If you are in the business of helping people with their computer problems, you will unfortunately see many tales of woe. The fact is, MANY (sadly not ALL) of these problems are easily preventable by following these rules. It takes work to set up and follow these rules to be sure, and it is easy to ignore these as you pursue your daily activities. However, failure to follow even ONE of these rules will dramatically increase your chances of a severe problem. The potential impact of a computer problem such as a virus attack should not be underestimated. These problems can not only cost many hours of lost productive time (and cost you money if you need help to resolve the issue) as you try to recover your system to its normal state, but there is a good chance that any data you have stored on your computer can be lost. It will be lost FOREVER if you don't back it up (see the final rule)!

Use the Operating System Update

Windows or Mac OS offer ongoing updates to their operating systems. Many of these updates will patch your system against known security attacks. Make sure you are keeping your operating system up to date; the easiest way to do this is to simply enable "automatic updating" so it will take care of itself.

Use a Virus Scanner

You should install virus scanning software, and keep it updated at all times. There are many good ones available (including some free ones) and you can find plenty of reviews with simple Internet search. Pick one, install it, keep it running in the background, and make sure that the virus fingerprints are kept up to date. Commonly used virus scanning software companies are Norton, Symantec, Grisoft, and VCom, among others. Grisoft even offers a free version that works very well. The newer Microsoft Security Essentials is also a good choice.

Use a Firewall

This is mainly important if you are using a high-speed internet connection such as DSL or Cable, although it should apply to everyone. A firewall will prevent people from "locating" your computer over the internet for the purpose of installing rogue software such as worms. In fact, if you do not use a firewall and you leave your computer powered on and connected to your high-speed internet provider, then you are almost ENSURED that your computer will become undesirably infected within a very short period of time. You can use a HARDWARE firewall in the form of a router or a SOFTWARE firewall such as the free version that is provided with Windows. Or, you can use both. Zonealarm is a popular software firewall, and "Internet Security Suites" such as those offered by the anti-virus software vendors usually have a software firewall as well.

Use a Spyware Scanner

Install a spyware scanner and periodically use it to eliminate spyware that has been installed on your computer (unfortunately virus scanners don't handle spyware). There are several good free ones such as AdAware and Spybot. Unfortunately, there are many "anti-spyware" programs that are offered that are actually spyware, so you have to use caution and do your research.

Use Common Sense

Many of the viruses, worms, spywares, and so forth find their way to your system via "social engineering" techniques. In other words, you are enticed into taking an action, such as opening a file, that contains the bad software. The general rule is to distrust anything that does not come from a known source, and even then, to be careful. When in doubt, especially concerning an attachment in an email or any file that you are downloading, be sure to check it with your virus scanner and check your system for spyware after accessing it. Unfortunately, even emails or other items that you receive from known sources, such as friends and family, can easily be infected if those people are not following these safety precautions. Even more unfortunately, there are some websites that are coded in such a way that even the simple action of visiting the web page will cause malware to be installed on your computer.

BACK UP YOUR DATA!

Your "data" is all information that you have stored on your computer that is unique to you. This includes such things as all of the documents you have created such as Word documents, spreadsheets, finances, etc., your digital pictures, your digital videos, your emails, and any other unique file you may create using software programs. All of this data is stored on a hard drive in your computer. Failure to follow the above rules can cause issues to occur on your computer that will make it impossible to access the data stored on your hard drive. If you don't have a back up of that data, then it will be lost forever, no way around it.

However, even if you follow these rules, it is still IMPERATIVE that you back your data up. This is because the hard drive is the single component in your computer that is most likely to fail. When it fails, it is likely to occur without warning and it is likely to be completely catastrophic, in other words, all information (including your data) on the hard drive will be lost.

You can back your data up to CD's, DVD's, or to another hard drive, such as one of the many external hard drives that are sold for this purpose. You can also back up your data online using any of a number of commercially available programs for that purpose, such as Crashplan. The exact method is influenced by how much data you have to back up. There is no one "simple way" that explains how to do it, each situation is different.

There is no doubt that backing up your data is a tedious task. It is easy to just ignore it and keep going day by day. However, if you elect to do this, you MUST think about your own situation and how valuable the data on your computer is to you. To do this, simply imagine that one day, without warning, ALL of your data is lost forever. It is very important that you think of this, because there is a very good chance that this indeed will happen. I have seen it happen many times! When that day comes, you can call your friendly computer consultant and beg for help. But the odds will be that there is nothing that can be done, and you will need to accept the consequences of your decision to not back up! It MAY be possible to recover your data from a bad hard drive using some specialized services, but this will cost you extra money - anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars! So, do yourself a favor and start backing up your data NOW - one day, you will thank yourself.

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