Good Practices for Avoiding Infection by Malware and Virus's

Most experts know that whilst a good antivirus on your Computer helps in the fight against infection by rouge software, they are not and can never be 100%. This is because most antivirus programs are reactive primarily as opposed to being proactive, in other words, the companies creating the antivirus software discover new virus's and create what are called 'signatures' to identify them which are then distributed out as updates to your product.


Whilst most are generally very quick to offer these updates, some take longer than others due to detection time, update schedules or testing etc. and as a result there is a window of opportunity between a new virus being released and the antivirus product being able to recognise it.
Although some antivirus companies are making strides in this area by actively monitoring your PC for suspicious behaviour (called heuristics) and blocking things which look suspicious these are not by any means foolproof.


This is why we recommend the following good practices:-
-Keep your computer up to date by visiting Windows Update often.
-You ensure that your AntiVirus is also running the latest updates and preferably from a vendor who offers frequent updates.
-Also run a Malware scanner like Malwarebytes Antimalware, SuperAntiSpyware or Lavasoft Adaware to keep your system in top condition, beware of programs which appear to be Malware removal tools but are in fact malware themselves, this is an other popular method of infection. A good way to determine if the product you are trying to download is legitimate is to search for the name of that product in Google too if you see people complaining about it there is a good chance it is something you should avoid.
-But most of all, the best method of prevention is common sense, don't click on links in suspicious e-mails, especially if you do not recognise the sender and even if you do its always best to manually goto the site you want as links can be spoofed, that is, they can be made to look like they are coming from your bank, when in fact they will take you to a rogue site.


Always try and download a program you want from the official website, there no need, for example, to download Apple iTunes from anywhere else other than http://www.apple.com.
Sometimes the smallest changes to your habits can make a big difference to your security.