How to Keep Your Computer Safe from Halloween Related Viruses - tips for the family

With Halloween rapidly approaching, you may find the entire family spending more time online searching for last minute costume deals, party supplies and even seasonal-related downloads such as wallpapers, pumpkin carving stencils, emoticons, etc.

But, before ghostly spirits take over your computer, AVG Technologies, the online security company wants to remind parents that hackers are roaming the online superhighways and just as you wouldn’t allow your young children to trick-or-treat unsupervised, you also shouldn’t let them surf the Internet without any safety guidelines.

To help steer the entire family away from malicious links, viruses and hacks, AVG has listed a few of the popular schemes that can cause some real damage this All-Hallow’s Eve:

1. BEWARE of ghostly attachments. E-cards, email invitations, and Halloween recipes may contain hidden links to rogue sites or embed dangerous malware (various types of trojans, worms, adware and other demons) into your computer. Teach your children to never respond to spam and to delete unwanted messages.
   
2. Don’t open a portal to the other side. Steer clear of sites offering Halloween clip art, screensavers, or other downloadable holiday-themed content, like preassembled party playlists. These downloads could release dangerous code that can access your emails, social networks, etc.
   
3. Lookout for scams. Some common scams that fool children are pop-up ads that: Claim to detect viruses on your personal computer and offer to clean them; Promise you can easily win great prizes; offer to speed up your PC.
   
4. Last minute deals may be scary. There are numerous unsecure and malicious sites offering rush orders on costumes or decorations. Be sure the site is secure by looking for a closed padlock at the bottom of your screen and an “s” after the “http” in the web site address.
   
5. Trick or Link? We all trade and share the best Halloween ideas, jokes, websites, etc. on Facebook, Twitter and IM, but how secure are they? According to AVG, cybercriminals are hijacking genuine links and embedding them with malware so that you’re not only infecting your own computer, but those that click on the links you share. If you don’t have basic protection, be sure to download AVG’s free antivirus.

It is hard to know which sites are truly safe, so it is important to R.I.P. (Rest in Peace) knowing that you and your family can avoid these common, but unsafe practices by being able to identify the trending tricks up a hacker’s sleeve.


Join AVG’s Facebook’s Page to stay Connected and Protected

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