Prevention

When you work with your computer, and especially when you browse the internet, please keep in mind that no antivirus system in the world can completely eliminate the risk of detections and remote attacks. To provide maximum protection and convenience, it is essential that you use your antivirus solution correctly and adhere to several useful rules:

Update regularly

According to statistics from ESET LiveGrid®, thousands of new, unique infiltrations are created each day to bypass existing security measures and bring profit to their authors – all at the expense of other users. The specialists at the ESET Research Lab analyze these threats on a daily basis and prepare and release updates to continually improve the level of protection for our users. To ensure the maximum effectiveness of these updates it is important that updates are configured properly on your system. For more information on how to configure updates, see the Update setup chapter.

Download security patches

The authors of malicious software often exploit various system vulnerabilities to increase the effectiveness of spreading malicious code. With this in mind, software companies watch closely for any vulnerabilities in their applications to appear and release security updates to eliminate potential threats on a regular basis. It is important to download these security updates as they are released. Microsoft Windows and web browsers such as Internet Explorer are two examples of programs for which security updates are released on a regular schedule.

Back up important data

Malware writers usually do not care about users’ needs, and the activity of malicious programs often leads to total malfunction of an operating system and the loss of of important data. It is important to regularly back up your important and sensitive data to an external source such as a DVD or external hard drive. This will make it far easier and faster to recover your data in the event of system failure.

Regularly scan your computer for viruses

Detection of more known and unknown viruses, worms, trojans and rootkits are handled by the Real-time file system protection module. This means that every time you access or open a file, it is scanned for a malware activity. We recommend that you run a full Computer scan at least once a month because malware signatures may vary and the detection engine updates itself each day.

Follow basic security rules

This is the most useful and most effective rule of all – always be cautious. Today, many infiltrations require user intervention to be executed and distributed. If you are cautious when opening new files, you will save considerable time and effort that would otherwise be spent cleaning infiltrations. Here are some useful guidelines:

•Do not visit suspicious websites with multiple pop-ups and flashing advertisements.

•Be careful when installing freeware programs, codec packs, etc. Only use safe programs and only visit safe internet websites.

•Be cautious when opening email attachments, particularly those from mass-mailed messages and messages from unknown senders.

•Do not use an Administrator account for everyday work on your computer.