How to Work Safely From Home

Do you work online or actively use your computers and other devices and need quality protection? Many of us use VPNs to protect online activities and ensure greater privacy. However, it is essential not to overlook the role of antivirus software. VPNs and antivirus solutions complement each other, creating comprehensive protection for our devices. Let’s explore the differences between VPN and antivirus software and discover what makes Surfshark Antivirus unique.

Is Antivirus Necessary When You Already Use a VPN?

While a VPN offers a high level of security when working remotely, it is still crucial to have a quality antivirus installed. You might wonder why that is. To better understand the roles of VPNs and antivirus software on our computers, laptops, or other devices, let’s first explain these terms and their main functions.

What Is a VPN, and How Does It Protect Our Computers?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is essential for enhancing the security of all our online activities. It works by encrypting our data and routing it through a secure server, making it harder for hackers or other individuals to monitor our internet activities. For example, a VPN hides our real location, encrypts our IP address, and protects our privacy.

However, VPNs do not protect against viruses and other cyber threats that may be downloaded from risky email attachments or illegal software. While a VPN offers limited protection against some malware, it cannot provide comprehensive protection. This is why having a quality antivirus in addition to a VPN is essential.

What Is Antivirus and Why Is It Important for Us?

Antivirus software protects our devices from malware and other viruses, which a VPN cannot do. It continuously updates its protection to detect suspicious files and eliminate threats. Since hackers are inventive and constantly develop new types of malware, antivirus and its updates are crucial for recognizing and promptly eliminating new viruses.

Antivirus applications can detect and remove not only malware but also other viruses, such as trojans or worms. Basic antivirus programs primarily protect our devices against cyber threats. However, they cannot secure our online privacy or provide protection against phishing and other cyberattacks. They cannot stop ISPs that collect and sell our online activity data, nor do they protect data intercepted over unsecured Wi-Fi. For this reason, it is essential to secure our computers and other devices on both “sides” and have both a VPN and a truly quality antivirus.

How to Protect Yourself From Phishing

Phishing is a type of online scam where cybercriminals send fake messages to steal our personal data, financial information, account details, and more. Their tactics are highly deceptive as they pretend to be a trustworthy source. They contact us via emails, phone calls, SMS, or create fake websites that often look almost identical to legitimate ones. This makes it easy for us to log in to these sites, allowing hackers to download our information and use it for their own benefit. This is also why it’s important to create unique passwords for different accounts, something I’ve discussed in another article, which I recommend you read.

Phishing is extremely dangerous because hackers can steal our money, identity, and gain access to critical accounts. Through phishing, malware can also infiltrate our devices, causing damage, slowing performance, and more.

Different Forms of Phishing

While you might think you know what phishing is, how dangerous it can be, and that you can recognize it, the creativity of hackers is constantly improving, leading to new forms of phishing that we may not recognize.

Email phishing, where our computer is targeted via fake emails, is fairly well-known. These emails often appear to come from trusted sources—for instance, from our bank or a postal service asking us to check the status of a package. Some are easily identified due to awkward language and nonsensical sentences. Others are so sophisticated that we might click on a link without any suspicion, leading to serious problems. However, Surfshark Antivirus can identify such emails and warn us in time.

Another type is spear phishing, which works through financial extortion. Pharming phishing involves fraudulent messages that also appear trustworthy and may request sensitive personal or security information related to various accounts. Fake websites, designed to look legitimate, are another method. They redirect us to malicious pages where hackers can collect personal data or install harmful viruses on our devices.

We can prevent most of these threats by installing a quality antivirus and regularly updating it. Failure to do so means the antivirus won’t be able to detect the latest viruses, putting our devices and private information at risk.

How Quality Antivirus Protects Our Computers

Having a quality antivirus ensures protection against most such attacks. Antivirus software monitors DNS requests, detects malicious redirects, and blocks access to fake websites. It also analyzes websites in real-time, blocks suspicious links, and flags phishing websites. Simply put, it warns us in advance not to enter such sites. It also scans our emails, SMS messages, and calls, alerting us to potential dangers.

This time, I focused on Surfshark Antivirus and explored how it protects my devices and how it works. Let’s review its features so you can understand why this antivirus is among the best options available:

• Detects cyberattacks in real-time, even while we are working on our computers or other devices, ensuring timely protection.
• Protects not only our online activities but also guards against webcam hacking.
• Prevents online tracking by advertisers and bots.
• Detects phishing scams in advance.
• Has intercepted over 6 million phishing attacks in recent years.
• Ideal for private use as well as for companies, such as for groups of employees working with sensitive data or accessing corporate applications and servers.

Remote work, home offices for our employers, and personal projects can all pose threats to our computers and beyond. We risk losing important private and personal data, which hackers can then exploit against us. When working online from home and logging into various employer applications or websites, we risk compromising not just ourselves but also the sensitive data of the entire company.

What Surfshark Antivirus Protects Us From

An antivirus provides protection against the most common cyberattacks, such as malware and ransomware. These are malicious programs that damage your computer or attempt to steal sensitive information. Ransomware encrypts data and demands a ransom for its recovery. Employees working from home can face such threats via email attachments, malicious websites, or infected file downloads.

Phishing has already been explained above, so here’s a brief summary: it is a scam where hackers attempt to obtain personal information, such as usernames and passwords, by pretending to be a legitimate and secure entity, mostly through emails. While working from home, you may receive emails that appear to be from colleagues, managers, or trusted organizations.

We also need to watch out for unsecured Wi-Fi networks. While it’s nice to work from a café or pass the time at the airport by working, without quality antivirus protection, you put yourself, your devices, and often your employer at risk. Antivirus software ensures that your work on such networks isn’t intercepted or hacked, preventing hackers from capturing sensitive information and accessing transmitted data.

Outdated software can also be a problem, as hackers exploit it to gain unauthorized access to systems or our data. Again, it’s essential to perform regular updates while working from home to protect against such attacks.

Antivirus software also provides robust protection against spyware. It monitors suspicious behavior and prevents threats from infiltrating or stealing data. It detects and blocks suspicious activities, such as zero-day attacks. Furthermore, it prevents you from sharing sensitive or unsecured data with suspicious entities and ensures that you don’t end up on unsecured channels.

One of the most critical roles of antivirus software is the protection of our passwords on computers, mobile devices, and similar platforms. Antivirus software detects and removes keyloggers and other malware designed to steal passwords, blocking attackers from accessing your sensitive information and credentials.

Conclusion

As you can see, protecting our computer can sometimes be quite complicated. There are many cyber threats to watch out for. However, if we choose a truly powerful antivirus, we can have fewer worries. The Surfshark Antivirus I mentioned is, in my opinion, one of those that allow us to work calmly and sleep worry-free. It provides protection against malware, ransomware, spyware, phishing, and many other inventive hacker attacks. You can find more information about this antivirus not only on the company’s website but also in our review, which I recommend checking out.