Computers Software

Each year the damages from computer malware cost US businesses billions of dollars. These costs are not only in lost productivity, but permanent loss of critical business data. Arguably, most if not all infections are preventable with the proper understanding, training and protection. Don’t be the next victim, take the steps now to ensure protection and recovery if the worst should happen.First, let’s understand computer malware. Often the term virus is used to describe all malware.

Technically speaking, there are viruses, rootkits, Trojan horses, worms and spyware. The attack method may differ but they are all malicious.A virus is a program that runs itself and replicates itself. It can affect files or the boot sector and can delete all your data. The “Melissa” and “I Love You” viruses gained global attention.A rootkit or Trojan horse allows access to your system without your knowledge. Often they look like a useful piece of software but in fact they are back or trap doors.A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes. Once on the system, worms do not need to attach to another program and can run themselves.

Worms cause a denial of service attack making the network unusable. In general, worms target the network and viruses attack files.Spyware is computer software that is installed on a personal computer to intercept or take control of the PC. Spyware can hijack a computer and cause serious problems by gathering and transmitting personal data, loading undesirable software or redirecting browsers to malicious sites.Protecting yourself -
Have a good backup, just in case you need to restore
Use a firewall
Keep your system updated with the latest security patches
Install and update anti-virus and anti-spyware software (see below for choices)
Do not open email from anonymous, unknown or suspicious sources
Do not download files or software from anonymous,

unknown or suspicious sources
Do not navigate to suspicious or promiscuous websites
Regularly scan your system for malware (see below for choices)
Worth repeating – be sure that you have a good backup so that you can restore your full system if needed
If you think you have been attacked, act quickly to isolate the infected computer and remove the malware.You can purchase anti-virus and malware protection or there are many free versions for home users. For anti-virus, AVG, Avast and others have free versions.

For corporate anti-virus, we use Symantec Endpoint. For malware, we like Malwarebytes (personal or corporate edition) and Advanced System Care. With so many choices if you like one better, use it. The important point is that you have to have malware/virus protection.Use a three prong approach to keep your system safe: educate, protect, monitor. Try to understand the types of threats to your computer. The more educated and informed, the better you can protect your system. Monitor for threats and scan your system often. If it looks suspicious, don’t open the email, go to the site or download the file or software.Please be watchful of the sites you visit, the software you download and the email you open as the threats to your system change daily.

Computers are getting faster every year, but is a fast computer necessary, you may rightly ask. Think about the purpose of your computer. Do you use it for work? Or is it just a gaming computer? Maybe you just use it to browse on Facebook and YouTube. Whatever the purpose, we will see that a faster computer means a better computer as well.

What difference does a fast computer make? If your computer is slow in processing information and commands, the results in turn will be slow.

This can be frustrating if you are using a computer for your work. Time is valuable, and computers are not meant to be time consuming. Your productivity at work must not be affected by a slow computer machine.Gamers more than anyone know the importance of a fast computer. There is nothing worse than playing your favorite game and it starts stalling or taking an age to load! Moreover, to have an enjoyable online playing experience, you need a fast computer, or game-play can be interrupted and become slow.People wishing to browse the Internet and perhaps download things and watch streaming multimedia, need a fast computer as well. A slow computer, means slower loading of pages, longer download times and interruptions when watching an online video. This makes for an unpleasant experience.How can I get a fast PC? There are many things that you can do, such as defragmenting your hard drive for example.

This is the process of reorganizing files stored on the hard-disk surface. Disk defragmentation means to re-arrange existing files on the drive and move them closer together in order to be accessed faster by the operating system. A fast PC is a well organized computer. Defragmenting also can save the hard disc heads from wearing out.If your wardrobe is bursting with clothes, it’s likely harder to find things. You may have to clear it up. This is the same with a computer. Regularly clearing unwanted files and programs, can give you a faster computer.Software and hardware need regular updating. You can get Windows updates directly without clicking anywhere. While some driver and software is updated automatically by Windows updates,

you may have to do some manual driver updating as needed. This can help several hardware areas of your computer to run better, which will affect the speed of the whole computer.PC optimization software is perhaps the most powerful and easiest option to improve your computer’s speed. There are some specialized system optimization software which are engineered just for this purpose. That is, to examine your computer and find all problems and performance bottlenecks in order to speed-up and tune your computer for maximum performance and speed. Such software are usually a collection of many utilities in a single package, working with harmony to offer a complete and comprehensive optimization solution.To see how valuable and effective these programs are, one of the utilities they have is a registry optimizer. This tool will search all the registry entries and find unnecessary data and delete it. Also, it will compact and defragment the registry for real enhancement in speed. As we know, the registry is a specialized database where the operating system keeps a record of all details of the computer, like programs installed,

where data is located, what programs must start at boot time etc. So having an optimized registry is essential.