Myth # 1: viruses exist only under Windows
The Windows operating system for a long time belonged to almost the entire computer market, which strongly attracted virus writers: obviously, it was more profitable for them to create malware for the most popular OS, thus increasing their chances of success. But since then much has changed: the once little-known among ordinary users, the Mac OS operating system, created by Apple, is now the second most popular in the world and, alas, is of great interest to Internet cyber criminals. The same with i OS: taking into account the phenomenal success of the iPhone and iPad, hackers and malicious authors can not afford to bypass this mobile OS side and every now and then invent something new . What can we say about the Android platform: smartphones and tablets on its base are already threatened by hundreds of thousands of malicious programs , and this number is growing every day.In fact: today malicious software is distributed under any popular platform: Windows, OS X, iOS, Android and other OS. Somewhere more, somewhere less, but none of the operating systems can not be called fully resistant to Internet threats.
Myth # 2: slow computer operation means that the system has a virus
Despite some absurd claims, this myth is very common among many users. Of course, this misconception has quite reasonable grounds: some types of malware really contribute to a significant decrease in system performance, as they take away some of the resources from it. But most often in the slow computer work, it's not the virus that is to blame but a lot of programs and processes running in the background and "clogging" the system. Numerous shortcuts, files and folders on the desktop, dozens of tabs in the browser, running but unused utilities, incorrectly working programs - all this can significantly slow down the PC and needs cleaning . The same applies to smartphones: disabling unnecessary services and functions, as well as periodic ordering among installed applications, usually solve all problems with the dropped performance.In fact: the virus, of course, can be the reason for the slow operation of the device, but most of the "brakes" appear due to clutter and improper system settings.
Myth # 3: slow computer operation means that the system has an antivirus
Protective software is a complex, sometimes time consuming task. Nevertheless, modern security products work in such a way that they practically do not affect the performance of the system. The exception is only two cases: when the protection is either not properly configured, or is in the active scan mode of the entire computer. In the first case, the problem is solved by reconfiguring , and in the second case - by patience :) However, if you do not like it, it's enough to just turn on the computer scan function during idle time, thus preventing protection from scanning the entire system while the user is running on the system.In fact: the problem of a significant load on the system, as a rule, is solved by a more fine-tuning of the protection.
Myth # 4: to protect yourself from viruses, it's enough to download a couple of free programs from the Internet
Free protection software is a good help in getting rid of malware, but unfortunately it does not provide full protection of the system from all Internet threats, unlike paid products. In addition, it is worth noting that any software manufacturer wants to earn money somehow: and if in the case of paid protection commodity-money relations occur in an understandable and fair way, then in the case of free products, these relations can be much less transparent and enjoyable . In other words, if you do not pay for a product or service, then you are not a customer, but a commodity .Myth # 5: Antivirus companies themselves write viruses
This is perhaps the most amusing myth of all. There is an opinion that it appeared due to the fact that some anti-virus companies write special programs designed for testing security software. In reality, everything is much more commonplace: between intruders wishing to earn with the help of malicious programs and developers of antivirus's there is a natural incessant confrontation. The above is confirmed by hundreds of thousands of malware samples created by cyber criminals around the world and processed daily by antivirus analysts.In fact: for antivirus companies it's simply stupid to deal with such a risky business as writing viruses: first, the reputation is more expensive, and secondly, those who want to write a virus already have enough.