 this edition of Sam's Tech Talk. I'm Sam Augustine and today we're going to be talking about understanding why you need to protect your devices. And I mean all of your devices, no matter who is the operating system, whether it is an Android, an Apple, or a Microsoft device, why you need to protect these devices when you're using them on the internet. First thing I want to talk about is the one myth that's out there that most people believe about this kind of stuff and you should never fall for it. When you have this, all of your devices need to be protected regardless of what the operating system. Some people say, oh I have an Apple computer. I don't need to get virus protection on my computer. That's not true. I attended a seminar about protecting yourself and your personal information and one of the first things the FBI agent who handles the cyber division said was you always protect your devices, your smartphones, your tablets, your computers, everything. Regardless of who makes it, whether it's Microsoft, whether it's Google or Android, or whether it is Apple, whether it's a Mac or an i, you need virus protection on everything. If these devices are put on the internet, there is a risk that they can be infected if you don't protect them. Definitions I want you guys to understand. This is one of the big things that most people have no clue as to what they are. The biggest thing is what is a virus from my computer. Basically it is a piece of computer code or a program that attaches itself to another file and once it gets to your computer or your device, it just starts replicating itself. It just starts growing and growing and growing and doing malicious things to your computer. It just tries to destroy it or make it where it works really, really slow. If you think about it, if you're in your house and one person comes home and they've caught a virus before it's all done and over with, everybody in the house has that virus, a computer virus works the same way. And one of the easiest ways that you get these viruses and things is through email. Email is one of the quickest ways to get a virus on your computer. If you get an email and you don't recognize it, don't open it, delete it, and don't go and open it on somebody else's system because you don't want to infect yours. It's not fair for you to infect someone else's system just because you're protecting your own. If you think the virus, if you think the email has a problem or you don't recognize who sent it to you, don't open it. Plain and simple. Easiest way to protect yourself there. Then another thing is malware. And it is like a, it is a kind of virus, but malware, what it does is it's a program that is out there to cause damage to your system. When malware, it can have viruses, it can have Trojan horses, it can have what they call worms, it can have what they call time bombs or logic bombs or anything else that they have there. And what they're trying to do is just cause damage to your system. Another thing is adware. And that is one of the biggest, most annoying things that happens to us. Adware is software that they put out there that forces pre-chosen ads to display. Like say you go out and do a search for, oh, I don't know, say cacupants. And you get a list of people who have, that sell cacupants on the internet. And then suddenly in all of your browsers and stuff, you start seeing ads for cacupants. And that is because you have managed to get adware on your computer. And it is just, you know, showing such specialized things out there for you. Eventually these kinds of things start to slow your system down a lot. They start to make your computer go and really, go really, really slow. And it starts to tie up your memory in your computer. It makes your memory just, just sucks up the memory in your system. And it makes it go there. It's a very frustrating thing to say it for the least with that. When you have adware and spyware together, they can virtually make it where the internet will just sit and do virtually nothing. So always protect your computers. Spyware, which I mentioned briefly before, what spyware is meant to do is to gather information from your computer without you knowing it. It is looking at your internet habits to see what you do your searches on. And then they try to do that so they can match up ads that you see to match your browsing habits. It can also spyware can count your keystrokes or it can actually monitor your keystrokes. So they actually know what you type. They can divert you to pre-chosen websites just by the fact that you type in something on a search. It chooses what's there. And one of the most common things that it does is it makes it generate pop-ups. Those little things that pop up in front of what you're trying to see. Spyware is what makes those happen. And a lot of times how you get spyware is you go out and you download a free program from a website. And when you do it, a lot of times there are these little bitty boxes that are through the installation process that are already checked. What you need to do is before you get past that screen and tell it to go to the next one is if that little box has absolutely nothing to do with what that program does, uncheck it. Because sometimes if you don't, you'll actually wind up like with a new toolbar on your internet and that kind of things. Those are forms of spyware. So always make sure when you're doing that that you uncheck those little boxes in that free software. They can also if you get free screensavers and those little emoticons that everybody likes to use with their text message and everything, those are a lot of places where you can wind up with the spyware. Then another thing they have is a worm. And a worm is very similar to a virus, but it's a very self-contained program that can replicate itself. And what it does is it takes over part or