Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Easiest Way To Protect Your Church From A Computer Virus

The best way you can assure your church is protected from computer viruses is to acquire reliable Virus, Spyware, and Adware protection software. While there are a lot of different options out there we have researched and discovered the very best options for protecting your church's files. You can find our recommended software on the links below. We have also published further information about protecting your church online and church data security in the articles below.


1) Spyware Stop - This is our #1 recommended software for virus protection. It offers users comprehensive protection for emails, instant messages and other files by automatically removing viruses. It also has a built in ability to detect and remove threats such as Spyware, Adware, and Malware threats which slow your computer way down. This software is perfect for protecting your computer from malicious attacks.

2) Virus Scan - This software is great for protecting your PC and sensitive information from the latest viruses. Virus Scan is a software that offers virus detection and removal as well as Spyware and Adware removal. We chose this program because of its easy to use interface. In just a few simple clicks your are able to scan the files on your PC determine if there is virus infection present and remove it.

3) EAZ-FIX - This software provides most of what the ones above offer, but cost a little less. It is ideal for small churches that are on a budget. Along with the virus protection features it offers some unique operations such as protection against operating system failure, system resource utilization, remote and local management and more.


Here is a video showing what a virus does your computer:
How A Computer Virus Attacks Your Computer


10 Ways To Improve Church Virus Protection:

1. Install reliable anti-virus software (this is the best way to prevent viruses)

2. Never automatically open email attachments. Many times hackers will send a virus via email. All you have to do is open this email and your are infected

3. Scan all incoming email attachments before opening them. Anti-Virus protection will be able to alert you if any suspicious code exist within the attachment that could endanger your church data security

4. Configure anti-virus software to automatically boot when you start you computer. This works well because you will never forget to turn on the ant-virus software.

5. Update your anti-virus software frequently. By doing this church is assured protection from new viruses that arise.

6. Do not download programs from the Web from sites that you do not trust especially freeware or shareware sites, which are notorious for containing malicious scripts.

7. Do not boot with a disk in the drive. If the computer is booted with a disk in the drive it will automatically loads the disk. If the disk is infected it will load on to the computer without the option to scan it.

8. Do not share disk or usb memory drives. You do not know what or where the other person has been downloading from and you may get exposed.

9. You should always scan disks before using them. Anti-virus software will be able to determine whether or not a disk has been infected or not and in most cases remove the files that are corrupt.

10. Use common sense when using the internet. If you feel there is something wrong with a site or receive an email from someone you are not sure of their intent then chances are something is not right.


Sunday, February 17, 2008

Data Backup And Security

Whether your computer is for business or personal use, losing your data is tragic either way. Your data is your life, keep it protected and secure! This is why you should always have a data backup plan! There are many different data backup methods to choose from. You can use a zip drive, USB drive, a secondary hard drive or simply use a CDR/DVD writer and copy your data onto CDs. What ever method you use, your system should be backed up at least once a week.

A simple and easy method is to get 4 blank CDs and label them week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4 and also write the month and year. Then, at the beginning of each week, backup your data onto the disc labeled for that week. Do this for each week every month, so that if your computer was to crash you will only at the very least be one week behind on your data. This way it wouldn’t be so devastating and it will be much easier to recover.

Another simple method is to use an online storage service. This method is the most popular and one of the best options for data backup. Here are some of the reasons why this is the best option.

Number one is SECURITY!!

With an online storage service, you never have to worry about losing your data or your data being destroyed. You can always be sure that your most important data is stored safe and secure.

Number two is AVAILABILITY!!

With an online storage service, you access your data whenever and wherever you are. You can be sitting at your home, or visiting family and friends in another state or country. You will always have access!

Number three is SHARING!!

With an online storage service, you can easily share your data with business cliental or even your family and friends! You can share any data you may store, whether it is important documents, or simply photos from your child’s birthday! Sharing is simple and easy!

For whatever purpose you use an online storage service, make sure to pick the most perfect and secure one for you, and make sure it is always password protected in a safe manner.

You should never use an obvious password. You should never use anything like your date of birth, the city or state you live in, your name or even your social security number. One of the safest ways to make a password is to use letters and numbers and make the letters in different cases. This makes it harder for anyone to guess. And you should never use the same password for everything. Yeah it may seem easy for you, but remember, it also makes it easier for someone to access your information and accounts or, even worse…steal your identity. So make sure to always be secure and backup your data.

Did you know that 70% of businesses that lose their data never fully recover and go out of business within a year?

That is why it is very important to backup your computer as often as possible. You can even use the old-fashion floppy disc if necessary. But backup your computer as often as you can and do it now before disaster strikes and it is too late and you lose everything!

Remember 76% of data loss is due to hardware failure or simple human error!

Hurry up before it is too late!

About the Author:
Elizabeth Neck is a researcher/writer who is a successful website publisher. http://www.treksoftware.com

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Computer Security – Get Prepared Or Loose Your Data

The very much imminent threat to anyone using his or her computer online is the possible attacks or intrusions by Trojans, Viruses, Key loggers, Spy wares and etc. Some of the following preparations help you combat these threats in your quest to computer security.

Installing Antivirus Programs
Download and install one or more of the popular antivirus softwares and set them to update automatically. Viruses infest your computer from any of the input sources like diskettes, suspicious websites, emails and downloaded programs. Check these things every time you need to use them with these antivirus programs. You can also configure antivirus programs to automatically protect you whenever you connect to internet. If you are a professional user of internet, scan the whole system for virus as frequently as you want. These anti virus programs either destroy or quarantine viruses whenever they catch them.

Upgrade Your Operating System
Vendors of operating systems often upgrade their releases and distribute the upgrades as service packs or patches. The service packs plug loopholes in the operating systems and make them robust by taking care of bugs. Subscribe to continuous up-gradation programs which automatically download the patches as and when they are made available.

Treat Email Attachments with Due Diligence
Macros and viruses are distributed by their creators as email attachments too. Don’t open the mail or download the attachment unless you are sure of the senders and you were expecting the mail. Suspicious mails and attachments could possibly contain self installing viruses. If the mail subject line sounds amazing or suspicious just delete it or scan the attachment prior to opening it.

Use Firewalls
Firewalls are by far the strongest internet/intranet protection for computer security. They are either hardware or software tools that effectively scan data transfers from and to your computer. You can set parameters to scan based on location and type of data transfer.

Password Protection
Use of stronger passwords is a great help in onsite computer security. Strong passwords are longer in length and combine alphanumeric combinations with upper and lower case alphabets thrown in. They are never the words from dictionary, names of places or humans etc.

Keep Backups of Important Data
Regularly make backups of important data, just in case.

Be sensible to check certificates when downloading something from an unknown site। Use file encryption facilities to curtail unauthorized access to your files. Finally, your office computer can be secured by password protection against manual intrusions.

About the Author:
NamSing Then is a regular article contributor on many topics. Be sure to visit his other websites Computer Security Software and Secure