PC Tonic

Over the last three Fortify Your Computer posts, we have covered all the security tools that you will need for your Windows’ safety (read them here : FYC 1 | FYC 2 | FYC 3). In this final post, we shall make a list of what YOU need to do to keep your computer safe and fortified.

1.Hit the Update button.
Security tools are useless against constantly evolving new threats unless you keep them updated. Most antivirus, antispyware and other apps come with an automatic updating system, but for others you must not forget to manually check for updates.
In the security tools that we mentioned, A-Squared Free doesn’t have the automatic updating feature and, therefore, has to be manually updated.

2.Never use more than one antivirus or firewall.
Antiviruses and firewalls don’t go well with one another. Your computer is likely to be under a bunch of conflicts, notably driver conflicts, if you use more than one antivirus or firewall.

3.Never turn OFF the real time protection.
Most antiviruses and antispyware have a feature called “real time protection”. While this is ON, the security app will run in the background and continuously check for incoming threats. You will be warned immediately when a malware tries to attack your computer so that you can delete it without delay. Needless to say this is a very vital feature and must always be kept ON.
Real time protection is known by different names for different security software, so don’t get confused. The most popular ones are ‘Real time protection’, ‘Resident shield’, ‘Virus / Spyware Guard’, ‘OnGuard’ etc.

Here are some more tips that you should keep in mind while browsing the net.
1.Never give away your email address to untrustworthy sources.
You are likely to be pelted with dozens of spam mail everyday if you do so. Websites which misuse your email are called “phishing” sites. To tackle this most newer web browsers like Opera 9.x, Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0.0.x have inbuilt phishing filters which will warn you of such websites.

2.Browse safe, stay safe.
You can greatly reduce the chances of getting your computer infected, by staying away from malicious sites. But how to distinguish an unsafe site from a safe one? A safe web surfing tool comes to use at this point. In FYC 2, we covered McAfee Site Advisor, a free safe web surfing tool for IE, Flock and Firefox. SiteAdvisor uses color coding to indicate a website’s safety – green for a safe site, yellow for a potentially unsafe / spammy site and red for a known unsafe site. However don’t always depend on SiteAdvisor – it has stamped the “unsafe” tag on some completely safe and popular websites like Giveaway of the Day, BidVertiser, FeedBurner and Alexa.
If you use some other browser like Opera, you will have to depend on your own website-detecting capabilities and Opera’s own strong phishing filter. These Spyware and Spam quizzes from the SiteAdvisor team will give you a general idea of how to distinguish a safe site from an unsafe one.

3.Never click on flashy advertisements that look alluring.
You may have come across online ads like “Congrats you are our 99999999th visitor!! Click here to claim your prize”. Clicking on these ads will take you straight to a malicious site which can instantly infect your computer, if you don’t have adequate virus and spyware protection. To completely block such ads from appearing, you can install the AdBlock Plus addon on your Firefox / Flock browser.

4.Ensure safe online transactions.
While making an online transaction (like purchasing anything via your credit card), make sure that the links provided in the web page match match with the ones that show up in the status bar. Also, check that the address bar shows a URL starting with https:// and NOT http:// (you should additionally check for a “lock sign” (as shown in the pic) either in the address bar or in the status bar). [via ReadersZone]
This precaution should also be taken while signing in to any online account.

This concludes our Fortify Your Computer section. Hope you enjoyed reading it and made your computer more secure at the same time!