How to protect your PC from malware

The first malware was actually created as an experiment in 1971, and this act laid the foundation for the future of malware programs.

Ever since, malicious actors have abused the nature of computers and the internet to spread unwanted programs to unsuspecting devices.

With increasing digitalization since the 70s, malware has also become more advanced, with malicious actors finding ever-sneakier ways to spread it across the web. This issue necessitates protecting your PC from malware and, fortunately, there are many effective ways to do this.

I’ve created this guide to explore the practical steps that will protect your PC from malware and help you stay secure both offline and online.

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What is malware, and how does it work?

Malware is an abbreviation for “malicious software,” referring to any software program that seeks to gain unauthorized access to a PC or network.

Malicious actors use malware for various purposes, from stealing sensitive data to monitoring an infected PC or even hijacking a network and requesting a ransom to unlock it, i.e., ransomware.

Hackers introduce malware via unsuspecting means, usually by disguising it within legitimate-looking software or tricking PC users into clicking tainted links or downloading and opening infectious files.

When dealing with malware, prevention is always better than a cure. Malware can be fought after infecting a PC, but it’s better to avoid this problem than deal with the potential repercussions.

You need protective measures to prevent malware from infecting your PC and causing serious damage. Let’s explore these measures in detail.

How to protect your PC from malware

Install antivirus software

Antivirus software is the first line of defense against malware programs. This software employs sophisticated analytical methods to detect malware in any incoming file, then blocks the download if detected. It can also scan your PC and its previously downloaded files for malware, then eliminate any suspicious files.

The methods antivirus tools use to detect malware are:

Signature-based detection. This method entails scanning files against a vast database of known malware threats. Any file that matches what’s in the database is flagged as suspicious.

Heuristic analysis. This technique involves scanning files for suspicious code and patterns that are commonly associated with malware.

Behavioral analysis. This involves scanning a file or an app’s real-time behavior for suspicious patterns. Malicious actors are often sneaky, such that their malware doesn’t begin its nefarious work for a while after infecting a PC. During this period, the PC owner likely wouldn’t suspect anything. However, behavioral analysis ensures the nefarious activity is detected once it begins.

Sandboxing. The most advanced anti-malware tools employ sandboxing, which entails testing files in virtual environments to monitor for suspicious patterns. Anything that happens in this virtual environment won’t affect your actual PC operating system. Sandboxing helps detect the most sophisticated malware that usually targets corporate networks.

To emphasize my earlier point, prevention is better than a cure when dealing with malware. Installing antivirus software on your PC is the primary preventive measure for avoiding malware.

Scan external drives before connection

Malware is often introduced online, but it can also infect PCs from external hard drives and memory cards. This risk warrants scanning any external drive before connecting it to your PC.

If you use a Windows PC, the built-in Microsoft Defender app can scan any external drive you insert into your USB or SD card port, before granting it access to your PC if cleared.

Alternative operating systems have similar apps, but your antivirus software should be the go-to option because it has the most sophisticated malware detection features.

A hard drive scan usually doesn’t take long, so it wouldn’t be an inconvenience when using your PC. Even when it takes a long time, detecting suspicious files is worth the temporary inconvenience to defend your PC against malware.

Be cautious about downloads

Downloads are a popular vector for spreading malware. Malicious actors spend considerable effort creating and promoting websites for downloading movies, music, apps, and other content.

To avoid falling victim, be cautious when downloading files online, even if it's your favorite movie or a free utility app. Things given out for free often come with a hidden cost.

Only download content from trusted sites that you’ve used before or researched extensively about. Remember, you should have antivirus software installed to scan every download for suspicious files.

Malicious actors are now employing a sneaky method to spread malware via file conversion sites. Suppose you need to convert a file, e.g., from PNG to PDF, and type “convert PNG to PDF” in Google. Then, you enter a site and convert your file seamlessly. The downloaded file could be tainted.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently warned about file conversion sites increasingly being used to spread malware.

This risk yet again emphasizes the need for an antivirus tool that scans every file you want to download. Better off, avoid file conversion sites that aren’t from trusted software companies.

