Common Sources of Viruses on a Computer

There are a few well-known threats to computers and laptops out there, and one of the single most common is the computer virus. There are a number of different virus types out there with varying purposes, whether the goal is to steal your personal information, corrupt your device for malicious purposes or a few others.

At PC Laptops, we’re proud to offer a robust range of laptop and computer repair services, and one of the simples and most common parts of our approach here involves basic scans and checks for virus issues. We offer a full diagnostic evaluation that will identify concerns like viruses right away, plus several other potential issues. However, we also advise clients on how to avoid viruses and related computer invaders altogether, ensuring you’re never at-risk of compromised information or a damaged device. Down these lines, it’s important to know the most common sources of computer viruses, which we’ll go over here.

Unsecured Web Sources

The single most common source of viruses on computers is various unsecured locations on the internet. The most frequent such web sources are web links and file downloads – both of these are areas where you have to be extremely careful during day-to-day use. You should never click on a link you don’t trust, and you should never blindly download files without looking into what they are and who provided them.

In addition, if you’re an employer, parent or anyone who supervises someone else using a computer, make sure they know about this area. Advise them on how to treat unsecured links or files they don’t know the contents of.

Email Attachments

Another common way scammers may attempt to get a virus onto your computer is by sending it to you in an email attachment. The most common format here involves creating an email subject line that seems very important and is meant to draw your attention, tricking you into opening it before you realize that it’s not safe. While many modern email clients will do a decent job filtering out these sorts of emails into your spam folder, there still may be some that sneak through – you should never open an email, and especially an email attachment, if you don’t recognize and trust the source.

Removable Storage Devices

Finally, while this is slightly less common overall, removable storage devices like USB drives or memory cards, while convenient, may also offer pathways for viruses to enter your computer. Any device you use one of these storage items for should have quality anti-virus software in place, the type that will detect viruses or malicious software on storage devices and won’t allow them to transfer it onto the device.

For more on how to avoid the common sources of viruses, or to learn about any of our computer repair, tablet repair or other device repair services, speak to the staff at PC Laptops today.