With how easy it is to get into computer and software programming, it is becoming easier and more viable for people to craft malicious software. As such, it can seem like it is getting harder to stay safe online. Yet online safety can really be boiled down to 50 percent worm computer virus protection, and 50 percent common sense best practices for online security. You are much more likely to see a worm computer virus when you just frolic through the internet, clicking willy nilly.

You can find reviews for the best anti virus software all over the internet, so I am not going to get into that. Instead, I will focus on the other 50 percent, those best practices. Just a word of caution though, if you do not have anti virus software yet, you already have a virus. Get software immediately, install it and scan, hopefully you can catch anything you have before it does too much damage.

Believe it or not, failing to install any critical updates to your system could be an invitation to malicious software. Those updates are made for a reason, so they are not something to ignore. Sure, they streamline things and make your computer run more smoothly, but they also patch those holes that viruses have found. By ignoring those updates, you are saying that you do not mind if a virus gets through.

Opening email attachments is a huge contributor to contracting malicious worm computer viruses. If you get an email from an address or person whom you do not know, and it has an attachment on there, do not touch! Contrary to popular belief, it is not looking at the email that does it to you, it is clicking on the attachment. That is equivalent to opening your door and saying Come on in! It does not matter if it says that it is an ecard, or stamps that you ordered, or an invitation to some event, if you do not recognize it, mark as spam and delete.

Another thing to not click is the pop up dialog box. If you are surfing the web and a dialog box pops up, do not just simply click it. Read it, see what it is asking for and assess accordingly. If it is an internet ad that is telling you that your computer may be infected or that you need to update software, get out quickly and do not touch. As soon as you agree to anything from that box, you will have a malicious file downloaded onto your computer in the guise of fixing it.

So play it smart. Think things through. Learn to recognize what could put you at risk of a virus or other malicious software, and avoid those situations. With just a little knowledge you can be very well protected.