The Internet is a wild and perilous place. It is important to remain alert to the dangers to your computer. Viruses, worms and trojan horses can invade your computer and reconfigure your system, delete files, collect private information or add malicious programs.
Your computer could become the breeding ground for viruses and worms, infecting other computers on the Biola network or even your own friends and family's computers.
Your computer could even become a "zombie", controlled by someone else without your knowledge and participating in illegal activities or attacking websites.
And this can largely be prevented with a few simple precautions...
Update your system when security patches become available. Occasionally a serious flaw is found in the "operating system" software. If it isn't fixed it can leave your computer vulnerable to all sorts of trouble. Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and most varieties of Linux provide the fixes free of charge. Click HERE to see a list of critical patches.
Use anti-virus software and update it every week. Your anti-virus program can't protect you from the latest virus if you don't keep it up to date. detailed instructions
Keep your anti-virus software running in the background
Don't open email attachments you didn't request, even from a friend or co-worker. You can always ask them to send it again if they did really send it. Files ending in ".exe", ".pif", ".scr" and ".zip" should be treated with extra caution.
Don't click links in "Spam" email, especially links to "unsubscribe" to a mailing list. In the past, this trick has been a method of collecting valid emails rather than removing you from a list. A new trend is to hide a virus at the other end of the link. Clicking a spam link can install a virus on your computer.
Disable the "Preview" feature if you use Outook or Outlook Express. Some viruses can activate just by being previewed.
Beware of attached files with "multiple extensions". You may already know that a file ending in ".exe" is a program which will run on your computer when clicked (a dangerous prospect if it arrives by email). Because Windows hides "known extensions" by default, a file such as "readme.txt.exe" will look like a simple text file "readme.txt" (the real extension, ".exe", is hidden). Opening the "text file" in this scenario will actually run a program!
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