Technology has come so far in the past ten years. It is hard to even imagine that it was only within the last thirty years in our history that personal computers came into existence.

The Technology of today enables us to communicate with each other across the world and computers offer a means to connect to a plethora of multimedia resources. We have the whole world at our fingertips as global internet access supplies us with more information and resources than we could ever have imagined possible.

Along with these amazing new technologies and exchange of information and data, we have also had to bear the unfortunate dilemma of dealing with the misuse of technology by hackers, almost from the inception of personal computing itself. It often seems like We are at the mercy of hackers, and we need to know how we can make sure our privacy and computer security is maintained.

The sad fact is that there is a growing number of people, who are bent on hacking into business or personal computers in order to delete or steal private information.

The theft of personal information from one’s computer to use for financial gain is a common aim of the professional hacker. However, there are some hackers who simply want to destroy data from others’ computers for the fun of it, or who want to take control of a computer for the purposes of spamming, hacking or spreading viruses – usually without the owner’s knowledge.

As computer owners, we need to be wise about how to best protect our computers from hackers and various attacks such as spam, viruses, trojans and spyware. The best way to do this is by installing two software programs on our computers. One is a Firewall and the other is AntiVirus software.

The most important one of these to have on your computer is the Firewall. This is named after the piece of fire retardant material placed between a car engine and the passenger area, which is designed to protect the occupants in the event of a fire in the engine bay. A properly set up, good Firewall will protect the computer from the nasties on the internet in the same way.

The AntiVirus software is also essential in stopping Viruses and Trojans in their tracks. Most AntiVirus programs are managed by professional companies that specifically devote all their time and effort to protecting users from viruses.

There are many other methods that can help us to protect ourselves against spam, viruses, trojans and spyware and, for the most part, these involve us being educated and careful about what we do online and what we access. Opening emails with attachments is basically a no go zone these days, and we should use caution with what websites we go to. Hackers are now offering us what looks like legitimate AntiVirus software filled with viruses and trojans, so we need to make ourselves aware of these tricks.

The best way to beat these counterfeits is to spend some time doing some research. We need to be talking to the local computer store owner for some good advice and we need to be keeping up to date with the latest virus news online. If we know what the hacker’s latest tricks are, then we have a much better chance of beating them.

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