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A firewall alone isn’t enough to guarantee PC security but, it is the first line of defence. A firewall can protect you from a number of online threats such as; spyware, spam, viruses and worms and malicious traffic (information being unwillingly sent from your PC if a malicious program is installed accidentally). The internet is a public network and any computer connected to the internet can find and connect to any other connected computer. A firewall is a barrier between your PC and the public network. Think of a firewall as an overactive bouncer who stops everyone that isn’t on the guest list from accessing Your PC.

Hardware Firewalls – These are often built into broadband and internet routers and can be very useful if several computers all share the same internet connection as a hardware firewall will protect them all. Most routers are available with a built in hardware firewall.

Without anti-virus software your computer is vulnerable to computer viruses, including; infected email attachments, spyware, viruses and worms. If your PC is infected with a virus you could loose all the information stored on it, find it slow and unstable or worse still be the victim of a malicious attack and find your personal information stolen and used for fraud or identity theft.

Everyone using the internet should ensure they have anti-virus software installed on their PC, configured correctly it will scan all incoming emails for attached viruses, monitor files as they are created or opened to ensure they are not infected and perform regular scans to ensure your PC remains virus free.

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Any software that is produced can have flaws and hackers will try to exploit these flaws, as the software developers discover flaws in their software they will offer patches and updates to users that will increase the software’s security. It is important to check for software updates regularly and install them as necessary to keep your PC as safe as possible. Updating your operating system will help to protect against some viruses, known hacker ticks and also fix any software bugs.

Updates must be combined with anti- virus, anti-spyware (see below) and firewall software to be effective.

To update your Windows, go to the Windows Update Site and follow the simple instructions.

Spyware is in many ways like a virus, it’s an unwanted program that runs on your PC and is often installed along other programs such as peer to peer file sharing applications. There are different types of spyware; some is fairly harmless and designed specifically to get you visit commercial websites, typically gambling and porn related but, the more sinister versions can scan your hard disk for personal information like credit card details, shut down your anti-virus and firewall, block access to certain websites, log the keys you type searching for passwords and credit card numbers or, take screen shots of the sites you visit to capture personal information.

You might already have some form of spyware installed on your PC and not even know about it, the very worst kinds are often undetectable to most anti-virus software. You can take steps to avoid downloading spyware; buy reputable software, avoid peer to peer sharing programs, read the small print in the licence of any software you download from the internet and when you install a program onto your PC, don’t just tick all the boxes, read them and make sure you are not giving the provider permission to install spyware onto your PC.

You should also install anti-spyware software and scan your PC regularly. You can get a free 90 day trial by clicking here.

When using the internet it is important to do so wisely, some sites are filled with spyware, viruses and Phishing software designed to retrieve your personal or financial information.

Internet Explorer – This browser has inbuilt features designed to restrict the damage that internet sites can do, it groups websites into one of four zones: trusted, restricted and local intranet and internet. To increase your browser security or add a websites to a different category, go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Internet Options’, then click the ‘Security’ tab.

Firefox - To change security settings select ‘Tools’ then ‘Options’ on the menu bar. You can also edit your privacy policy, including how you treat cookies, on the ‘Privacy’ tab.