Which Comes First Speed or Security | Productivity Tip 43

For anyone who seeks to build a useful, helpful, profitable online business or successful website, two arguably equally important concerns can often fight each other.

Worse, if the wrong one ends up winning, we could have more problems than we could ever have envisaged. Keep reading to learn more about a great new solution.

This article explores:

• How to keep secure online, verses ...
• How to speed up what we do, so that we can accomplish what we want to achieve in the time we have available.

For example, if you're ever tempted to respond to software advertisements for products that suggest you can dramatically reduce the start-up time of your PC, be careful: can you be sure that every testimonial is genuine? Certainly, do your own research online.

My approach is to choose a powerful, provider mix of antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, anti-phishing solutions. One remarkable recent discover includes Avira. During install, when asked what security setting you want to apply, choose the highest setting available. With maximum security settings, you may get some "false positives" and your PC processing speed may slow down a little, but that is surely better than missing detection of the latest threats online.

Although fast start-up of a PC is nice to have, if that means crucial security checks are missed, then I suggest the approach is almost guaranteeing sooner rather than later, that your PC and Internet activities are almost certainly set to give you some nasty surprises, at best. Worst outcome: your business fails.

For Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners Especially: 10 Tips to Help Ensure a Trouble-Free Online Experience

Consider the guidelines below:

• Put computer security before speed - every time!
• Avoid going to "bad neighborhoods" on the web. Why: you're increasing the risk of possible problems and depending on which websites you visit, they may be out to get you in ways that are highly deceptive. 
  
• No-one will care as much as you do about your own online security: accept that you are the driver of your online condition.
• Understand that your website host is like a partner. First and foremost, use a web host that you can trust and whom continuously explores ways to stay ahead and keep getting better; one who actively monitors what is happening on your web hosting. A good web host can watch your back, while you focus on your web business. If your site uses the wonderful Joomla web content management system, check out Rochen Hosting. If you receive any warning messages from your web host, act fast and follow instructions.
  
• Consider trying out the steps above. Download the latest version of Avira AntiVir Personal - free for personal use, or download an evaluation version. Set the security detection settings to maximum. Then compare your current favorite antivirus solution against Avira AntiVir Personal.
• If you discover that Avira AntiVir Personal detects objects or threats installed on your PC that may be suspect, that none of your other antivirus programs have detected to-date, then you know that Avira AntiVir Personal is doing some good work on your behalf. Also, even though your existing protection software may not have detected what Avira AntiVir may have discovered, that may be as a result of your existing protection software not being configured to its highest settings.
• Understand that free software from sources that cannot easily be verified by independent third parties may be safe to use - or not. Likewise, the same risks apply to any bought software. Whether software is free or paid is not an assurance of trustworthiness. Whether that software is safe to use is the question we need to answer. Well known brand names are trusted more than unknowns. Reputable, independent third-party software applications like Avira AntiVir can help keep you safe online both for business and non-commercial users.
• For business users, if you decide to use Avira AntiVir, you should upgrade to one of the Premium versions. At the time of writing, a license to cover one PC using Avira AntiVir Premium costs only 19.95 Euros - surely a small price to pay for such effective security improvement. With arguably matching brilliance, 5 Euros from your payment is automatically donated to the Auerbach Foundation, supporting a range of offline "real world" protection- and security-based "charitable and social projects, as well as art, culture and science, to alleviate financial, spiritual, mental and physical hardship in the world". You can get secure online and help make our world just a little better - all in the same transaction!
• Even if some of the suspect items that Avira AntiVir discovers are innocent, arguably, I ask the question: would any responsible software developer create software that has questionable security holes? Here's what I would do: as a minimum, choose to quarantine every suspect item immediately. Why: should any software be that lax today?
• Re-evaluate your security software "mix" regularly -  at least once every 6 months.

Stay safe online.

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