Nick James

There are more threats to your computer than ever before.

My main PC went down this week with a hard-disk failure and I know 3 people who have suffered computer issues in the last couple of months. I was lucky enough to be back up and running within just a matter of days, with all my data restored... But one of my friends is still trying to get his computer back to normal from disaster over 2 weeks on.

Do yourself a favor and save yourself some frustration. Play it safer than they did. Do the following:

• Get antivirus protection - If you don't have this installed already, it is just a matter of time before your computer is infected. Here are the top tools to consider:

  PC-cillin by Trend Micro
  Norton Antivirus
  McAfee Antivirus

  Don't forget to check your system over as soon as you install the software. Some of these programs will check for viruses automatically upon installation. You want to make sure you are starting out with a clean computer.

• Run antispyware software - There are several good programs to run on your computer. These check for "spyware" programs which are capable of sending your private information across the Internet (like passwords and credit card numbers).

  You may want to run all three of these. Make sure that you download them straight from the author's sites. There are fake versions floating around that in fact are malicious programs themselves!

  Adaware by Lavasoft
  Spybot Search and Destroy by Patrick Kolla
  House Call by TrendMicro

• Keep your operating system patches up to date - for Windows users, check the Windows Update site. They are constantly correcting security flaws and providing updates. The site will automatically detect which updates you need for your system.

• Be careful clicking "Yes" - You may get an occasional popup box asking if you want certain plug in programs to be installed on your computer. Don't automatically click yes! If you've ever seen anyone that has had their browser "hi jacked" this is typically what happened. A box popped up asking if they want to set xyz as their home page and without thinking they click "Yes". Bad move...

  Only allow programs to be installed when you are 100% confident and sure that you trust the company. Keep an eye out for like sounding names asking you to install a plug in like "Macr0media" instead of "Macromedia" or "Microsft" instead of "Microsoft".

• Use caution when installing toolbars - Don't install helpful toolbars unless you are sure they are safe. Toolbars from Google and Alexis are fine. Yahoo is fine also but there are some bugs reported with that one. Nothing malicious but it was preventing some people from opening multiple windows. If you don't know or trust the site, then don't install their tool bar. Some can have pretty nasty programs hidden inside.

• Set Your Security Level Higher - You should have your security set to at least Medium on your browser. Go to "Tools --> Internet Options" and then click on the security tab:

  Setting it to High might be too much for your tastes. This will prevent some legitimate plug ins and programs from running in your browser.

• Be careful with email attachments - this is a big one. Even if a friend is sending you an .exe or other file, you would be better off not clicking on it. You don't know where they got it from or even if they are aware that it is attached to their email address.

  A friend of my learned this the hard way only last week. He was planning a surprise birthday party from his wife. Ironically enough a friend of his sent him an email with an attachment "party.exe". Yup you guessed it. Virus. The sender didn't know anything about it.

  These are pretty basic measures that everyone should be doing to protect themselves. Otherwise you are facing wasting hours of your time and/or losing valuable information off of your computer.

  Take the time and protect your computer and make regular back-ups.