another or maybe of your document or a program and it tries to transfer and copy itself into what you're doing. So it embeds itself into what you're making. And then if you share that with someone else, you share that worm along with it. A worm can be pretty devastating to your computer if they can't isolate it and get it off of your computer. It's one of the hardest things to remove from your computer because the worms tend to copy themselves all over the place on your computer. They will, if your computer starts to run really, really slow and the memory seems to be low on it, that's one of the things there. And it can also suck up what they call your bandwidth on your internet connection. And it'll make your internet run really, really slow. It can make it unstable where the sites won't load and where they won't do anything. Or it can actually make it where it won't even go onto the internet. Another thing they have out there and I've had lots of experience with this one lately. It's what they call scareware. That's one of those where when you get that little box that pops up on your screen when you're on the internet and says that you've got to call this 800 number or you're not going to be able to get into your computer. You know that they're going to take over what's on your computer. You can't get rid of that little box that's there and never, ever, and I repeat, never, ever call that 800 number that's listed there. They are not Microsoft. They are not anybody. They are a company that's trying to tell you that yes, they can see your computer and that if you pay them x amount of money, they can make that little thing go away on your computer screen and they can make everything okay. And no, they don't get rid of it. Yes, they rip off from your credit card and they just wreak havoc on your on your system. They are not to be trusted. Microsoft did not do this to you. That comes up on your screen. The first thing you need to do is power your system off. Nine out of ten times just powering off your computer. Don't even try to close the internet. Just hold the power button down until your computer shuts itself off. And nine out of ten times when you're done with that and you power your system back on, it'll start a little bit slower from that first time because you didn't shut it down properly, but that's okay. Just let it power itself back up, then go back in and it should be okay. Sometimes it takes more than one time of doing it to make it go away, but it will go away. Just don't call that number under any circumstances. They are not going to help you. They are going to steal from you. So never give them your credit card information. And I hope most people realize that no company out there takes payment in the form of iTunes cards or Walmart cards and that kind of things. That is someone who is trying to scam you. So never ever call the 800 number that comes up with scare wear. Now knowing that what I said before, that the myth that all your devices don't need to be protected, yes they do. And you can protect your device without spending any money. There are some very good companies out there that provide free protection for your system. But now before we go there, I am going to tell you this. If you get one of the free protections, they are going to have the little pop-ups that come up in the corner every now and then that they recommend that you go to the paid version to get more coverage. The extra coverage that you're going to give you are these little accessories that you don't necessarily need to protect your device, but you do need to protect it with just the basic stuff. So just be aware of that. So even if you're using a free one, they're going to try to get you to upgrade to the paid one, but you don't have to. You can keep the free one and it protects you just as well. Now there are some pretty good ones out there of the free ones that are out on the market right now. Avast, AV, AST and the company AVG are the two according to consumer reports. Those are the two that are the very best out there for the free ones and you just go to their sites or you go into your app store and you can load those on there. I suggest to anybody when you want to find out about those is that you go out to the internet, go out to Google or whatever your web browser is and put in a search for best free virus protection and see what comes up and then do a little search of your own out there to research those companies and then pick the one you want and load it. If you find you don't like it, delete it, then add it back. So that's another thing that you can do there. So they're always out there. Now when you, those are the free ones that you have. Now there are other ones out there that you pay for. They run anywhere from $20 a year to $60 a year. So it's up to you. Ones that aren't my favorites, they are the most popular ones out on the market, McAfee and let's see the other one is Norton. Those two are very, everyone seems to know who they are and sometimes you'll get your new device and it will have a free trial of those products. They do the job, they work well but they do tend to suck up a bit of your memory. They make your computer run a little bit slower because they're trying to do a lot of stuff that might not be necessary to protect your computer. Those two are the most popular ones out there and you do have to pay for them. They're $20 to, I think I've seen people pay as much as $79 and I had one person who actually paid $139 for that same program there. It's just, you know, protecting your your device is a personal preference. If you think you got to pay for it to get good protection, feel free. There are some good ones but if you're going to pay for it do that same search again. Best paid virus protections on the market and then go to one of the places that you trust like PC reports or consumer