5 Do Nots for You To Protect Yourself from Malware

Malware have become very prevalent in the internet these days. You do not know where they may come from, you don’t know how, and to add to it you don’t know how to prevent them from damaging your computer or deleting your important data. So how can you take measures so that you can prevent them from entering your territory. Where do you need to be careful? Let me give you 5 such places where you invite malwares without knowing anything.

Do Not Download The Fake Greeting Card

The grand daddy of all the malware intrusions. This was there from the very beginning. You get a card from an old friend as an attachment to an email. Isn’t that nice? Except, of course, the attachment is the installer for a virus. Click to open the card and you’ll soon have a nice set of problems.

Beware of any greeting card or e-card that arrives in your Inbox. Do not download an attachment if that is not of known extension or even if it is, scan it with your anti-malware software.

Do Now Download a Fake Video Codec

This one was popular during the election. You’d get an email claiming to have a link to a video of Obama or McCain doing something stupid. Except when you click on the link, the site claims you need a video codec to view the clip. So install the video codec. nd the next you know, your computer is running slow and your desktop is filling up with ads for Viagra, porn, and fake anti-virus.

Beware of any site that demands to install a video codec, especially if you already have Flash and QuickTime installed.

Do Not Download Any Fake Social Networking Update

An email arrives, allegedly from MySpace or Facebook, claiming that you need to install this update in order to continue using the site. The update was actually a  malicious script. Since people are addicted to MySpace and Facebook nowadays, this is an easy trick to pull off.

Beware any update that claims to come from your favorite social networking site, especially if you don’t see any corroboration of it elsewhere. And even if you do, make sure others are using it. Use your common sense and trust only after a bit of a research on that particular object.


Do Not Download The Fake Driver Package

You’ve got some old piece of hardware you need to get working, and the manufacturer has long since gone out of business. So you scour the Internet for drivers, and much to your rescue you find a nice driver software. You thank your luck for finding a convenient driver package for your old hardware. Except when you try to install it, your computer starts acting sluggishly, and all these advertisements for Viagra and exotic forms of porn start appearing on the screen.

Beware of old drivers in the internet. Do not download a driver package except its from an authentic source.

Do Not Accept Any Fake File or Message from Online Messengers

An instant message in Windows Live Messenger or AOL or Skype or whatever pops up, offering an attachment from one of your trusted friends. Maybe it’s vacation pictures! But when you open it up, it turns out that your friend’s IM account has been hijacked by a virus…a virus that you’ve just acquired for yourself. Yahoo messenger has been flooded with such attacks these days. Whenever an IM windows flashes up with alluring (LOL) options, resist yourself from even clicking on that link. Because any kind of link or downloading an attachment can give you a permanent headache. Your trusted friends will even get abusive messages from you and may find it objectionable even if you are helpless and you won’t know a thing about it.

So the bottom line is, do not trust any kind of attachment unless it comes from a very authentic site and you are downloading it directly from there, or coming from a very trusted source (who has checked it himself). The best way is to keep your real time anti-malware protection on. So that, the software can scan any attachment in real time and stop it as soon as its proved vulnerable for your computer.

Hope this article gives you a brief idea about what not to download to save yourself from malicious scripts, spywares and above all a great deal of waste of time and lot of headache. Keep cool.

[Source: Jonathon Moeller]