Summer is coming to an end, well not the heat, and back to school is just around the corner! Now is the time to pick up all your students’ school supplies and get them ready for the new year. This may seem like a daunting task but as always, we’re here to help!
Recently we’ve had a few questions from customers regarding upgrades and updates. Let’s dive into the purpose of these updates and upgrades to break down the reason why they are so important.
Debates. We all experience them in one way or another. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Was the dress blue or gold? In the IT world we face similar debates. One of IT’s largest debate is hardware refresh vs maintaining existing hardware. Most resistance comes from this simple question, how can you best use your already-paid-for hardware while understanding the efficiency issues that come with staying with older equipment? Not to mention storage and daily processing requirements that drive the need to upgrade the hardware. Refresh too early and you’re throwing money out the window. Refresh too late and you risk your company’s IT systems, and ultimately the business itself, screeching to a hard stop.
Most of us look at that update notification from our devices and think, “I’ll do that later.” When we finally get around to it, there are multiple updates that have been sitting there for weeks. We continue with this behavior because nothing has happened to me yet. In order to change those behaviors, let’s begin to think of updates like you would your car insurance. If you waited to cover yourself, that fender-bender might have cost you a LOT more in the long run.
Almost every day we hear of a new way hackers are stealing personal information from the public. They are creating so many new ways to exploit us that it’s almost impossible for the security vendors to keep up. This underlines the fact that the best way to try and remain malware free is, and probably always will be, to practice safe computing habits.
How do I avoid a getting infected by a virus?
Good question! Even though you diligently keep your Windows or Mac operating system and your antivirus program updated with all the latest patches and updates you still get viruses.
Updates and patches are reactive to existing viruses or security holes so unfortunately you will always be at risk. To reduce your risk you should always practice safe computing.
What is safe computing?
Safe Computing is composed of a few elements:
– Responsible Surfing: Stay away from shady websites. Also, like your mom said, “Stay away from porn!” Many links to images, particularly the ones with naked people in them, will infect your PC.
– Security: Make sure that the Windows or Mac login you do your day to day surfing under does NOT have admin access to your PC. This will help prevent the spread of a virus if you do happen to stumble across anything malicious.
-Updates: Keep your Operating System, Antivirus Program, and all your web plug-ins updated. If you have an agreement with Univista that includes Limited or Comprehensive Desktop Support then we do most of this for you already.
-Responsible Email: If you get an email that you weren’t expecting that includes a really interesting sounding link to a web page or attachment STAY AWAY! If it’s from a friend call them and ask if they meant to send it to you. If it’s from a stranger then delete it.
What if I do all these things and I still get a popup that looks like a virus?
– DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING IN THE POPUP! Clicking in or on the popup may give the virus permission to install on your PC and then you’re in for a potentially expensive recovery.
Instead please bring up your Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DELETE keys and then select Task Manager) in Windows or your Task Manager (APPLE-OPTION-ESC) on your Mac and then end your web browser processes until you see the popup disappear.
Unfortunatly that there are no absolute solutions to the virus dilemma. You can only do the best that you can and even then you may still get a virus but I promise that if you do these few simple things your risk will go way down.
As always, please do not hesitate to call us at 866-832-6209. We’re here to help you with any questions or concerns you may have.