Georgia Culver-Spall

Staying Safe

Viruses• Files can be added to a computer by: - when users are copying files from a USB

stick or CD/DVD- downloading files from the Internet- opening email attachments.

• Sometimes, files can contain harmful code – these are called viruses

• Once a virus has ‘infected’ your machine it may cause harm in some way.

Anti-Virus System

• Anti-virus software are used to check files that are coming onto your computer.

• The anti-virus client that runs on your computer needs to update with the main anti-virus server and it will add any new virus definitions to make sure the database on your computer is up to date.

• These programs will provide a massive database of all the know virus programs that might cause problems. It then scans the files on your computer to see if any are harmful • If it finds any, the anti-virus program

will put these harmful files somewhere where they cannot do any damage.

Firewalls

• Firewalls are programs that run on your computer and check all the sites that users try and access on the Internet.

• Most Firewalls will block websites and companies block certain file types that might cause problems. More sophisticated firewalls allow key words to be blocked so if a web site contains them the site cannot be accessed.

• Policy – the best way to keep people safe whilst online is to educate them. Most Companies will have policies that will state what users can and cannot do when using computers.