How to PREVENT Viruses
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 5/17/2017 1:00:00 AM
Most computer viruses don't come from surfing the web.
I've seen a lot of viruses over the years, and almost all of them share one thing in common, they came from an email, not from surfing the web. This may sound surprising to some people who think they're safe because they "don't go to risky sites". The simple truth is, if you want to prevent viruses, you need to know how to spot them, and that's in your InBox.
Email is, by far, the most common way to get a virus, simply because it's the easiest way for somebody to let their guard down. That's because more often than not, the virus comes from a fake email that looks like its from somebody you know.
For example, if a total stranger sent you an email that said "Here's something I thought you would like..." followed by a link or an attachment, chances are you'd ignore or delete it. If the same email came from a person you know, the chances of you opening and clicking on it are increased dramatically.
Since people tend to trust emails from people they know, the most effective spammers go out of their way to try to find email addresses of people who know each other, so they can send emails that look like they came from people they know. Unfortunately, this isn't that difficult because of social media. All they need to do is look at lists of friends and followers then send you fake emails with your friend's name as the sender.
When most people get an email from somebody they know, chances are they won't call them to ask if it's real, so they tend to trust the sender. The key is they are looking for friends and family, not necessarily close friends and family. In fact, people are more likely to click links from loosely related senders than closely related senders because they aren't likely to call them to confirm that they're real.
The lesson here is to assume any emails with links and attachments is fake, and simply delete it. If it was really from a close friend, call them to confirm, otherwise it's just not worth the risk.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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