Avoid suspicious websites and emails

Any email from an unknown email address with a PDF attached should raise red flags. It’s a hallmark of malicious actors seeking to spread malware. Such emails are often accompanied by a short text, supposedly informing you that you have received a payment or a freebie.

In this age of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), malicious actors can now generate more convincing emails to persuade people to download tainted attachments, so care is warranted.

Most email platforms are aware of this issue and have built-in tools to scan attachments for viruses. Yet, to be on the safe side, you should completely avoid downloading attachments from an unknown email address.

The same caution applies to websites. Beware of any website advertising downloads, supposedly to fix an issue on your PC.

Avoid downloading apps from unknown and untrusted sources. You should download apps only on the developer’s official website or your operating system’s app store (Microsoft Store for Windows and the Mac App Store for macOS PCs).

Update your apps

All apps installed on your PC should be updated frequently. The developers of these apps often find security bugs and issue quick updates to patch them. Downloading these updates fixes these bugs that malicious actors can potentially abuse to spread malware.

No app has perfect security. There’s always room, no matter how little, for error, so app developers are always on guard to identify and thwart security bugs.

You should play your part by enabling automatic updates to keep your apps secure against malware threats.

Enable Tamper Protection (Windows users)

Some sophisticated malware tools try to change security settings when infecting a PC. Logically, the malware can disguise itself better if it disables the configurations that are meant to detect it.

If you use the Windows (10 or 11) operating system, you can counter this potential threat by enabling Tamper Protection.

This feature prevents any unauthorized apps from adjusting your security settings to escape detection. Follow these steps to enable it:

1. Type Windows Security in your search box and open the Windows Security app.

2. In the menu, select Virus & threat protection, then Virus & threat protection settings > Manage settings.

3. Turn on Tamper Protection.

Minimize file sharing

You should minimize peer-to-peer file sharing over the web, as it’s a common medium for introducing malware into PCs. This caution is more pronounced if you use torrenting clients to download content.

Files downloaded via torrenting clients can contain malware, so it is recommended to minimize your download rate. If you need to use a torrenting client, select only secure and trusted clients, and scan all downloaded files for malware using your antivirus app. It’s also advisable to switch on a VPN app to maximize your privacy when using a torrenting client.

Enable Firewall protection

You should enable Firewall protection on your PC. This Firewall represents a virtual barrier between your PC and the Internet. It filters incoming and outgoing online traffic based on custom rules you can configure, e.g., a rule that blocks any traffic from a suspicious domain you’ve previously encountered.

A Firewall protects against malicious data that can infect your PC. You can enable it on a Windows PC with the following steps:

1. Open the Windows Security app.
2. Select Firewall & network protection on the left sidebar or main menu.

3. Enable Firewall protection for all network types (Domain, Private, and Public).

For macOS PCs, follow these steps:

1. Open the System Settings app on your macOS menu.
2. Click Network in the left sidebar.

3. Click Firewall and enable it.

Watch out for phishing attacks

Phishing is a technique that hackers commonly employ to trick users into downloading malware.

It involves impersonating a trusted person or organization to trick email recipients into clicking on tainted links or downloading malicious files.

For example, hackers can send an email impersonating an e-commerce platformthat the recipient has previously purchased an item from.

The email would claim that the recipient should click on a link to claim a freebie. This link can lead to malware being downloaded on the recipient’s PC.

To avoid falling victim to phishing attacks, always double-check the sending address after opening an email. Hackers use similar-looking but false email addresses to impersonate organizations.

For example, they might use “fresh-service@netflix-support.com” to impersonate Netflix, whose real emails always end with “[name]@netflix.com.” Similarly, they might use “support@appel.com” to misrepresent “support@apple.com.”

You can always Google the real support email address of any platform you’ve previously interacted with, or check your past email correspondence to know the real address and avoid fake ones.

Phishing emails often contain seemingly exciting offers with links and attachments. Therefore, remember the earlier advice to be cautious before clicking on any link or downloading a file.

Emails that convey an urgent request, have grammatical errors, come from a strange domain, or generally sound too good to be true are often phishing attacks.

