It is easy to become blasé about online security now that the internet is so ingrained in our daily lives (at work and at home) however by following a few simple rules we can help ensure that our own security as well as that of others can be maintained.
I am sure that we all have an anti-virus solution installed on our computer however merely having the solution is only the start of ensuring your protection. It is vital that whatever software that we utilise has its anti-virus definitions kept up to date. Now as obvious as this sounds it is sometimes the case that people may install an anti-virus solution but then forget to ensure that it is configured to update its virus definitions – sadly this is leaving the computer open to new virus and malware attacks so always ensure your computer receives scheduled virus definition updates.
Utilising a firewall is also a must to help with your security and this is installed as a feature of most popular operating systems. Simply ensure that the firewall is turned on however there are a number of configurable options that may be used if you needed to tweak applications that are not performing as required.
For those of us that use operating systems from Microsoft it is important that we keep up to date with the regular patches that are distributed and this can be achieved by ensuring that the automatic updates feature of your computer is turned on. For those unfamiliar with the technical side of our computers it is just a case of checking a tick box and the benefit of doing so should not be underestimated.
By helping maintain our own online security we can actually help prevent the spread of malware and viruses to others.