Gadgetory

hey guys so steam here's the video talking a little bit about viruses and what you can do to protect yourself you know a lot of you guys who are really tech savvy you're probably gonna mount all of this stuff however I'm really aiming for this is those of you who aren't super technically inclined you don't know all about the new latest viruses and all that kind of stuff so want to wait and give you some of the basics some of the you know the 101 of computer viruses so the first thing I want to talk about is what is a computer virus now there's a lot of different names they're known under usually a virus perhaps a computer bug malware there's a lot of different names but basically the way I like to explain it to people is that it is a program on your computer that is trying to do you some harm so maybe that might be to scam you out of you know paying it for some vampire software to remove itself you know ransoming it may be that it's gonna send you pop-ups and all kinds of prompts and stuff or it may be something really covert like just stealing your information stealing what you're typing or you all kinds of stuff that data that's on your computer so that's generally the way I like to explain it's a program that's really gonna do some harm one way or the other can do I mean there's lots of different types but something that you definitely do not want to computer now there's one of the really big things I like to tell people is don't get to the point where you've got a virus and you're trying to get rid of it now of course it's totally possible to get rid viruses and I will talk about them at that in a minute but before I get to that I want to talk about how to just avoid getting the virus in the first place and the number one thing that people tell me is oh well I don't I'm not going to get a virus because of this I'm gonna get a virus because of that the really simple truth is anyone can get a virus I don't care if you're on Windows you're on Mac I don't care if you sit on google.com all day I don't care if you know you browse an incognito I mean it doesn't really matter you can get a virus on pretty much any computer at all now there are certain differences I mean for example if you have a Windows computer there's more but there's a larger chance to get a virus as opposed to a Mac but does that mean that you sitting on your Mac cannot get a virus at all and that's a really common misconception I definitely do want to clear up so as far as getting viruses you can get them from a lot of places so for example if you torque a lot this is definitely a very common place where you can get viruses just snuck into the files whatever and that's not say every single torrent and entire universe the virus but it is certainly a place where you can't get a virus typically though what you'll find is viruses on sites so for example if you go to some generic site that you've never heard of on there's definitely gonna be a little bit more of a chance of you finding a virus there that as opposed to you know something like you know Facebook or YouTube or something like that I mean if you're on AI if you really spend a lot of your time on just the standard sites and even like Facebook like Google like YouTube you know that kind of the reputable sites there's almost you're almost never going to get a virus but what will happen is when you go go off to some new web site that you may have never heard of you definitely do need to be a little bit wary now don't get me wrong I'm not trying to say you know never go on any site other than Google or YouTube or anything like that that's absolutely not the case but when you're on some web site especially if it looks a little sketchy just be a little bit cautious the way I like to kind of talk about it is you know if you're on I like a weird part of town or something you know like kind of like a bad part of town you're gonna be a little bit more cautious and that's the exact same way if you're on some web sites you never heard of that you know it looks a little bit Shady just be cautious I mean it doesn't mean that you need to immediately leave and never come back to it that's this may not be the worst case the worst idea ever but just kind of be cautious think about you know oh what's that looks like a download link I don't know if I want to click on that or you know stuff like that now of course you know there's a lot to talk about you know as far as when you get on a web site like that you know you're you're looking around it looks a little shady it's like oh do you want to download this pack of Smiley's do you want to download this or that one of the easiest ways to get a virus and I'll just be straight front with you guys the easiest way to get a virus is by just downloading something now there are holes in your software and I'll get in that just a second but the easiest way is just human error so you know if you go onto a site and it says hey you want to download a free pack of Smiley's do you want download Microsoft Office for free do you want to shit table that's going to be some kind of enticement some kind of free offer like hey you want this for free and obviously yeah everybody likes free stuff go ahead and download that and yeah sure you may get you know this or that or whatever whatever they say but it also may come with viruses malware or whatever so you really really should be cautious with that now again I don't want to scare people there are absolutely legitimate free downloads of all kinds of software around the internet so it's not like every single thing if it says free it's definitely gonna be a virus that's absolutely not the case but yet think about what you're downloading this is a site look legitimate have you had good luck on it in the past do you have your friends have gone there is it a reputable site if that's the case and usually you're gonna be fine it says it's free it's gonna be free for a reason but if it's something a little bit shady you've never heard of and it's offering something especially if it's like offering something you know like really extravagant like you know Microsoft Office or something just be really really cautious almost definitely that's gonna be a virus or it's not gonna be exactly what you're looking for so I'd really recommend avoiding that now as soon as you learn how to be really smart about computers you learn not to download stuff not to click on links that you if somebody sends you a random link oh it's a great idea to click on it because in addition to a human error there's also things that can be totally out of your control so take for example a link so let's say you're on Facebook and somebody shares a link okay so yeah pretty common you're gonna wanna go ahead and click on that link however there's a lot of times like lots that go around that you know people lose control their accounts and start sending links and all it takes is for you to click on that link and you can very well just get a virus that's simply now the way it works is that it's kind of like you know there's a lot of components involved in from you getting you on sitting at your desk onto the internet there's lots of software there's lots of you know complexity around it so there are several different things that can go wrong