You then decided that you could print your school thesis later after you surf the internet and finish checking your email.



You opened your internet browser and start typing to log in to your email address. You noticed that there are several messages in your inbox. You opened the inbox and noticed that the emails came from several of your friends and family.

You noticed one particular email address that does not seem familiar to you and the subject says that it is urgent that you download the file attached. You opened and started to read the email and started to download the file.

After you downloaded the file, your computer suddenly acted strange and that you saw that the hard drive was completely being erased of all data stored.

Not knowing what to do, you turned of the computer and thought for a moment what happened. Your thesis suddenly came into your mind and you forgot to create a back up of it. You then turned on your computer but it did not load completely.

It says that the data files in your operating system is corrupted and will not be able to continue loading. You then removed your hard drive and went to your local computer shop to know what happened and hoping that your one hundred-page thesis can still be recovered.

After hooking up your hard drive to the computer shop's computer, the employee turned it on and determined what the cause of the problem was. The employee said your computer was infected with a virus and all the data and files stored in your hard drive were completely erased.

You tried to talk to the employee nervously if he or she can still recover the one hundred-page thesis you just finished. The employee gave a negative reply and further explained that the hard drive needs to be reformatted to get rid of the virus.

You suddenly felt frustrated and angry that your thesis was lost. The due date for submission was on the next day. You ask the employee about software or program you can install to prevent this from happening again. The employee recommended that you install an anti virus and a firewall to protect your computer against malicious programs.

Anti virus works by preventing viruses from entering your computer and scans your computer to get rid of any malicious programs. A form of computer security you can acquire, install and use easily.

Most anti viruses today can be bought online and is readily available for download, with a little payment.

Another form of computer security is the firewall. This particular firewall can be beneficial if you have internet and a network. It works as a packet filter by deciding what packet or data can pass the firewall depending on the rules imposed by the user or administrator.

It can effectively prevent any program or data that is trying to enter your computer by automatically denying access or you can also configure it first to ask you first before rejecting the entry of the packet.

Firewalls can also effectively prevent unwanted traffic to enter your computer. It can also prevent some programs to automatically install itself in your computer. It also has an IP filter where it can prevent known malicious IP addresses to access your computers.

All computer and internet users must protect their computer and privacy from malicious programs. They should implement these kinds of computer security. A great investment can work with you for a long time.