reports even and see what they have to say about the ones that are out there. It's all very, very personal as, you know, the choice that's there. One of the other ones that are people tend to be very, very conscious of using right now. A lot of people are using Bitdefender which is a paid service. I work with that one at a place where I volunteer and it does a good job for them and another one is called web route. That is all one word there. And then another one that a lot of the public radio people who talk about computers and some of the other things there is one called Kaspersky and that one's a bit expensive. But they tend to say that it's the best one but I often wonder is are they being given a, you know, a finder's fee or do they get something back for that because they always tend to recommend the most expensive one. And according to these magazines and stuff it is not necessarily the best one. It is one of the good ones but it is not the best one. It's just up to you. And I can't say this enough. If you connect this device to the internet you have to protect it. Whether it's Android, it's a tablet, whether it's your smartphone, whether it is a PC you've got to protect your device if it goes on the internet. And your smartphones need protection. Everything you've got to protect them. Now when we look at all of these things and we're trying to take care of it, you know, trying to take care of our devices and make them last. Your virus protection needs to be set to give you automatic updates. You'll see that as one of your little boxes and your choices. Your virus protection should work so well that the only time you know it's there is if it pops up and tells you that it blocks something. Other than that you should never know that your virus protection exists. Now if you have a Windows 10 computer Windows 10 has a built-in virus protection called Windows Defender. It is part of your operating system. I myself have used Windows Defender for a number of years. I go on websites all over the world. I haven't had problems. But now one thing you always need to be aware of it. There are certain types of websites that people visit that are more prone to spreading viruses to their device. One of those kinds of websites would be a gambling website or any type of online gaming. Those are there and you know we don't like to think about it but the adult sites that are out there. A lot of those are prone to having things like the spyware, the malware, the adware, the worms, the Trojan horses. Those are all places that you can get these. If you think about it websites that you visit where it might not be the most wholesome place to be those are the kind of sites that are more likely to give you a problem. So that's what you need to think about. You know if you might be embarrassed that people knew you visited that site that is probably a site where you are likely to get your computer infected with something. These are the places where it's notorious that people are out there. They just do their best to make these things happen to you. Now a lot of people ask why is why does this stuff exist? The biggest reason this stuff exists is because we live in a society where people want to be famous and computer geeks are notorious for wanting to be famous for wreaking havoc on things. They want it to be known that they started a problem somewhere and it gets them notoriety among their group of friends. Doesn't help you or me but it makes them be a little bit more popular with the people that they're dealing with that they consider to be their quote unquote friends. I don't know about you but I don't think that would be a great friend to me somebody that would be happy that I had destroyed someone's system or someone that you know I stole a bunch of information from people. So that's the big thing to remember. You need to protect your device no matter what when it's protected connected to the internet. Can't say that often enough. It doesn't matter what your device is whether it's Apple whether it is Android or whether it is Windows. Protect it period. Nothing can be said there. There are people that tend to think you can get away with not but in this day and age you have to protect everything especially if you're on the internet. If you have tablets you have phones they're all on the internet. They don't work properly unless they are. So that's one thing you have to I can't just say it enough protect every single device that you have. Remember once you hit enter on your device you touch enter you hit the enter button. It exists in the world. You can't get it back. No amount of deleting it will make it ever go away. It will exist somewhere and the last thing you want to do is be responsible for spreading a virus onto someone else or spreading malware onto someone else because you didn't protect your device. So that's basically the biggest thing that I want to share with you guys. You can get good free protection. You can get inexpensive paid protection that's good just whichever you prefer but protect every single one of your devices. That's the biggest thing that you can't you know you just shouldn't use them unless you're going to protect them. Now as a lot of people always know with me I always tell you if you need help with your devices there are people out there to help you. Me Public Library can help you or if you're a senior age 55 and older I can help you at the Senior Activity Center in Sheboygan or if you guys have other ideas for other shows that you would like to see me do in the future contact us here at the station and I'll be happy to put a show together on that subject because chances are if you thought about it someone else did too. I hope this was helpful for everybody and I'd like to thank you all for joining me today here on Sam's Tech Talk and I hope to see you all again really really soon.