Fact: 90% of viruses on your computer can be traced to the same cause- You.
Technology keeps advancing and the Internet keeps expanding. This means a wealth of new toys and new information that is at our fingertips in seconds. There is no denying that the rise of the Internet has changed the way people view information.
We forget though, that there is a dangerous element to the Internet. We are in that “teenage phase”, where we feel invincible. We believe that even though we hear stories every day about how people lost everything due to a computer virus, it won’t happen to us. Until it does. And that’s when we kick ourselves for not paying more attention, and not educating ourselves about how to spot the dangers on the Internet.
Countless times clients call us with a computer virus, and over 90% of them were caused because the user clicked on a link they shouldn’t have, or went to website they shouldn’t be on, etc. But we can’t always blame the user, because most of the time, they don’t know any better. And how can they? Who can keep up with all the new ways hackers are finding to infect computers?
Enter Network Depot’s latest resource: A free e-book entitled “Surf Smart”.
This e-book is a guide to be a safe and smart internet surfer. It will help you identify what websites are not okay to visit, what links you don’t want to click on, and even what online games to avoid playing.
For example, did you know that when you click on an ad though a Facebook page you are probably downloading a virus to your computer? Just the simple act of clicking on that ad triggers a virus to automatically download in the background. That means you won’t see it or know about it until it’s too late.
Dealing with a virus on your computer is more than just a little hassle. We have seen cases of viruses so bad that we have to rebuild the user’s entire computer, which needless to say, takes more than a couple of hours. People can lose days or even weeks of productivity time, not to mention the possibility of losing countless amounts of data, along with the cost of getting it fixed, all because they clicked on the wrong link.
Did we scare you enough yet? Good! You should be scared enough to educate yourself about safe and smart Internet surfing habits. And the first step in this education? Take a little time out of your day to read this e-book.
Think about it this way: Twenty minutes to read an e-book or twenty days to rebuild a computer. Which one would you prefer?