Cybersecurity is a complex and diverse subject that is becoming increasingly important — especially as more users are transitioning to home offices. Protecting the information stored on your PC — both professional documents and personal accounts — is vital to feeling safe in your home.
Your virtual working environment is only as strong as the barriers you’ve put in place to safeguard your intellectual property. When you understand the potential risks involved, you can put the right strategies in place — including the use of online antivirus software— to ensure everything on your PC is secure.
Let’s break down three of the largest cybersecurity risks and the best antivirus software tools at your disposal to help protect your personal computer.
Phishing Tricks
Phishers will attempt to collect personal information or sensitive documents — disguised as a reputable business or person. Users are often contacted through fraudulent emails or SMS messages. This tactic is one of the most commonly used and often successful attempts at compromising cybersecurity.
Knowing how to weed out the counterfeit sites from the legitimate ones includes checking for grammatically-correct URLs, off-color branding, and ensuring they aren’t asking for personal documents or payment information.
Using a password manager is a necessary step towards protecting your PC from malicious attacks. This tool helps you avoid reaching those fraudulent sites — when you save a password on a secure site, your password manager will remember those credentials and won’t ask you for your log-in details during your next visit. If you find yourself on a pseudo site, you’ll be asked to re-enter your information, that’s your cue to exit the page immediately.
Email Viruses
When you open an email and double click on a suspicious attachment, you’re opening up your PC to a host of dangerous malware. If the virus is sophisticated it could potentially affect your computer as soon as the email itself is open, before you’ve clicked on the attachment or link.
As technology advances, so do the vulnerabilities on your device. There are easily-applied steps users can take to prevent — refrain from giving out your information for sites you aren’t able to verify, and ensure your spam filter is properly filtering out emails you don’t recognize.
Also be sure to invest in a malware detection and malware removal tool such as Malwarebytes antivirus software to help you root out malware before it has a chance to infect your computer.
Outdated Software Risks
Your personal computer may still be running adequately, but that doesn’t mean it’s proving you with the safety and security you need. Be sure to update to the most recent version of your OS as this will ensure that your antivirus software is running at peak efficiency. The best antivirus for PC can only do its job if the rest of your system is up to date.
Without the updated encryption and firewall protection, you’re leaving your personal information in a vulnerable place.
If you’re working from home, your computer’s security has a new level of importance, as it’s more than personal documents at risk — you’ll likely have sensitive professional information that must be protected as well. Updating your entire PC is an upfront cost that will reap long-term benefits.
