Each year, viruses, spyware, and other types of malicious attacks infect millions of computers. These attacks can damage operating systems, applications, and data. Computers that have been infected may even have problems with hardware performance or component failure.
To protect data and the integrity of the operating system and hardware, use software designed to guard against attacks and to remove malicious programs.
Various types of software protect hardware and data. The figure gives more information on these protection software tools:
- Windows 7 Action Center - Checks the status of essential security settings. The Action Center continuously checks to make sure that the software firewall and antivirus programs are running. It also ensures that automatic updates download and install automatically.
- Antivirus program - Protects against virus attacks.
- Antispyware program - Protects against software that sends information about web surfing habits to an attacker. Spyware can be installed without the knowledge or consent of the user.
- Window 7 Firewall - Runs continuously to protect against unauthorized communications to and from your computer.