What is Firewall? Why do we need it?

Protect your PC with a firewall

If your PC is connected to the Internet, you are a potential focus for a variety of digital dangers such as keyloggers, hackers and Trojans. This means that if you like most other people shop and bank online then you are vulnerable to a great amount of identity theft and other malicious attacks.

A firewall works as a hindrance  between your PC and cyber space. When you are connected to the internet you are continuously sending and receiving some sort of data. The firewall filters these small units of information to meet the certain criteria. This restricts hackers from getting inside our PC and steal our confidential & personal data.

Firewalls helps to decide between the authorized and the unauthorized data

There are some firewalls that only monitor incoming traffic by default.  This may give us a false security and will not help you to remain fully protected. This may give a false security. One should keep in mind that outgoing traffic with your credit card information, bank account numbers and passwords is not protected. A good firewall will monitor the outgoing as well as the incoming traffic, keeping all your private information secure. 

Most sophisticated firewalls also include a feature that continuously updates the list of the applications that are good and the ones that are malicious. This way your computer protection is always up to date and the chances for a cyber threat is reduced.

Although a firewall provides protection to keep your PC safe from unauthorized access, it cannot remove malware from an already infected system. Therefore, a firewall should be used in connection with other proactive measures, such as anti-malware software in order to strengthen your resistance to attacks.

What is a computer virus? How is it dangerous for us?

Protect yourself against computer viruses!

In today’s technology driven world everyone uses the internet to cater to their needs. The percentage of online users has increased be it for online shopping, reading, working and so on. But do you think it to be completely safe?Sometimes when we click on a link received in our email or open a website a malicious program enters our PC known as virus which is very dangerous and can lead to crashing our computer and make it slow. Through these viruses, our sensitive information can be misused. Computer threats can be a nightmare for you that can cause extensive damage to your system. This can even disrupt the performance of the system. So let’s quickly know about what a computer virus is and how it can harm us?A computer virus is a malicious program that when executed replicates itself by reproducing itself or infecting other programs. When this replication is complete, the affected areas are said to be infected. However, not all viruses attempt to hide themselves. One of the basic characteristic of a virus is that they are self replicating computer programs that install themselves without the user’s knowledge. Computer viruses are usually spread through email attachments or instant messages. Viruses can be disguised as attachment of funny images, greeting cards, audio and video files and much more. This is the reason you are always advised not to click on any email attachments unless you are completely sure about who it is from and what it contains. A simple virus is also very dangerous as it produces copies of itself very easily. It is also dangerous as it can use up all the available memory in your system and bring it to a halt. There are many viruses that are capable enough to transmit it through different networks. There are very few viruses that are harmless, but most are malicious and cause widespread damage. Some show immediate action, while others remain silent for weeks or even months, but work slowly in the background without making you aware about it. Computer viruses can also spread through downloads over the internet. They can also appear to be hidden in illicit software or other files that you may download.

To help avoid computer viruses, it’s essential that you update your computer on a regular basis, be aware about the latest online threats, run your system on a secured network and be careful while downloading files and opening attachments. Out of all the best solution is to install a reliable security software.

Expert Tips to Avoid becoming a victim of Ransomware

How to avoid being a victim of Ransomware!

The use of internet is increasing at a fast pace, opening large number of doors for the internet monsters. Big organisations and government agencies are moving towards a digitized world which leads to greater risk for them, making them vulnerable to cyber attacks. Survey shows that an increased number of ransomware attacks have been taking place over the past few years. Such incidents display a clear trend that malware attackers are steadily shifting to serious money making through ransomware attacks. Ransomware is seen to be a highly money making mechanism over the last few years.

Big businesses and local governments have been the recent targets of ransomware and are expected to be targeted in the future. Also, everyday users of the internet like us are also targets of ransomware. Most of our sensitive data is stored on our PCs that can be traced by these cyber criminals who use it in order to blackmail users and demand for ransom in order to get back your data.

At REVE Antivirus, users are proactive to protect themselves from threats rather than being a target of these cybercriminals and agreeing to all their terms. Criminals are looking for new ways to get into the wallets of hard working folks. What should users do to make sure that they do not become a victim of ransomware? Follow these simple tips to protect yourself against ransomware:

BACKUP AND KEEP DATA SECURE

We live in a computerized age where we are putting away everything from our personal documents to professional ones over our devices. If anything happens with your device, you will lose all your data. Thus it is important that you store your data on the cloud so that it can be retrieved even if you lose it. To be a little safer, make sure to save all your important data on external drives as well like USB drives, hard drives etc.  In case of ransomware, securing your data offline is extremely important.

Update Regularly

Do you often get pop up messages giving you update notifications but you hardly pay attention to them? Then be active and make this as your priority. Regular system update is very important if you want to keep your sensitive data secure. These updates help you to get rid of vulnerabilities that are found on your system. At times, it seems to be a pain to install the latest windows update. But neglecting them can result in your system being vulnerable to attackers who look to destroy it completely and provide maximum harm.

Have a security Software

Installing good antivirus software helps you to keep your PC protected from all kinds of malicious threats such as worms, virus and Trojans. Antivirus software comes up with high end solutions such as advanced scan engine, parental control, websecurity and more. When a type of ransomware is found in your system and you have an antivirus software installed in your PC, it can stop you from clicking a link or opening up a malicious file that it detects. Mobile phones could be more at danger given the amount of personal information that is stored in it.

Disconnect from Wi-Fi or unplug immediately

Many a times you suspect a file to have ransomware present, but you are not sure about it. The best way to protect yourself is to disconnect yourself from the network immediately this might mitigate the damage. It takes a lot of time to encrypt your files, so you may be able to stop it before it succeeds in damaging them completely. This technique is not seen to be completely secure or you may not be fortunate enough to move more rapidly in protecting your data than the malware, however disconnecting from the network might be a much better option rather than doing nothing at all.

Ransomware certainly is seen to be very frightening, but related to it, there are many problems that can cause a lot of destruction. Thus it is always the best practice to protect oneself against loss of data with regular backups. This way, no matter what happens you will not be losing your sensitive data and can start it all back as before. Thus, the best way to fight against ransomware is to act as an active internet user and enhance your knowledge about it and keep yourself away from becoming a target.