In the information age it’s important to keep your computer protected. If you’re working for a large multinational corporation your computer is vulnerable. It could be a victim of corporate espionage. Someone could drop a Trojan horse and use your computer to attack a secure system. Or a terrorist organization could hijack your network to send death threats. Whatever the scenario may be it won’t end well for you. Fortunately we can help you avoid all that. And here’s how you can do it.

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Use Utility Programs

There are tons of utility programs available that can help keep your computer safe. And best of all, they’re free. We recommend CCleaner. It’s a utility program that deletes unwanted files from your computer to boost its performance. You may be wondering how that’s useful. Well, every virus and worm has an address and it tends to be in a place that is unreachable. If you want to evict these malicious programs you’ll need the assistance of CCleaner. It also clears invalid registry entries. With the help of this program you’ll be able to keep your system performance at optimum levels.

Keep the Firewall On

The firewall is a natural deterrent against malicious programs. All computers have one. However, some people choose to turn it off to make their browsing simpler. Is it really that difficult to click ‘allow’ when the dialog box appears? These people must be a special kind of lazy. Keep the firewall active at all times and don’t allow access to programs that come from a questionable source. There, it’s as simple as that. You have no idea how many security threats you can avoid if you just did that. It’s always the simple things that have the biggest impact.

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Block Pop Ups

Let’s face it, we all love torrents. However, they are dangerous. To make money they advertise sites that are less than legit. The bad thing is they force these advertisements down your throat. You search for something and pop goes the pop up. These pop ups are evil to their very core. Not only do they divert you to a website that you have no intention of visiting, but they also compromise your system. The best thing to do is block them. Block them before they have a chance to do any harm. You can go to your browser settings and block them from there.

Reinstall Your Operating System

Overtime junk starts accumulating in your computer, compromising its security. Sure you can use antivirus and utility programs to counter the effects, but to what extent? The best thing to do is to reinstall your operating system every couple of months. It’ll be like having a new computer all over again. Just reset your computer to factory settings and start over with a clean slate. Sure you’ll have to reinstall every program again, but it’s not that bad. Most of those programs haven’t been updated in a long time anyway, so this is your chance.

Backup Your Data

It’s better to be safe than to be sorry. I’m sure you’ve heard of that. Backup your data, because system crashes don’t come with a warning. One moment your computer is working fine and the next it’s not. That’s what happened to me. Buy a 1 terabyte external hard disk and save all your stuff on it. In fact, the best thing to do is to use the external hard disk as your permanent storing device. Keep your internal hard disk free and your computer’s performance will be through the roof. Imagine what you could do with all that speed. You could hook up a silicone keypad to your computer and play ‘Bioshock Infinite’.

It’s easy for your computer’s security to be breached, but thanks to our help it’ll be even easier to protect it. All you have to do is use the tips we’ve mentioned here. If you follow them religiously you won’t even have to pay for your antivirus subscription anymore. You can just install a basic antivirus program for free and be done with it. No one wants their computer to be a tool in someone else’s master plan. If anyone’s going to hack into something using my computer it’s going to be me. I’m not going to a federal prison for someone else’s crime.

Author Bio:

Shruti Vaghe, is a freelance blogger who often writes for KEYFLEX Company, an Interface Solutions company in Australia. In her free time, she likes to indulge in baking goodies for her nephews. You can follow her on Twitter @ShrutiVaghe.