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Are You Protected?

© Leslie Truex

Whether you are searching for a work-at-home job or have a work-at-home job, if you are utilizing your home computer, security is extremely important. Like any other intrusive threat, the affliction of viruses is something generally thought to happen to others. The truth is that you may already have a virus and not know it. And unless you protect your computer, you are susceptible every time you download email and surf the net. Viruses are not the only threat. Hackers can access your computer and use it to originate sabotage on others. Further, they can access passwords and other private information of yours and use it.

Viruses take a variety of forms; worms downloaded to your machine via email are then sent out again through your email. Trojan Horses wreck havoc on your computer including deleting files and shutting down your machine. And there are other threats as well. Even with anti-virus software, you can be at risk if you don't download the current virus definitions weekly. Further, anti-virus software can't always fix viruses once they are on your computer. Norton and McAfee virus programs cannot currently fix a new virus that attaches lewd materials to your email. At their websites, you can obtain information on how to manually fix this problem except that if you have the virus, you won't be able to connect to anti-virus websites.

Hackers are another threat to your computer, Hackers root their way into computers and use them to further their annoying and destructive activities making it look as if it came from violated machine. Further, they can access private information about you and your machine such as passwords that they can use to access sites you have memberships too... including banks, online stores, and more. One of the best ways to protect yourself from hackers is to install a firewall on your machine.

If you plan to make your living working at home and your computer will be a part of how you earn your money, you can't afford not to protect your computer. Here are some resources to help you keep your computer working viral and hacker free:

Suite101.com Computer Security: Visit Suite 101's computer security page to get weekly updates on what's happing in computer security as well as other resources and information. http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/comp...

Analogx offers a free Script Defender that will analyze your email for script viruses when you access your email for download. Many virus programs do this already but if yours doesn't be sure to visit this site. This is vitally important for people whose email programs such as Outlook Express that automatically open the email. Http://www.analogx.com

The copyright of the article Are You Protected? in Telecommuting is owned by Leslie Truex. Permission to republish Are You Protected? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.