How to Protect Your Computer from Malicious Attacks

People maliciously attack computers to forcefully abuse or take advantage of the computer. They do this through computer viruses, social engineering, and phishing. To protect yourself and your computer, follow these tips to ensure no one can attack your computer in any way.

1. Set a strong password. When setting your password, use a variation of capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and numbers. Ensure that the password is long (at least 12 characters) and that no one can guess it. Once they do, they have complete access to everything. Also be sure that you use different passwords for different accounts. That way, even if someone gets into one account, they’ll have a hard time getting into another.

2. Install anti-virus software. Microsoft, for example, already provides you with anti-virus software. But it’s important that you don’t just rely on this if you own a Microsoft computer. There are many versions of anti-virus software that you can purchase which will provide you with the right amount of security for you and your computer.

3. Remove unnecessary software and apps. All computers come packed with various software and apps that you may never use. By deleting these applications from your computer, it will provide you with more safety from hackers through those programs.

4. Remove Java. Java is known to be damaged with bugs and security problems, so it’s in yours and your computer’s best interest to just get rid of it. Besides, Java isn’t used by most websites anymore, so there’s really no purpose for it on your computer anyway.

5. Enable two-factor authentication. This means that you should link your online accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo to your phone.

6. Make use of full-disk encryption. Hard drive encryption protects all of your private information from hackers. With this technology, any hackers who do get into your computer will only see unreadable data.

7. Turn on auto updates. Computer companies are always looking for ways to protect their computers from hackers. If auto updates are turned on, your system will automatically be protected in the most up-to-date ways.

8. Stay away from websites that can promise you things overnight. For example, if you are redirected to a website that promises you can become a millionaire overnight if you give certain information, do not fall into that trap. If someone is offering you this money, why isn’t he just keeping it for himself to become rich? If you do fall into this trap and you hand out your important information, you can very quickly become victim to hackers.

Hackers seem to stop at nothing to gain control of you, your computer, and your information. Everyone and anyone can fall victim to these people, so it’s very important that you take all the precautions necessary to protect you and your belongings. It’s very hard to reverse the damage done by hackers and malicious attacks, so take these tips and protect your belongings.

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