on your computer in the first place - Ideal. There are some good free firewalls out there some previously mentioned in this blog so what are you waiting for? - there is no excuse.

The antivirus software will check and monitor what comes into and goes out of your computer and constantly check  for viruses. As well as this it will offer the option for a complete scan. Whilst there are premium antvirus programs there are also a couple of good free ones - again previously mentioned.

To resolve the adware and spyware issues you need to regularly scan your PC. These can be picked up, not only from  computers that do not have security  but is also often  bundled into a lot of the so called  “free” software downloads. It’s important to check this before downloading anything that claims to be free. It also is worth noting that some of these programs will stop working altogether should the adware/spyware be removed.

So with the above you should be able to firstly prevent your system from failing and , secondly, by having this protection on hand, repair anything that may have already been infected.

Hopefully this article will help someone