Five Ways to Surf Safe and Minimize Your Exposure to Internet Threats

Everyone is always asking me, how I keep my computers clean of viruses, spyware, and malware. The internet can seem like a cold and unforgiving place, but follow these five steps to give your computer a fighting chance in today's digital age. These tips are great common sense rules to make every online experience problem free and productive.

1. Install an anti-virus product and schedule it to run every night. I have never once paid for anti-virus software. because there are numerous free anti-virus utilities out there like AVG or Avast!. These products work just as well as the big names out there charging $75+ dollars. The brand name products tend to include many unnecessary options that will just slow your computer down.

2. Run a spyware / malware checker once a week and a registry cleaner once a month. Once a week, schedule or manually run a spyware checker to weed out the unwanted cookies, spyware, and malware off your computer. Spyware and Malware are the number one causes of computer problems, slow browsing, and increasingly identity theft.

3. Secure your internet browser. Make sure your security settings are not set too low inside your browser's options. Stay away from toolbars, add-ons, and popup blockers. These software programs are designed to increase the functionality of your internet browser but are commonly packaged with harmful adware, spyware, and malware. A good rule of thumb is install Google Toolbar and that's it...period.

4. Research everything that causes concern and trust your gut. If you are about to install something downloaded from the internet, do a quick Google search on the title. Read reviews, blog posts, or comments from trustworthy sources referencing the software and make an informed decision.

5. If you click on a link and it brought up something you didn't expect, go elsewhere to find what you are looking for. These sites are a never ending spiral of misery. Just close your browser or hit back and start over.