If something tickles your Spidey-sense, don’t hesitate to act by reporting the email for spam, then deleting it immediately without interacting with any link or attachment.

Backup your data

While the plan is to avoid falling victim to malware, there’s always a risk, even if minute, of it happening. To minimize this risk, you can regularly backup your PC’s data on external cloud platforms or physical hard drives.

This way, if your PC gets compromised, you can restore critical files and continue using your PC like before.

Without backups, a malware compromise could mean all sensitive files getting lost with severe consequences. Backups are even more essential when dealing with corporate PCs that can be targeted by ransomware actors.

If ransomware infects a corporate network, a recent file backup can be restored to save the day. Otherwise, valuable corporate data can get lost and highly disrupt the affected business.

On Windows, you can easily back up PC files to a physical hard drive or an external cloud storage service.

For a physical hard drive, follow these steps:

1. Insert the hard drive into your USB port.
2. Open the Settings app, then click on Update & Security.
3. Click on Files Backup > Add a drive.
4. Select the name of the inserted drive as the backup destination.
5. Choose the files to be backed up and initiate the process.
6. Wait for the backup to complete and safely eject the hard drive

Microsoft offers a cloud storage service called OneDrive, and you can use it to backup your files seamlessly. Follow these steps:

1. Open the OneDrive app and sign in if you haven’t previously done so.
2. Navigate to the Sync & backup tab.
3. Click on Manage backup. Then, a list of your important folders will appear with an “On” and “Off” switch next to each one.
4. Toggle on the button for each folder you want to back up.

5. Click Save Changes. Following this, OneDrive will frequently back up these folders.

Just like on Windows, you can back up files on macOS, either to an external hard drive or an online cloud storage service.

1. Connect the hard drive to your MacBook laptop or iMac desktop.
2. Open the System Settings app.
3. Click General on the left menu, then Time Machine.

4. Click Add Backup Disk, then select your hard drive.

5. Start the backup, and Time Machine will begin backing up your system. Optionally, you can encrypt the backup with a password for extra security. This password will be required when you want to restore the backup later.

Apple, the company behind macOS, offers an iCloud Drive service. You can back up your macOS PC to iCloud Drive with these steps:

1. Open the System Settings app.
2. Go to your Apple ID by clicking on the name at the top of the left menu.

3. Click on iCloud.

4. Click on Drive.

5. Toggle on Sync this Mac. With this option enabled, your MacBook or iMac’s files will be automatically synced to iCloud at regular intervals, and you can restore them from your iCloud account if needed.

Along with Microsoft’s OneDrive and Apple’s iCloud, many other cloud storage backup solutions allow you to back up your PC’s files and retrieve them whenever needed.

Prices vary, but you can easily get 100 GB for around $10 to $20 annually and 1 TB for $50 to $100 per year. You can back up specific files or your whole system if you pay for sufficient cloud storage space.

The backup process differs, depending on the app, but it’s generally straightforward. You’ll grant the trusted backup solution access to your files, and they’ll be uploaded at regular intervals.

If you need to retrieve a backup, you can log in to the relevant website and download it.

The future of malware protection

Malware keeps getting cleverer over time. The recent artificial intelligence (AI) boom has brought positive changes in many industries, but it has also introduced new cyber risks.

Security researchers recently discovered the first-known AI-powered ransomware, which used code generated by AI prompts to sneak into corporate networks and extract sensitive files.

Large language models have made it easier for malicious actors to create code to infect PCs and corporate networks. This change warrants increased measures to protect yourself from malware threats.

On the plus side, AI has also made antivirus software more effective than ever. Antivirus tools apply machine learning to deeply analyze files and detect suspicious characteristics. AI analysis helps these tools detect the most sophisticated malware they haven’t encountered before.

If you have an antivirus software installed, you may have noticed the developer promoting new AI-based features.

AI has moved to the forefront of the cybersecurity software sector, and companies are keen on leveraging it to make their products more effective at countering malware.

The future of malware protection lies in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, so expect more on these fronts over time.