How to protect your computer from viruses?

One of the biggest problems in computer science is viruses. These can arrive practically from all sides: email, visiting an unsafe page or through chat between friends. When a virus infects a computer, many people do not know what to do and, most important of all, not even how to avoid becoming infected.

Panda Security, a company related to computer security, which has a free online antivirus and a version that allows you to install it on your PC, revealed that 50% of people who used their online antivirus software during January were infected with some kind of malware (which is a conjunction of the words malicious software ). Also, a website called Savenit , From there you get the best antivirus software for pc.

The most common is the so-called Trojans that carry that name because, as happened with the Trojan horse in Homer's Odyssey, they are presented as something completely harmless but, when it is executed, it generates damage. While they can do many things, the most normal thing is to give control of your computer to unauthorized users. There are also conventional viruses, which alter the functioning of the computer and, finally, the worms, which are named because they have the ability to duplicate themselves.

First of all we must go to the logic: On the Internet, as in real life, you have to have basic care. The most important thing is not to run files of people you do not know. That is, if your email (or any other means) you get a message with an attachment that you were not expecting the best you can do is ask that person if he actually sent it to you because there is a possibility that it was a message automatically generated by the virus to spread.

Another technique widely used to infect is through the most used messenger in Argentina, the famous MSN Messenger. Many users have probably had the experience of having received a link by courier to download photographs of a party, for example. Upon entering the link, a file was downloaded that, after executing it, infected the machine. Then the story would repeat itself: your infected computer sending messages to all your contacts without you knowing.

Finally, the most common way is by entering web pages. Although it seems strange, many sites can also have viruses. There are hackers that create pages that have the sole purpose of infecting users while others infect websites and use them to propagate them. But to be able to do it, when you enter an unknown website, on occasion, you will be asked to install a certain application. If you are not completely sure that the site is reliable, do not accept. Otherwise, you have fallen into the trap.

Passing music, movies, applications, photographs or different files to a friend through a flash drive is currently the most normal and Sebastián Bortnik, coordinator of Awareness & Research at ESET Latin America, commented that it is another major problem at the time of infection: "It usually affects users who use Windows XP and do not have all the latest security updates installed."

If you are not careful, the most likely thing is that you end up with malware on the computer and, although you may not even notice it and it does not affect you too much, it is always better to have it clean without anyone spying on what you do or do not do. "The most important thing," says Bortnik, "is to take into account that you have to try not to get infected, and for that you have to combine technology with good detection practices."

Some social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, are visited daily by millions of people and, although different companies do everything possible to protect their users, it is a kind of mecca for those who want to distribute viruses. "Social networks are used to propagate messages, to get faster and massively to the user. The attackers show attractive messages trying to do click on links and thus take you to malicious pages to infect the system. Because of its great effectiveness gradually replacing to other older or traditional means such as email or messages by instant messaging clients, " says Bortnik.

How to detect that you are infected? "

There is a series of indications that can help the user to suspect that he is infected such as the slowness of the system, unexpected changes in the configuration, messages published without authorization on the Facebook wall, among others," explains the expert. Anyway, these are only clues and, by themselves, can not fully confirm that you have a virus. For that you always have to scan the operating system through an antivirus. Only then will you know if you have a problem and if the protective software can solve it.