STOP HACKERS USING YOUR PC

Despite all your best efforts, the time may come when you fall victim to a particularly well-disguised piece of malware. Many of the more dangerous examples of malware will try to connect to the internet so that the hacker responsible for it can monitor or operate your PC without your knowledge. To receive notifications whenever a program, malware or anything else on your PC tries to access the internet, install Sphinx Software’s Windows 10 Firewall Control ( www.snipca.com/22524, click the Download button under Free, to the right of ‘Desktop/setup 32/64-bit’).

Windows 10 Firewall Control looks complicated, but it’s easy to get to grips with. Once it’s installed, open it and you’ll see a series of Edit Application notification screens (see screenshot). At the top left you’ll see the name of the software trying to access the internet (most of these will be browsers and familiar programs).

To let a program access the internet click the Enable-all button in the Quick Apply section. That program will now be able to access the internet without notifying you first. For any software you don’t recognise, enter its name into Google search, and look for sites like ‘Should I Remove It?’ and ‘Should I Block It?’ in the results to see what actions others have taken. While most of these programs will be Windows-related or program-specific processes, you may just identify a known virus and save yourself from a lot of pain.