Threats from the Internet or "Who needs me and my computer?"

A lot of people neglect the basic rules of network security, because they think that it is absolutely not important. Many years ago there was a time when I thought: "Yes, who needs me and my computer?" and also ignored the rules of Internet security.

This continued until my expensive and high-speed Internet connection became very slow for some reason. Analysis of incoming and outgoing traffic showed that spam was being sent from my personal computer in incredible quantities, and it almost completely "ate up" my entire Internet, so I had to wait 5-10 seconds for the page to load www.google.com .

This can happen to you, and if you neglect simple rules, then it is unlikely that someone will ask you for permission to send spam from your computer.

Below are very popular answers to the question "Who needs me and my computer?":

as I wrote above, your computer may be useful for sending spam from it. You may not know it, but if it is discovered, you will be in trouble;
your computer may very well be useful to some hacker to organize a DDOS attack on another computer that he wants to disable. In the event of such an attack, hundreds of infected computers launch a simultaneous attack on the victim computer in order to disable it;
your computer can be very useful in order to find out the numbers and passwords of your electronic wallets, as well as bank card details. For what? Guess for yourself!
your computer is needed by a hacker who wants to blatantly rip off your money. How? For example, a virus can block you from logging in until you transfer money by text message to the specified mobile phone number;
your computer may be needed by your neighbors to get free internet access;
your computer may very well be useful to a hacker in order to hack the security system and rob a bank. Access will be carried out from your home network, your IP address will be determined, as if you did it. Of course, you will have problems later;
a hacker needs your computer to infect it with a virus and organize infection of other computers on the network through it. A hacker can also get email addresses from your address book, including yours, and use them to send spam;
and someone for the sake of a joke may just want to completely "erase" all the information on your computer.
How to avoid threats of hacking your computer?
It is impossible to fully insure against any of these threats, but you can greatly reduce the risks of their occurrence if you strictly follow the following simple rules:

be sure to install a good antivirus program and firewall. Paid ones are best. Ideally, use two different antiviruses to check your computer (not at the same time, of course!). If you do not know how to configure a firewall, then use the recommended settings or contact a specialist. In extreme cases, you can limit yourself to using a regular Windows firewall, but keep in mind that many system administrators consider it extremely unreliable. Here are recommendations for choosing an antivirus and firewall based on personal experience and information received from various system administrators with a lot of experience (paid antiviruses are usually better):
paid antiviruses: Kaspersky Internet Security (antivirus and firewall at the same time, website: www.kaspersky.ru) or Dr. Web (www.drweb.com);
free antiviruses: Comodo Internet Security (antivirus and firewall at the same time, website (www.comodo.com ) together with CureIt! ( www.freedrweb.com/download +cureit+free/beta/), a free antivirus scanner from Dr. Web and together with Dr. Web Live CD (www.freedrweb.com/livecd /, checks a computer with an unloaded Windows operating system. It is effective, since some viruses are able to disguise themselves well in running Windows. It can be used when there is a suspicion of the presence of a virus, but conventional antiviruses cannot detect it);
protect your home network as described in the article: "How and why to protect your home Wi-Fi network?";
never open any attachments (even files.doc and .jpeg) in any electronic messages without checking them with an antivirus, since any attached file may contain a dangerous virus. Do not open it, even if this message came from your friend. After all, a hacker can infect a friend's computer and send viruses from it. In most antiviruses, you can configure automatic checking of attachments in mail client programs, and if you use an online mail service (for example, gmail.com or yahoo.com ), then you have nothing to worry about, since there such a check is performed automatically;
encrypt the information sent via email, as described in the article: "How to protect your email from interception? How to write anonymously?";
create complex passwords to prevent hackers from picking them up as described in the article: "How to create a password that is difficult to crack? How to store passwords securely?";
avoid sloppily designed, ugly sites with little useful information and a large number of pop-up banners, as well as pornographic sites and sites containing unlicensed software;
set passwords for your Windows account, as well as for the screen saver for the monitor, so that in case of your long absence, no one could "throw" a virus or a keylogger to you;
create a separate account for each user of your computer. This will create the following advantages: 1) other users will not have access to your folders and files, 2) other users will not be able to change your settings (desktop theme, background image, browser settings, etc.), but will be able to create their own. How to do all this is easy to figure out with the help of Windows help and, of course, Google.
And, of course, ideally, read the entire section “Anonymity on the Internet" in full, it will take 2-3 hours, but at the same time you will seriously increase your level in the field of computer security.