Viruses

It can't happen to me....  Well it happens everyday!

Viruses will destroy data! And we do mean destroy. Many folks are under the impression that if they get a virus on their system they can just install an anti virus program and clean it out and everything will be fine. This is far from reality, once you have an active virus on your system, you can loose everything on the system. Even when you clean a virus out of your system, it may have destroyed or damaged files, removing the virus does not repair the damaged files. There are a lot of really bad people out there on the internet and they take pride in destroying your data and livelihood. The bad guys also know there are millions of people that think they don’t need an antivirus program and they take advantage of it. Viruses are mostly designed to destroy data and infect other systems, some will just become an annoyance and others will do nothing, but the ones that destroy data and will make your data go away forever unless it is backed up outside of the computer. Also do not rely on your "System Restore" to save you, many viruses get into the system restore and corrupt those files too.

Some viruses will do nothing until you attempt to clean it out, then it goes active, shuts down the antivirus process and begins to destroy data.

The best way to protect your data is;

1. Have a good antivirus program and use it. Simply installing a AV will not protect you, you need to update it and run it just like any other program on your computer.
2. Perform regular backups of your critical data. Nuff said!
3. Be very careful using the email system and any P2P (Peer to Peer)programs like chat or music sharing
4. Keep your Operating system up to date, install all critical updates.
5. Don’t open email attachments you get from people you don’t know or open attachments you don’t expect, check with the sender first.

Remember to practice safe computing!

For more information contact your computer service provider