Computer security guide: Introduction

It’s not a question of whether the virus-writers, phishers, spam merchants and other assorted online nuisances are targeting your PC, your money and your privacy, it’s a question of how successful they will be.

Your computer and your data are potentially vulnerable from the moment you hit the on button. The threats multiply when you go online. While there’s no sure way to make your system safe, there’s plenty you can do to minimise the risks.

The Big Picture
The risks are real. At the less worrying end of the spectrum, unscrupulous neighbours might hop onto to your wireless router so they can surf the web on your ISP account or pranksters may load your PC with troublesome viruses.

There are people, including in some cases seemingly respectable companies, who want to spy on your online activities. More seriously, there are crooks who’d like to control your computer so they can suck money from your bank accounts.

Others want to hijack your machine so they carry out their crimes or even terrorist acts at arm’s length leaving a trail that investigators may track to your front door.

Getting Started
It sounds scary and it can be, but a whole industry has evolved to help keep you safe. These days you need a variety of tools to fight a complex range of security threats (see the next post: Computer security guide: 2 what are the main threats).

At the minimum you should be looking at using an antivirus program, a firewall and some antispyware tools.

This may sound complicated and expensive, but all-in-one security suites can make life considerably easier and help you sleep at night.

These can be particularly helpful if you’re not a security expert because the separate tools in security suites are designed to interact smoothly with each other and provide overlapping protection from today’s nastiest threats which can use a blend of techniques to probe your defences.

Further reading:
Computer security guide: What are the main threats?
Computer security guide: Defensive software
Computer security guide: How to buy security tools
Computer security guide: What to buy or download for free

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