Sometimes, the only way to repair a device that’s infected with malware is to completely wipe the storage drive and reinstall the operating system or perform a factory reset. This will destroy all the data inside and the malware with it. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to predict when malware will compromise your device, so you should […]

Free trials are great ways to learn about an antivirus suite’s features before purchasing it. However, you shouldn’t count on a trial version to keep you safe – it’s meant to be a purchase aide, not a comprehensive defense against malware. Be sure you upgrade to a full version to stay safeguarded.

Side-loading is the practice of downloading applications that have not been sanctioned by the operating system’s official app store. It’s ordinarily not worth the risk, as there’s no guarantee these apps have been scanned for malware. Best to only use the official channels.

A zero-day (also known as 0-day) vulnerability is a computer-software vulnerability that is unidentified to those who would be interested in mitigating the vulnerability (including the vendor of the target software). Until the vulnerability is ended, hackers can exploit it to adversely affect computer programs, data, additional computers or a network. An exploit focused at […]

As a golden rule, the bigger a download button is, the more it’s trying to get your attention – which overcompensates for the fact you may see something suspicious on the rest of the webpage. This is prevalent on file hosting services: You click on them to find a movie, video, song or live stream, […]

Email attachments are risky. They might contain malware, or be so large that they eat up too much space in your inbox. The best approach is to not open them and delete them, unless they come from a trusted sender. Encourage your contacts to share via cloud links instead.