A good deal of the work that The Digital Docs do every day is ridding customer’s computers of viruses and malware.

Here are some tips to help you AVOID these problems:

1. Make sure you have both an updated anti-virus program (like Microsoft Security Essentials) AND and an anti-malware program (such as Malwarebytes)
2. Make sure your firewall program is “on”
3. NEVER click on pop-ups
4. NEVER respond to Spam e-mails
5. NEVER open e-mail attachments that you were not expecting. If you are ever in doubt, e-mail the sender to make sure they sent it to you or google the e-mail to see if the attachment is bad.
6. NEVER click on links in your e-mail. Instead, copy/paste the URL into your web browser to ensure that the link is not redirecting you unexpectedly. For an example of URL mis-direction, view this image.
7. AVOID using peer-to-peer (P2P) network programs (file sharing programs that download illegal music)
8. AVOID using your personal e-mail address for random registrations. If you are browsing the web and come across a form that you want to fill out, but you are not sure what it will do, you may want to use a throw away email address to fill it out with (excite.com, hotmail, etc.).
9. Use programs such as WebOfTrust or McAfee Site Advisor to help avoid sites that are known for infecting computers.
10. When in doubt about a link or a web site: don’t go there!