Chapter 3
Keep Mr. PC Safe
IN THIS CHAPTER
Knowing the Bad Guys
Avoiding infection
Protecting against viruses
Clearing your PC of malware
Using a firewall
Heeding a firewall warning
Evil plots bubble and brew to dethrone you from your seat of power at the PC. Wicked software oozes into your computer from the Internet, invited or not. Once inside, it grows roots tangled and deep. Only skilled software can fully extract the infection. And, like any medieval fantasy plot, it’s best to stop the Bad Guys before they cross the moat.
Malicious + Software = Malware
The jargon used to refer to evil software is no longer a diverse buffet of amusing, confusing terms. While nerds quibbled over the technical differences between a virus and a worm, some clever rogue combined the words malicious and software to come up with malware. It’s the preferred term to describe all nasty software.
Protecting ...
Get Troubleshooting & Maintaining PCs All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.