Patches and virus updates take time as well. Even if you are diligent about keeping up with these changes you may still be vulnerable for hours or even days before the vendor releases a patch or your antivirus software vendor puts out the update to detect the new threat. Obviously, you are vulnerable to this even while using the computer, but the point is that you gain nothing by leaving the computer running and connected to the Internet waiting to be victimized longer than necessary.
The final word of advice for this lesson is that you should not run programs you don?t know about.

This is primarily related to email attachments, but can apply just about anywhere. It is mind-boggling how many people will receive an email claiming to be from Microsoft support with a pornographic message body written in broken English and still execute the attached file- as if Microsoft would send you an unsolicited joke or picture.

For the record, even when Microsoft support does send an alert or communication they never include file attachments. They only include links back to the Microsoft web site where you can download the file at your leisure. Not only would sending an executable file attachment cause problems in and of itself, but it would be very taxing on the Internet servers and routers if Microsoft sent an actual file attachment to all registered customers every time their was a new patch or vulnerability. The same is true for most other operating system and application vendors for the same reasons.

If you have even the slightest apprehension or suspicion about a file- don?t open it.

Its not worth infecting your system or unknowingly installing a Trojan on your system just to satisfy your curiosity to see if the attached joke really IS the funniest thing ever.

If you receive an email attachment or find some mysterious file on your computer and you just have a burning desire to open it and find out what it really is or does you should at the very least scan it for viruses. Make sure you are running the most current update of your antivirus software first and scan the file before executing it. You may also want to shut down your Internet connection first to prevent any virus or worm from propagating in the event that you do in fact become infected.

That does it for Lesson 8. To recap, the preventive and proactive steps that you can take to protect yourself and others are:

Keep up with vulnerabilities on your operating system and applications and apply patches as they become available.

Turn off your computer or disconnect from the Internet when you will not be using it for an extended amount of time- like overnight.

Do not execute any file that you don?t recognize or have any suspicion or apprehension about what it might do. If you must open the file, scan it for viruses first.