Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
I’m often asked if free antivirus apps are as effective at protecting a Windows PC from virus infections as their “paid” counterparts.
And I must say, that’s an excellent question.
Back in the early days of home computing my answer would have been a huge NO because the free antivirus programs available at the time were indeed inferior to the commercial programs.
But that has changed over the years…
If you run a blog, chances are you’re concerned about it getting hacked and infected with malware. And in this day and age, that is a very valid concern.
Hackers and scammers are constantly probing blogs for security holes weaknesses they can exploit.
If they happen to find one they can quickly gain access to your blog’s server and install malware that will turn your blog into a vehicle for distributing all kinds of nefarious code to the devices your blog visitors use to access it. [Read more…]
Question from Aaron: I received a USB thumb drive in the mail. It was addressed to me but there was no return address.
Inside the envelope with the drive was a note saying the drive had a picture of my girlfriend with another guy.
I want to know who the guy is but I can’t open the JPEG file. When I click on it the screen just goes blank and I have to unplug the computer and restart it.
What am I doing wrong? [Read more…]
Question from Ramie: I downloaded a photo last night from one of the free photo websites that I use.
While I was retrieving the photo from the Downloads folder I noticed there was a file named setup.exe in there.
I haven’t downloaded a software program in well over a year so I don’t know how that file got in there.
Do you think it might be a virus?
Unfortunately, in the Internet age, viruses and other forms of malware tend to spread like wildfires, and it’s getting harder by the day to keep your devices from getting infected by them.
That’s why it’s important to install a high quality antivirus program on your Windows computer, keep it updated at all times and perform a couple of on-demand malware scans on a regular basis.
Macs aren’t as likely to get infected with malware as Windows machines, but it’s happening more all the time. That’s why I recommend running frequent scans with Malwarebytes for Mac.
With all of the above being said, a little due diligence can go a long way towards keeping your machines safe as well. [Read more…]