To say that online security has been made more “mainstream” would be a gross understatement. It’s something that the general public really knew little about several years ago, but now it’s talked about all over the place. Unfortunately, this is mainly because of the wrong reasons.

While a lot of these “wrong reasons” focus on large companies and the significant security breaches that they have experienced, let’s not forget that the Average Joe can also be affected. In other words, normal PCs are completely at risk, and this is one reason why the PC security market is so vast.

Following on from the above, let’s now take a look at some of the biggest threats that are around for the typical PC owner – and what you can do to thwart these.

Threat #1 – Malware

In truth, malware covers a lot of the buzzwords that we commonly hear in the news. In other words, it includes the likes of viruses, spyware, trojan horses and adware.

Suffice to say, malware can do a lot of damage. There might be occasions where you will completely have to reformat your computer to rescue it, or in other cases it might steal your personal information.

Unfortunately, malware is evolving all of the time. This is one occasion where you really do need to arm yourself with the best PC protection software you can find, in a bid to combat it.

Threat #2 – Phishing

Over the last few years phishing has become more popular than ever before. This is the process where criminals will send a fake email, that appears to be from a reputable source such as your bank or an online payment processing system. They contain a link to a website, that usually asks for your password to sign in, and those that supply this information are seamlessly handing over their account credentials into the wrong hands.

The most concerning part of all is that these emails are becoming more believable by the day. It’s become harder, for the typical person, to differentiate a fake and the real thing. One quick way to do this is to see if they have included your full name. If they haven’t, it’s usually an immediate sign that you might not be dealing with a genuine request.

Threat #3 – Wi-Fi eavesdropping

Out of all of the threats we are mulling over, this is perhaps the least well-known. We are now in an age where most of us tap into a Wi-Fi network, in a bid to save that elusive data that we pay for every month.

Problems start to arise if these networks are not encrypted though. It means that unscrupulous individuals can “spy” on any information that passes over them. This might involve taking control of your machine, or stealing any personal information that passes over the network.

It means that you must be more careful than ever before when logging into one of these networks.

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