How to Secure Computers from Viruses and Hackers - Free Essay

With the continued growth in technology, there have been lots of computer-related crimes and attacks that accompany it. These attacks, which are digital in nature, mostly originate from hackers who hack into a person's computer primarily for malicious purposes. Other means are through the use of viruses that destroy someone's files while others are for spying to acquire confidential information and send it to the attacker. However, there are many ways of preventing these hacks and virus attacks on the computer. The following paragraphs will look at some of the best ways of securing computers from hackers and viruses.

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The means include;

• Use of firewalls: A firewall is simply a software program or hardware that blocks any unauthorized access to someone's computer and sends information to alert you of the attempted intrusion. Through ensuring that the firewall is always on, one would be able to prevent these attacks from hackers. The firewall is very good at preventing intrusion from hackers whenever one goes online with the computer.
• Install antivirus software: Due to the vast number of computer viruses, trojans, and even keyloggers, it is always advisable to install updated antivirus software. The antivirus software can immunize or protect your computer from this malicious software. One can also run multiple scans to ensure that the machine is virus-free.
• Use of complex passwords: This means it is the most important towards helping to thwart illegal intrusions. That means that one has to use strong passwords, which are hard to crack. Therefore, one should use a combination of at least eight or more characters with symbols, numbers, lower and uppercase letters to ensure that the password is strong enough and cannot be easily cracked by hackers. In coming up with these passwords, it is also advisable that one should not use their birth dates or recognizable words about their information. Therefore, this means would prevent illegal intrusion by hackers.
• Keep your operating systems up to date with the apps and browsers: One should always ensure that the computer has new updates on both the operating systems, apps, and browsers. These updates ensure that the version is not exploited, giving hackers access to one's data and exploiting it. The new updates are very vital towards ensuring that privacy and security are maintained and therefore preventing attacks. One can even restrict the browsers from keeping track of website movements, thus increasing the security.
• Use of antispyware software: A spyware is a malicious software that is installed by attackers without one’s knowledge to spy on your computer and collect relevant information/personal information sending it to the attacker. These spywares can be categorized as viruses with an example of them being keyloggers that record any information that one types, including passwords, and sends to the attacker. However, antispyware software is there to prevent this by detecting the spyware and blocking them. The result of this ensures that there are no attacks of such kind through the use of virus-kind attacks called Spywares (Brown).
• Secure the network: Securing one's network (router) helps one to prevent attacks on the router. Therefore, every time one purchases a new router, he/she has to log in and set a strong password to encrypt the router. Through this, one can prevent intruders who might infiltrate the network and interfere with other settings. This strategy prevents attacks from hackers and ensures that the network is always secure.

The above are some strategies to prevent viruses and hackers from one's computer, although there are still other means to prevent viruses and hackers (Kumar, Sunil, and Dilip 2254).

In conclusion, it should be noted that there are many ways to protect one's computer from viruses and hackers. Therefore, one should ensure that they look for the best means of ensuring that they protect their confidential data and maintain the security of their computers.

Works Cited

Kumar, Sunil, and Dilip Agarwal. "Hacking attacks, methods, techniques and their protection measures." International Journal of Advance Research in Computer Science and Management 4.4 (2018): 2253-2257.

Brown, Bruce C. How To Stop E-Mail Spam, Spyware, Malware, Computer Viruses, And Hackers From Ruining Your Computer Or Network. Atlantic Pub. Group, 2011.