Protecting Your Family Tech from Internet Intruders

You can hardly listen to the news nowadays without hearing about another big company falling prey to hackers.  Hackers pride themselves on getting into the toughest computer systems and causing havoc.  Millions of credit card numbers are downloaded in just minutes.

You probably wonder how your laptop or PCs at home can be protected against hackers…and would they even be interested in your home PC?  Well, the answer is yes.  There’s a wealth of info. on your computer that can be successfully used for identity theft.

Although, not all hackers are interested in stealing info. from computers.  Some just like to wreak havoc on everyday people.

There are over 16,000 viruses discovered…every hour!

And did you know that 80% of cyber attacks are due to organized crime rings?  How are these groups so prolific in creating viruses?  Collaboration.  They join online groups and talk to each other and share info. to help one another.  As a result, viruses spread like wildfire.

California leads the state in the number of infected devices.

So just what types of attacks do you need to be aware of?

• Identity Theft – spyware gets placed on your PC and take in important information about your login info.
• Malware – this is malicious software that attacks your computer or steals your personal info.  Includes such things as viruses, Trojans, ransomware, worms, spyware, and others.
• Phishing – you’ve probably heard this term before but never understood it.  Phishing usually occurs online when cybercriminals trick you into entering personal and confidential information (like address, phone number, passwords, account numbers and more) into their website, that is a copycat of one you may be quite trusting towards.   You’ve gotten emails like that before from big companies, like your bank, asking you to follow a link which then asks you to enter your account number and password to get in.  The website is almost identical to your bank’s website, do you think nothing of it.  Once inside, you realize something is wrong.  Your information has just been stolen…and you helped!

You probably already have anti-virus on your PC, but is it on every PC, Mac, or laptop in your house…especially those networked together and to the Internet?  And if you have anti-virus software, does it get updated more than hourly to check for the latest viruses?

Do you really need anti-virus protection on everything?  Yup.

• PC’s
• Laptops
• Macs
• Tablets
• Cellphones

And if you have a family of 4, you most likely have at least 5+ items that need anti-virus.  Now do a quick count, have many of your devices are covered?

How does anti-virus & anti-malware help you again?

Using anti-virus/anti-malware software is essential to…

• Eliminate all threats and malware attacks
• Protect your online banking credentials
• Secure your personal information you use on the Internet
• Safeguard your login credentials
• Shield your identity from identity theft
• Protect your PC’s and mobile devices from threats that could render them uselsess

Pain Points of Anti-Virus Protection

We all know that anti-virus software is needed for our PC’s.  But there are a number of pain points that make dealing with anti-virus frustrating. Namely, it…

1.  Can be costly – especially to install it on every PC and laptop you have…and what about your phones?
2.  Is inconsistent – families typically have a different version of the anti-virus software on each computer or they use a different program for PC’s and another brand for their mobile devices
3.  Takes up room on your hard drive – the average anti-virus software size is 512 mb – that’s half a gigabyte of space!
4.  Consumes processing power that bogs down your computer memory when you are trying to work on something else
5.  Typically covers one or a couple of devices in your household
6.  Is annoying – especially if you got a “free” version and you get bombarded with advertisements or add-on’s recommended to “boost” PC performance
7.  Makes you uneasy at times, is it really working or has it stopped?

What is the Solution?

I have been testing out Webroot Secure Anywhere Complete.  Webroot is an American company, headquartered in Colorado.

Webroot makes a anti-virus and malware solution that is revolutionary in taking away many of these common pain points of anti-virus products.  It is the first anti-virus and anti-malware company to move away from a fully PC hosted (located on your PC) method and instead harness the power of cloud computing.

Webroot is able to gather information on the latest hourly threats from around the world while collectively analyzing possible viruses on its customers immediately.  They can then accurately categorize existing, modified, and brand new executable program files to deem their trustworthiness.

This means that the heavy processing power is done on Webroot’s servers, not yours, so you never need to worry about it slowing down your processor.  So once a virus is determined in Russia, the Webroot cloud is immediately updated which protects this threat from your computer.

But Webroot goes beyond this analysis.  As cybercriminals increase their sophistication on a daily basis, Webroot correlates their data and relationships across multiple files to predict future threats.  Their cloud software also monitors unknown files and applied heuristics to determine unknown threats.

Should a virus be detected, Webroot immediately rolls back files on your computer to a pre-infected state.  And this is the beauty of Webroot.  Your computer is instantly and proactively saved from threats before they ever have a chance of stealing personal information or wreaking havoc on your PC.

In a nutshell, Webroot…

• Installs on your PC in 14 seconds for full protection
• Maximizes your PC and mobile security
• Cuts bandwidth reliance, leaving it more open for your streaming and Internet needs
• Reduces resource loads on PCs
• Uses very little space on your PC or phone, leaving more space for pictures, apps, and music
• Stops phishing attacks in real-time
• Scans your entire computer in 20 seconds (60x faster than its competitors)
• Includes a firewall for extra security and protection
• Runs in the background automatically, you only get notified if it finds a virus or malware
• Never displays advertisements (woohoo!)

Other Features of Webroot

Webroot does more than protect your PC and mobile devices.  It can also help you with…

• Backing up your data (PC/Mac)
• Password storage manager so that your passwords cannot be detected by cybercriminals (PC/Mac & app)
• Locating your lost mobile device and locking the phone if the SIM card is replaced (app)
• Blocking unwanted callers from calling or texting you (app)
• Showing you what type of information apps have access to (app)
• Optimize your computer to rid of bad registry entries, remove unnecessary files, and erase your Internet tracks
• Analyze your computer to detect system problems, recommend hardware upgrades, help your PC work faster
• SafeStart Sandbox – allows you to start new programs within in its confines to it doesn’t write to your PC registry until you know it’s safe
• Can protect up to 5 computers/devices
• Your account is  master account allowing you to keep up on all of the computers and mobile devices at a glance (super helpful!)

Why Webroot is the Right Tool for Your Family

The Webroot Internet Security Complete  is the best Webroot protection for your family because it takes little space on your family PC’s, you can be assured of the latest up-to-the-minute protection, and once you install Webroot on everyone’s PCs you can centrally administer Webroot from one account on the Webroot Console online.

I found out that my daughter’s PC was infected with a virus when I looked at my central Webroot management account.  You can imagine my surprise, as her computer just got completely re-done after her hard drive crashed.

The technician who worked on her computer even installed Anti-virus software on it.  But that free anti-virus software didn’t catch the virus.

All of our other computers and my phone were virus-free.  My daughter’s networked computer could have spread damage to the rest of our PC’s, I’m so glad we caught it.

Think about your own family.  Do you have a gamer, a You-Tuber, a voracious web surfer?  Your kids who are unfamiliar with viruses and phishing exploits are the most likely to bring viruses and malware into your home.

Having one place to check on all of our computers (without needing to check each one individually) is such a great help!  I did need to install the Webroot Internet Security Complete software on each computer, but now Webroot takes care of each computer on its own with its scheduled scans.

If someone’s computer is running slow, the first thing I’ll do is run some of the utility analysis to clear up some of the possible issues.

Once you have created your Webroot account you can begin using Backup & Sync to protect and access your special photos, documents, and music. Stored files will update automatically and you will have access to your data from all your devices at any time.

Webroot Internet Security Complete is available from the Webroot website for $55.99 a year.  Need more than 5 devices covered? The Internet Security Complete Family Pack is available for $99 a year.