and if any of those go wrong there's a whole security glitch or anything like that you can absolutely get a virus from that so take for example let's say just let's just take a generic example of someone who's on the Internet so let's say you're sitting on your you know your computer you're on Facebook not doing anything exciting you click on a link and you know it goes white or something something look seems a little bit wrong well you could get a virus that simply and the way it works is that like I said there are a lot of different software in play so for example you have a browser if you there's a problem with your browser if there's some security hole or bug or anything like that then a virus could get into that way there are also plugins so for example flash you guys see like flash videos like on YouTube right now that's a plug-in and that can also have security problems same goes for Java Silverlight there's a lot of different you know patches and bugs and all kinds of stuff that can happen and a lot of the time you don't have to do anything you can just click on the link you're done there's not a whole lot you can do so that's why you really should exercise caution I mean you know it's gonna happen everybody no one's gonna be omniscient and you just go oh that's that's a link I'm never gonna click on that I mean no you know it's gonna happen but just kind of think about it if it looks like some really weird looking link it's like some you know a bunch of if the link looks really really weird that kind of thing is usually kind of a tip-off that that might not be a great idea to click on it all right now as far as these kind of viruses and these kind of attacks there is a way to combat them now there's not a hundred percent you know there's never going to be any way to say every piece of software on my computer is what ever since acute it's just not going to happen however what the difference is is if you're using good software everything it can really help you out so let's say you know you're a browser pretty much everyone is going to be using a browser and what a browser is if you're not familiar is just the piece of software that allows you so let's get on the internet so you're probably going to be using one right now could be Internet Explorer it could be Google Chrome Apple Safari Mozilla Firefox there are a lot of different types of browsers well none of these are really awful compared to the other or whatever but they all can have security bugs the easiest way to avoid these is to keep it updated and this is a great piece of advice just in computing in general keep your stuff updated now while I know you're always gonna see you know pop ups like Oh up to click here to update or new update available or this and that it's really attempting to just get rid of it's annoying yes just to pop up saying hey it's time to update there's something new you know a lot of times like I don't need that I don't want to waste my time however a lot of time these can be security updates so for example in your browser a lot of times a lot of these newer browsers such as Chrome will automatically update so that means is you will never even notice it it'll update and you'll turn on one day and it's updated and it's all done you never did a thing and that's really good a lot of time you don't have to worry about that there's nothing really particularly worrying about that um however if you anytime you see some kind of update on your computer says hey new Java a new flash new this renew that go ahead and accept that it may be a little bit of pain to do but it definitely could help you with viruses in the future all right so let's say we've gone through all this you know max click on suspicious links or anything like that and you know that's a little bit of a bad idea when you know you're not updating all of your software however that still may not be enough and again I really want to stress I'm not trying to be trying to freak you guys out or anything like that I'm just trying to give you some good facts and try to you know not get worried about you know this or that just kind of know that no matter who you are no matter how smart you are no matter what software you are you're running you can run into viruses and problems everything like that so in this case it's good to have some antivirus software now I highly recommend this if you were running Windows if you're running Mac or Linux it is optional and a lot of people do not run antivirus on those programs on those operating systems rather and the main reason for that is not that you know something about if you're running a Mac is you know impossible to break or anything like that but it's just the simple thing of most people I believe upwards of 90% of people use Windows ok and everything else is gonna be Mac or Linux now if I'm gonna write a virus am I gonna go after the 3% or 5% or whatever I'm gonna go out to the 90% obvious it's gonna make more sense to go after the 90% so generally lots more viruses do target Windows however again I'd really wanna stress this even if you're running a Mac you're not immune that's very very very easy to fall into it's just not the case you can definitely get a virus on a Mac so if you're on Windows just because there are a lot more viruses for Windows I do recommend running some kind of antivirus software and there are a lot of kinds on the market and most of them do a good job personally I prefer to use Microsoft Security Essentials it's what I run it is totally free it is run by Microsoft so you know that this you know it's gonna work pretty well and typically it does a very good job of scan your computer in the background it's not gonna be you know slowing your computer down like a lot of other programs including the paid ones will do you know it's also really pretty good about catching viruses now a lot of you guys do use paid so for example McAfee or some other things which you pay for and while these are not awful a lot of times I do like the free alternatives better just because they're obviously gonna be cheaper free is always good but in addition to that you know that a lot of times are gonna be a little bit softer on system resources and things like that so I mean you can certainly pay for antivirus but in my opinion there's really never a reason get something good for free like I said Microsoft Security Essentials is good there's also a couple others such as Avast B I definitely get yourself protected if you're on Windows on Mac it's definitely very optional there are good antivirus software available however like I said it's not entirely optional it is entirely optional rather just kind of keep an eye out don't do be cooking bad links or anything like that now the really good way I like to explain antivirus is just think about this analogy so let's say without any antivirus your doors unlocked your house door is unlocked right so you know a lot of people do keep their doors unlocked and a lot of times you may not have any problems and that's very well the case the antivirus may sit on your computer for years and never have to block a signal fires that's great you don't have any problems however all it takes is somebody to come open the door obviously in our case it just takes one buyers it's our