Security

Security and browsers

Make sure you run up to date anti virus software and anti spyware software and use a personal firewall. Anti virus and anti spyware software is intended to ensure that your PC stays "virus free" and does not have any malicious or unwanted programs running on it. There are several products on the market which can be updated by downloading from the Internet; searching the Internet using a search engine with the search text 'anti virus products' will give details of several of the products available many of which include anti spyware and personal firewalls, these are often referred to as "Internet Security Suites". For other devices you may use to access the service, we recommend you download and maintain additional security software.

We recommend you run the latest Internet browser - this should be the latest web browser appropriate to your operating system (e.g. Internet Explorer 11.0 for Windows 8). Further details should be obtained from your browser supplier; for the majority of users this will be Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) Browser. Further details can be found at the Microsoft website. For other browser users (e.g. Firefox, Chrome or Safari) details can be found at the Firefox website, the or the Safari website, but again you should use the latests versions of these.

Make sure you keep your computer's operating system and browser (e.g. Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 11) up to date with the latest security patches - keeping updated with the latest patches will help prevent home PC disruption from software vulnerabilites. Ideally, set your system to receive these updates automatically. Further details on this and on other home PC protection including Anti Virus, Anti Spyware and personal Firewalls can be found on the Microsoft website.

Understanding Jargon

Understand viruses and anti virus software

More often than not, viruses can cause your computer to crash or be a potential threat to personal information you may hold or input to your computer. Viruses are usually hidden; sometimes behind images or music you may download; sometimes embedded in Internet sites and sometimes as attachments to e-mails sent to you. Anti-virus software protects you in two ways:

1. It identifies malicious programs when they try to infect your computer. It isolates them and then deletes them before it can do any harm.
2. It will periodically scan your computer for these programs (e.g. when you turn your computer on or when you request a scan).

Understand spyware and anti spyware software

Spyware is a program that secretly gathers information about what you do on your computer and quite often it does this without your knowledge:

• In its least dangerous form it is known as Adware and it collects information about your Internet habits on behalf of companies, The more annoying Adware can pop up adverts as you surf
• Anti spyware software protects you by searching out these programs in the same way as anti-virus and can also block those annoying pop-up adverts.

Understand firewalls

A firewall allows you to decide which connections between your computer and other computers are allowed and which are denied. When the firewall identifies someone or something not previously authorised by you, attempting to access your computer, it will alert you to the fact. The alert asks you if you wish to allow access or block access. If you select 'allow' it will become a trusted source and unhindered access will be allowed in the future. If you select 'block' it will prevent access both now and in the future. Your firewall software should be updated regularly to protect your computer.