11 Vital Tips to Protect Against Viruses

As it is said that prevention is always better than cure so if you have not been infected yet, it is the time to prepare you against any viral attacks. As the attacks by viruses, worms, spywares and adwares are becoming more common so it is recommended to keep a better "know how".

Beware of VBS (Visual Basic Script) Files

Don't ever try to open any VBs files until you are sure about the source trustworthiness. Visual Basic Script is a language that can run within PC routines. And it is serving as a most common medium for hackers to create malicious content.

Install a better Firewall

Firewall gives you an ultimate protection from the illegal break-ins into your machine without your consent. You can use any third party Firewall application or use the Windows built-in. Firewall is highly recommended to increase security for your machine.

Do not hide extensions of known types of program files

All Windows operating systems, by default, hide known file extension in Windows Explorer. This feature can be used by virus writers and hackers to disguise malicious programs as if they were other file extension. Thus users are tricked, and click the "text" file and inadvertently running the malicious file.

Configure Internet Explorer security at least to Medium

To activate this function, you open the browser; go to Tools, Internet Options, and Security. After choosing the appropriate area (in this case the Internet) and click the Custom Level button: there you select Medium or High settings, as the risk that the users feel at that time.

Chat, another gateway

In chat rooms is very common to send any file through the DDC system. If you receive any file which you did not request, or any unknown file, do not open it. No matter how much interesting it looks.

Beware of files that arrive via email

Upon receiving a new email message, analyze it with antivirus before opening it, even if you know the sender. It is better to save the files on the local disk and then track it with an updated antivirus program (rather than double click on the attachment of incoming email.)

USB Flash/Pen Drive exchanging, a big mistake

This is probably the most common method of infecting any computer. And even worse is that a large number of people are not aware of this gateway. Upon connecting the USB stick commonly known as Flash/Pen drive the malicious content makes use of autorun.inf file which executes the malicious program automatically unknowingly without the consent of user. This works as the easiest way to break-into any machine, especially most adwares work this way. The growth of infection goes exponentially, from one to two, two to four and so on, as the device is shared. So it is advisable to turn autorun.inf file off.

You can turn off auto-run feature manually. You can learn to do so here.

Updating the Operating System Regularly

Engineers at Microsoft are always in search of back doors which may prove fatal for security of your system. The company does this by presenting regular updates. You can update your Windows regularly by setting the updates to automatic.

Download only from websites you trust

For downloading any applications make use of websites which you consider trustworthy. Avoid downloading from suspicious looking or unknown websites.

Updating antivirus regularly

As we know new threats are continuously generated so it is always recommended to update your antivirus software regularly. Rather you should set the update feature to automatic, to eliminate the chance of forgetting.