It doesn’t take much to expose yourself to computer viruses. By simply receiving emails or downloading files online, you increase the risk of picking up one or more. Strains vary from posing relatively low risks to proving quite harmful to your computer.

Computer viruses - what are they?
Viruses are programs designed to enter your computer without your knowledge or permission. Most attach themselves to other files in order to copy themselves. They can then spread to other computers, via email or file transfer.

How can I stop my computer becoming infected?
There are many free or low-cost anti-virus programs, designed to protect your computer from infection which can be downloaded.

Viruses and email attachments
Viruses are most commonly spread via email attachments. This is why you should setup your anti-virus software to automatically scan emails.

Before opening an email attachment ask yourself three questions:

1. Is the email from a trusted source?
2. Does the attachment filename end with ".exe", ".ini", ".bat", ".pif". ".vbs"? These are executable files that can launch dangerous programs.
3. Does the attachment’s icon look like an executable (program) file?

If an attachment is suspicious – delete it!