Beginner's guide to antivirus protection

Unlike Dr. Evil in the film "Austin Powers," I use my technical prowess for good, not evil, despite my matching desire for "one million dollars." Unfortunately, there are people in the world who do not share this mantra and use their programming skills to create software that can destroy data on your computer or even take control of your machine, using it as a "zombie drone" to disrupt communication on other computers.

It is estimated that 100 million of the 600 million computers on the Internet are under remote control from hackers. The only way that you know you are infected is through a barrage of pop-up windows, or when your system slows to a crawl or frequently reboots. These programs are called "malware," which is a portmanteau of the words "malicious" and "software." Oh, "portmanteau" means a word that is created by blending two or more words together, but you probably figured that out.

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