Tutorial 4: Protecting Your Computer in a Few Simple Steps

Protecting your computer from malicious software is essential to keep your computer running smoothly.  Today there are many different types of malware and viruses surfing the internet and they do not make any exceptions when targeting different computers.  One may ask why or how do these viruses and malware exist?  The answer is that no one really knows.  Many people make them to pass time, or others to find flaws in computer systems.  Although computer technology is improving always, it has not and maybe never will reach pure perfection where they are able to defend against all unwanted threats and attacks.

One good antivirus software that I use myself is AVG Antivirus Software.  It’s free and meets all of my computing needs.  

 

http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

If you are someone who may visit potentially malicious websites often or have extremely valuable data stored on your computer, it may be a good idea to purchase a stronger version, although you may have to pay an additional fee for it, but it will protect your computer along with all the data on it.

Once you click down, a pop up window will display asking you to save the file.  Once downloaded, run the file, click next and accept all user agreements and voila! The program is now installed and all that is left is for you to run the program and you are ready to protect your computer!  All it takes are these simple three to four steps and your computer is protected from all the minor viruses that are circulating the internet.  Your computer will thank you for this!

Images and some information taken from :  http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

Secure E-Mail Project

During this week, I have learned a lot of why I should back up my data and protect my computer from viruses and other malicious software.  Also, by reading through various articles of companies who back up their data, I learned the importance of having reliable software to back up data. 

In an article I found online, titled “Online Backup Company Carbonite Loses Customers' Data, Blames And Sues Suppliers,” online backup and storage provider Carbonite lost over 7,500 customers’ data by utilizing faulty software. Carbonite is seeking unspecified damages against Promise Technology for unfair and deceptive business practices and other claims.  Carbonite claims that there were serious flaws with the software that engineers at Promise Technology overlooked and did not fix.  Not only were customers’ data loss, but the reputation of Carbonite suffered and substantial damage has been done to the business. But of course, the most damage that has been done is to the customers whose files were lost due to this malfunctioning of software.

The URL of the article is pasted below:

http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/23/online-backup-company-carbonite-loses-customers-data-blames-and-sues-suppliers/

Also this week, I learned how to send digitally signed and encrypted e-mails. The process was not difficult at all and it helped me understand the importance of safety against viruses and spam that I receive through my e-mail.  Below is a screenshot of my inbox of my successful completion of sending and receiving encrypted messages.  I filtered my inbox so you could see all the e-mails clearly without sorting through the rest of my e-mails.

Second Life

VoIP - Extra Credit