Two Easy But Effective Ways To Prevent Viruses On Your Laptop Computer
It's one of the worst possible things to happen to your laptop computer - it gets a virus and you end up losing valuable information. A virus can even use your e-mail program to spread itself to other computers. Here are two but very effective ways to protect your laptop computer from getting infected with a virus.
Use Anti-Virus Software
You have probably heard this before and the reason you have is because the importance of using anti-virus software cannot be stressed enough. Anti-virus software is a must for all laptop computers, especially if you use it to surf the internet. This type of software can protect your computer from viruses that:
- Have the potential to delete data from your computer
- Cause your computer to slow down or crash
- Allow spammers to send e-mail through your account
Once you have installed anti-virus software, it's vitally important to get it updated when the subscription expires. This will ensure your computer is protected from all of the latest viruses.
Use a Strong Password
It's kind of a pain to come up with a different password for every account you have online. Not only that, you also have to come up with a strong one each time. It is worth the effort, though, and can save you from a lot of headaches down the road. When it comes to using a strong password it's never a good idea to include the following information as part of your password:
- Your spouse's, child's or pet's name followed by a 0 or 1
- The last four digits of your social security number
- The word "password"
- Your date of birth (or any other close family member's DOB)
- The name of your city or college you attended
Computer experts recommend using long passwords, preferably with numbers, special characters, and both lowercase and uppercase letters. If a password contains only 3 lowercase letters, it takes hackers only .02 seconds to get into your computer. However, if a password contains 8 different characters, it would take 2.10 centuries for a hacker to get through and infect your computer with a virus.
By using anti-virus software and a really strong password, you will be doing your laptop computer a huge favor and it will be harder for it to get infected with a virus. If you do happen to get a virus and you don't know what to do, any computer company that does laptop repair will be able to help.
Talk to a company like Computer Exchange to learn more.
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