How to Stay Safe Online When Malware Is Everywhere

Do you need to worry about malware? Yes, indeed. If you think of malware as a disease for your computer, you get the idea. Like Covid at its height, malware is a virus that can absolutely ravage computers and a computer network. Can malware be avoided? Yes. Can it be removed if you find you have malware on your PC? Yes. Here’s a serious question: It is possible to have malware on your computer on not know it? Yes. If there is malware on your computer, you don’t want to live with it. Once it’s in your computer, nothing good can happen. The cyber bad guys that installed it can do a variety of unpleasant things: Let’s start with this—recognizing the possible signs of malware. If your computer (or tablet or phone) starts having problems that it didn’t have before, it could be a sign of malware or some other virus. Here are some hiccups to look for: Just one of these issues could be a sign of malware. Let’s talk about why cyber crooks want to place malware on peoples’ computers in the first place. As you might guess, none of the reasons are good. They will use malware to steal important personal information from you, such as… If a cybercriminal successfully infects an organization’s computers,  they’ll hold the network hostage. If they attack individuals, they’ll use the data they steal to steal the victim’s identity, if they can. In case you haven’t heard, the internet was not created with safety in mind. In fact, from the very beginning, the people who developed all our great technologies didn’t concern themselves with security issues. After all, who could really foresee technology taking over our lives as it has. So even today, with all the advances made in technology and security, it’s still easy to get malware without doing anything you might consider “horribly wrong or dangerous.” Here a few mistakes that could lead to getting malware. As you can see, there are certain behaviors and habits that have a higher likelihood of bringing malware closer than you want. And once you discover malware is on your computer, you need to take on a new set of rules to follow until you’re certain the malware is gone. Let’s take a look at what those are. When an antivirus/malware scan finds no more problematic or suspect files on your computer, the program has most likely removed the malware. We hope you haven’t experienced any malware attacks and if you haven’t, you’ve probably done a lot of things right, or have managed to avoid a scammer’s bag of tricks. They’ll do a variety of things to trick us into clicking on links to download viruses, spyware and other software you just don’t want. Here are some ideas to keep in mind to stay safe: We took advice straight from the Federal Trade Commission and put it into this fun and informative infographic… For more insights into cybersecurity, follow the Easy Prey podcast hosted by Chris Parker, CEO and Founder of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.