Anti-Virus software

I often get asked about good options for anti-virus software. Most of these include some level of malware/spyware detection as well.  There are a wide range of options, both free and paid for and all have good and bad points.

In my opinion, many of the security suites tend to be bloated and make a huge impact on system performance (aka - they make you computer slow).  This seems to be especially true from solutions like Symantec/Norton and McAfee.  They have a long history of this being an issue with them, and are one of the reasons they are not as popular as they use to be.

My opinion is that all windows computers should have some form of anti-virus software, and for 99% of people, a free solution will be sufficient.  If you are paying for your protection currently, you probably wonder why I say this.  I have seen computers with both free and paid for software become infected.  Also, the majority of users that have a paid for software installed, allow their subscription to expire.  This causes the software to no longer be updated, and after a few months time, it becomes about as good as no protection at all!

Here are my recommendations:

• If you are going to use a purchased solution, you MUST renew it at the end of your subscription!  If you don't want to spend the money, move to a free solution!
• Microsoft has a free solution called Microsoft Security Essentials. This tends to be a good solution for users that want protection without having to think about it.
• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download
• Note that newer operating systems have Windows Defender built-in.  This link explains a little more detail about the difference and what you need to do to protect yourself.  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-all-versions
• Avast also provides a free solution that I think highly of. I believe you need to provide an e-mail address to get a free code to use this software. I also believe this needs to be renewed yearly, although it is still free.
• https://www.avast.com/en-us/index
• They also have paid solutions, so make sure you choose the correct product.
• The user interface is highly controllable but also very nice to navigate to view and change settings.
• AVG also provides a free solution that is pretty good. I have found that their interface is becoming come cumbersome to use in new versions, but their protection is still fairly good.
• http://www.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download
• Fair warning - it seems like on every page they are trying to get you to upgrade/download their pro software version!  Click carefully.
• I have had numerous issues with Kaspersky's software in the past.  Years ago, I liked their software but newer versions seems to cause strange issues that I don't experience with other products. I would recommend staying away from this option currently.

Hopefully that helps to give a breakdown of some options and things to look for! Feel free to leave some feedback and your thoughts in the comments!

Ransomware

As you may know, there are many different categories of computer infections such as viruses, malware, and trojans.  There is a relatively new group called ransomware that is particularly dangerous.  Current ransomware infections are going by names such as crytplocker, cryptowall and petya.

Ransomware uses very high quality encryption to make your files useless.  The creators are basically using the good crypto standards that are used to secure the internet and using them on your files.  Their goal is to get you to pay a ransom to get the key to decrypt your files.  They are using various methods for collecting payment but a very common one is called bitcoin because of it's anonymity.  The problem is that even if you jump through their hoops, you are not guaranteed the ability to decrypt the files (and it can be pricey)!

These infections are being performed through multiple sources.  Having an operating system that is not patched is one (make sure you are running windows updates!).  Outdated web browsers and plug-ins is another vector (things like old flash player, quicktime, java, etc).  It is not just the old method where you click a link in an e-mail that causes problems (although that certainly still occurs). Sometimes an ad network will receive a malicious ad that then gets placed randomly on websites that are using that ad network (this is often how high profile sites end up being a place you can get infected from).

The best defensive on these is to have backups!  If you are not performing any sort of backups at this point, you need to start NOW!  Even something as simple as getting a USB drive and copying your data to it and storing it disconnected from your computer is a great first step.  Obviously more than 1 backup is ideal, and automatic backups are important as well (although you have to make sure that they don't get encrypted too!).  I will try to cover some back up solutions in the near future.

As always, this is not very detailed on specifics and is meant to be a broad overview of the topic.  The main lesson is to make sure you have your software updates and that you are performing backups.

File management, part 1.

Very often I see people confused and frustrated about moving their data around. Here is one way to make this easier!

If you are moving files by dragging and dropping them, drag with the opposite mouse button than you normally would use!  When you release the button, you will receive a pop-up menu of choices with what you want to do with the data.

The main choices are copy, move and create shortcut.  This gives an easy way to make sure that you are in control of what happens to your data!

• Copy - This leaves the data in it's original location AND makes a copy of it in the new location.  This is great for copying items from your computer to a flash drive to take with you or to make a backup of files.  2 copies of your data will exist after selecting this.
• Move - This removes the data from the location it is currently in and places it where you dragged it. This is good for organizing your data into folders. Only 1 copy of your data will exist if you use this option.
• Create shortcut - This leaves the data in it's original location, and creates a shortcut to it where you dragged it.  This is useful for things like creating a desktop icon to a folder that you use frequently.  The shortcut will have an arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon.

Welcome!

Hi there!  And welcome to my new blog - Everyday Tech!

As an IT professional that supports end-users, I know that many times technology is very confusing for non-techies!  My goal is to explain things in easy-to-follow, every day terminology!  So please, come back often to see what new things I have posted!

Please leave a comment on this post if you like or dislike the colors/size/font/etc on here so far!