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Avoid Catching a Virus from a Website

Office of Information and Learning Technologies

How to avoid a virus

Is it possible to catch a computer virus by visiting a website? Yes, because of flaws in operating systems and browsers and because of unscrupulous or malicious people who take advantage of such flaws, it is possible to catch a computer virus simply by visiting a website.

How does one avoid catching a virus by visiting a website?

  • Install a quality anti-virus program such as Sophos (licensed by OU and available here). Configure the anti-virus software to automatically download updates.
  • Configure Windows 7, 8, or 10 to automatically install updates, or manually check for Microsoft Updates regularly and often. This step is critical in order to fix operating system and browser flaws as they are discovered.
  • Install a quality spyware/malware detection program such as the free version of MalwareBytes and make sure to allow it to download updates before performing the first scan of the computer.
  • Do not click "yes" or "OK" to allow installation of software or Active-X Controls when visiting a website unless it is to install a well-known and trustworthy applications such as Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, or RealPlayer.
  • Never, in response to a pop-up dialog box, agree to install software unrelated to the website being visited.
  • Do not click "yes" or "scan" a pop-up dialog box to allow a virus scan or spyware scan. Be aware of which anti-virus/anti-spyware programs are installed on the computer; genuine pop-up alerts by Sophos, McAfee VirusScan, and Microsoft Windows Defender will quite prominently display the program name. If a pop-up warns of a virus and the pop-up doesn't display the name of the software installed on the computer, the pop-up is not legitimate and should be closed by clicking the "X" in the upper-right corner.
  • If a dialog box refuses to go away when clicking the "X", close the browser--using ctrl-alt-del to bring up the Task Manager, if necessary--and re-boot the computer. A virus scan and spyware-scan after re-boot is advisable.