How to Know When it's Safe to Download Something

You open up your computer to viruses and make your personal information vulnerable to phishers and hackers when you download unsafe files to your hard drive. Take a few precautions to make sure a download is safe to avoid these risks.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Anti-virus software

1. Choose save to disk when downloading a file. Most computers give you the option to either download and open a program or download and save it to your computer. Always choose save to disk when downloading because your virus software scans the download for viruses.
2. Update your virus scan software. New viruses pop up regularly. Updated virus software will catch these viruses before they are downloaded to your computer while out-of-date software will not recognize new viruses.
3. Conduct a search. If you are wondering about the safety of a certain program, search for it on the Internet. Read user reviews to find out if anyone else who has downloaded the program has had any safety issues with it. If they have, do not download it.
4. Look at the file extensions. These are the three letters that follow the name of the program. Common dangerous extensions include .exe, .scr, .com and .vbs. These file extensions are an indicator of unsafe downloads.

Tips & Warnings

• Install a personal firewall. No firewall is fail-proof, but they do give you added computer protection from viruses and hackers.
• Never download programs with long file extensions. Safe downloads generally have one file extension such as .mp3. A long extension such as .mp3.gif.exe is an indicator that the program is unsafe.
• Never open email attachments from someone you don't know. Delete them immediately. If you receive an attachment from someone you know, scan and save to your computer before opening it, just to be safe.

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