Avoiding Threats
Threats can come from many different places such as e-mail, web sites and programs. In fact, most on-line activities and some offline ones expose your computer to the threat of virus infection.
There are, however, some basic precautions that can be taken to protect your computer.
The first rule of internet safety is to trust your source. Files, documents, web sites or any other link should only be clicked when you trust the person who has given it to you.
If you receive an e-mail that has as its subject line "Free money" the chances are that it is a con and should be deleted.
Even if you trust your source you should still be wary. Some viruses use their victim's address books to send e-mails. These e-mails contain the virus. If you open the contents of the e-mail your computer can be infected.
Another way to keep safe is to avoid downloading files that do not come from a well-known company. P2P sharing systems such as Kazaa are known to contain many Trojan files that, when run, will install a virus on your system.
Next: Internet Security Suites