computer we don't know we're none the wiser a lot of time and it could be doing all kinds of bad things now when any type of virus is basically locking your door now locking your doors gonna keep a lot of the buyers out however if there's somebody who really wants to get in or you get really unlucky you might break a window and I might bust your door down so antivirus is a good cushion but again it's not the be-all end-all of security it's gonna help in a vast majority of the situations that you could get a virus however it's not going to help you in every single spot you can still get a virus occasionally although it really does help so I definitely recommend get some antivirus special for your on Windows now we've gone through all the prevention I know we've been going for quite a wide hood but we've gone through what a virus is we've gone through how to best protect yourself over like I said doesn't matter how smart you are doesn't matter how you know precaution precautions you take you certainly can still get a virus now there are a couple of really good indicators of when of virus hits so some viruses are going to be up in your face it's not like they're gonna try to hide they're gonna be like giving you pop-ups they may be slowing your computer really really far down and that can be caused by other things but a lot of time it is just a simple virus where they can you'll be sending you like some program like I know there's some really tricky things that pop up acting like it's antivirus software like over detected blank virus on your computer you pay blank amount of money to get rid of it now these are almost always scammed because that's just the virus there's no any type virus software and if you see some piece of software that pops up on your computer that you've never heard of it's generally a pretty good indicator although of course sometimes programs can change you know there and whatnot so but if you see something that you've never heard in your entire life up in your computer typically that's a pretty good sign that you may have a buyers especially if it's asking for money that's one of the number one things a lot of times the viruses don't care about your personal information or anything like that because that really does get into the illegal thing but they can just pop up something saying hey you're infected pay us $60 and we'll get rid of that and a lot of people are like oh wow I didn't know that okay I'll go get my credit card right now that's a really bad idea so just really think about that kind of stuff in those kind of cases it's good to just take your computer to someone who knows what they're doing now if you are fairly confident as in your technical knowledge there are a lot of different ways I'm gonna get into how to remove every single virus in the history of the universe but if you know what you're doing a lot of times you can just clear the stuff out by yourself however if you're really not entirely sure what you're supposed to do all the time it's a great idea to just take it to someone who does know what they're doing and a lot of times they will get rid of it now might they make you in that may end up costing you know quite a bit of money perhaps the same as you know what the virus is asking for however the difference is the virus has your credit card it can charge whatever it want they can do whatever they want or does if you take it somebody who knows what they're doing they're just gonna clean it up and you're gonna be good to go I'm moving on from you know just the rule of really basic you know pop-ups this and that you pretty obviously do have a virus there are some really stealthy things now these things are typically going to be aimed at getting your information so there are things called key loggers which log every single keystroke you have on your keyboard obviously is going to include a lot of personal information usually like credit card information passwords all that kind of stuff and that's definitely a big threat as well as just other things just get really really deep you may have a virus and not even know it and it could be doing all kinds of stuff now in this case if the antivirus doesn't pick it out there's really not a whole lot that you can do I mean if you know that you do have this virus if you find some clue about it on your computer you definitely can you google it that's a fantastic thing Google is a great way you know Google how to get rid of this virus or you know just kind of see other people's opinions although again if you want to be very clear don't be just downloading anything just because you have a virus doesn't mean if you get more viruses or anything like that just always use your common sense but a lot of times Google is going to be good for if as the people have the virus maybe other people have figured out you know what this virus is how to get rid of it that kind of thing but again just you know use common sense but a lot of times that will be very helpful so anyways guys in a little bit long video but I do want to go over a lot but really on the basic of it on the base of it just kind of use your common sense don't download stuff that you don't really know about and if you do try to run a virus scan on it make sure it's not it's going to be perfect you viruses still can't get in but it's a little bit of a measure of security doesn't take very long I'm so try to download and scan your viruses viruses some scan your programs that you download can I keep an eye on torrents not saying that you guys should never use a torrent the entire life but a lot of times torrents can get viruses and whatnot in them and as well as try to keep your software updated very important just if you see an update or if you have if you know where the option is usually it's gonna be there's gonna be an auction most programs to check for updates apply those updates as often as you can it's gonna be a little bit of annoyance but it will keep you much more secure and finally if you do get a virus and you know at all all your protective measures have failed if all else fails just take it somebody and let them you know run the by your skin and clean it up for you or if you know somebody who's really technically inclined let them do it and of course if you know enough about it for yourself you can do it yourself but really if you do have a virus you know that's going to be taking you know your personal data and whatnot stop using that computer if you can don't be continuing to give it more information just stop using it and try to get that virus off before you do anything else there's a lot of different methods if you I'm not gonna get into every little thing but just just be a little bit cautious hey guys that's been about it for my video just giving you a really brief explanation well not brief at all but an explanation of what viruses are all about and how to keep yourself protected now if you guys enjoyed this video and you think it helped definitely be sure to share it with your friends your family who may not be quite as technically inclined as you are I'd really appreciate that and again if you enjoyed the video definitely be sure it has that subscribe button you'll be notified whenever I post any new video anyway guys thanks for watching