Fashionably Techie: Achoo! Virus Protection

Donyae - University of Maryland — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:39:53 +0000

My computer is being hit pretty much nonstop with crazy spy and malware. I know this because I get an alert every time something pops up and tries to take Lucy down. (Lucy, as we have discussed before, is my computer’s name.)

The constant alerts are pretty annoying, but they are a great reminder of why it’s important to have virus protection on your machine. You wouldn’t do the horizontal mambo without protecting yourself, so why leave your computer vulnerable to attack?

Now, before a bunch of people hop on and start lecturing us all to buy a Mac, let me say this: Yes, we get it, they have no issues with viruses. However we’ve already invested in our PC’s and I for one am sticking by it.

Moving on!

There are a variety of free and pay for use products out there to protect your computer. They run the gamut from just basic virus protection to spyware protection to super duper top secret protection. Chances are you aren’t hiding military secrets on your laptop but you still need something to protect your credit card info or SS#. Also, you don’t want a bunch of annoying viruses slowing your little buddy down. So you have to make sure you have something.

As you’re probably not doing much that would leave you very open to attacks on your computer (unless you’re looking at mountains of porn) you’ll probably do well with just a basic level of protection. Much like Safe Auto, it is possible to get a low level of computer protection. Try a free site like AVG and Spybot.

If you want, you can stick with the Norton or McAfee protection provided when you got your computer, but I don’t recommend it. I found both of these programs to be horrible when it came to protecting Lucy from those pesky spy programs on their own. When combined with a separate spyware program like Spysweeper, however, Norton did work fairly well.

Just be aware that installing multiple virus protection programs (the kind that are all encompassing) on your computer will not provide more protection. The programs will cancel each other out and leave you completely unprotected. So if you’re thinking of changing up your software, keep in mind to disable or uninstall your old stuff.

Good luck and stay safe out there!

[Photo courtesy of straderade.com]