Perhaps not everyone knows the danger of viruses. First of all, they can load an infected computer with their tasks, for example, they can mine cryptocurrency or try to disable your hardware, they can simply take the lion's share of its resources and interfere with the work of other programs. There are also banner viruses that manifest themselves as a window half the size of the screen, where it says that you must send a paid SMS to the number of scammers in order to remove this banner. There are relatively harmless viruses, for example, moving the cursor on their own or showing funny animations, they do not spoil anything, but simply distract you from work or prevent you from using the mouse.
But the most dangerous viruses steal passwords from personal accounts of banks or encrypt all text files on the hard drive; for decryption, attackers ask them to transfer some money. The Kaspersky website has a whole set of utilities for decrypting text documents, but they do not always save.
- Basic virus protection:
I prefer multi-level protection. For example, if the computer is fairly new, and a free antivirus is installed, then you can install a firewall in the translation of a firewall (firewall). It will filter all traffic and track down viruses and attempts to hack into your computer. By the way, it is already available in many antiviruses and may have a different name. For example, Kaspersky Frey antivirus (Kaspersky Free), it is called "Protection against network attacks." I have a basic free version of the antivirus and the firewall is not available to me, since it is a component of the advanced version.
Attention! I recommend that smartphone owners monthly check the connected services and subscriptions. Since all operators like to independently connect “in test mode” new services that are free for the first few months, and then money is debited from their account for their use. This is not a virus, but the result is similar - your balance will decrease.
Recently I encountered the connection of paid views when surfing the Internet from a smartphone. At the same time, the site page froze for a minute, and then I received an SMS notification about connecting a paid service for 30 rubles per day, and since there was no money in the account (prepaid rate), this amount was not debited. Antivirus does not protect against such “services”! Moreover, I did not press any buttons for connecting the service and did not give consent, the service was connected when the site page was loaded and at the same time as a warning. It was necessary to disconnect it in the mobile personal account of the operator.
Here are some examples of the most common firewalls: Comodo Firewall, Avast Internet Security, AVG Internet Security, Outpost Firewall Pro, Zone Alarm Free Firewall, Private Firewall, Glass Wire and Tiny Wall. He used to use the free version of Comodo Firewall. It is now part of Comodo Internet Security Pro.
If your PC or laptop is quite old, it is recommended to install one of the "light" antiviruses that will not use a lot of resources. Earlier I used the free versions of Avast and AVG, recently I use Kaspersky Free.
I also regularly use Dr.Web CureIt! Antivirus utility on my PC and laptop. It can block the activity of all running programs and start a full-scale virus scan.
I installed Dr.Web Light, a free antivirus for Android, on my smartphone, which checks all installed applications and downloaded data, including application updates from Google Play, and downloaded the antivirus there.
Another line of defense is browser plug-ins, for example, Kaspersky Protection for Mozilla Firefox, but it is for other browsers. This plugin checks the sites you visit, and also allows you to use the on-screen keyboard. It is necessary to protect against viruses that can read keyboard signals and steal logins and passwords from personal accounts of online banks.
- Cardinal virus protection:
Consider two interesting ways to protect against most viruses:
The first is to create an additional partition on the hard disk of the computer, if it has not already been, and install one of the operating systems of the Linux family (Linux). For example, the very popular Ubuntu, as one of the simplest. Some of the programs for it will be preinstalled, and the rest can be downloaded and installed from the repository (the repository of various programs for all occasions).
The second method is a variation of the first. Namely: not to use the second partition on your PC’s hard drive, but to install a virtual computer, or as many people call it a “virtual machine”, I prefer Virtual Boxing (Oracle VM VirtualBox). And on it already install Linux.
I use both options, the first option is implemented on an old laptop, because the virtual machine eats up a significant part of the resources, and Linux will work faster on a separate partition. And the second option is applied on a newer PC, where performance allows you to run any virtual machines without sacrificing their performance.