Backup, we all talk about it, yet like certain diseases, many will say that ‘the bad happens to others’. Ha! Happens all the time, among our family & friends, as does Malware strikes & hardware failure (specifically HDD/SSD’s here). If we create regular drive images, like weekly, we can easily roll back to a date to where the system is clean, a physical backup image is the BEST System Restore point one can have. Plus it also is an central part of any serious security plan, no security is bulletproof, nor are other OS’s. We may hear that Android/Linux/Mac are less vulnerable to attacks, and to a degree these are, yet guess what?

The three combined barely makes for 10% of total market share. Malware distributors wants the largest target possible, and that’s Windows users. There are countless ways for those who wants to attack a particular person or organization to do so, beginning with email. If you don’t know the recipient, mark the message as Spam (or Junk if Outlook) & keep that folder emptied, though it OK to open the general folder to see how many are there. Especially if one’s looking for a message not received. Then call the person/business to be 100% sure it’s them, if so, can be marked as Safe.

The rest, there’s an Empty click at the top of the interface. There are no ‘free’ laptops, ‘discount’ Viagra, ‘mates’ who are dying to meet you, ‘one-time’ opportunities to grab a ‘rare’ stock or other scam. All of which are scams, though some may also contain Malware, and any products purchased (such as that ‘cheap’ Viagra) may well be dangerous to one’s health. Men can obtain these samples at their doctor if not affordable & there’s patient assistance programs for these type of medications & many others.

If something looks too good to be true, there’s a 99.999% chance there is, don’t open such emails, rather empty the entire Junk or Spam folder w/out a second thought. When purchasing from legit businesses, check their policy in regards to email sharing, and opt-out of this type of advertising. Scammers & Malware distributors alike purchases customer’s lists in bulk, and all it takes is for a few in a neighborhood to open one, and then the Malware is on the loose (what they want), plus may encrypt your computer.

It doesn’t have to happen. Give Emsisoft a fair shake & see how great their security is & what it can do for you. I guarantee that if one has been running ‘free’ solutions for years, there’s going to be a lot of cleaning up to do. That alone, and keeping one’s computer clean during those 30 days will be plenty of reason to pay the price for protection that’s actually lower in cost than many competitors. Have three computers? That’s the best value that Emsisoft has, the 3 PC deal.

And don’t forget to backup your computer regularly while clean & in good shape, if anyone needs assistance, we at Bleeping Computer can assist with choices, some of which are truly free.

One final word & I’m outta here, never store your precious data on your OS or ‘C’ drive, rather transfer these to an external drive as created, a USB Flash drive is a good temporary device, though an external drive is better. At any rate, two or more copies off of the OS drive will guarantee you that the data thieves won’t encrypt your precious documents & memories. The OS is replaceable at little to no cost, your data is priceless!;-)

Cat