The personal computer (PC) you use at home to access the Internet also exposes your machine to various virus attacks in the form of deadly email attachments.
Even the innocent surfing you do on the Internet might sometimes bring you trouble. Viruses are dangerous not only because they may attack, disable or slow down your system, but also because they are potential stealers of confidential information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and personal mail. All these can be hacked into and stolen from your machine without you even realising that you are under siege.
There are many anti-virus programmes available in the market today that can take care of most virus threats. But even if you think you have protected your machine with software like Norton Antivirus or McAfee, your system can still be hacked into. The reason: you may not be updating the anti-virus software.
Says Rohit Nand, senior security consultant, Bangalore Labs: