Are you the unofficial IT support person for your friends and family? If you know a thing or two about computers, mobile phones and other smart devices, you’ve probably had to get friends and family out of tech trouble on occasion.
Maybe you’ve done some troubleshooting with the family printer – or perhaps you were asked to clean up your friend’s PC that got hit with a virus (he wasn’t doing anything wrong, he swears!).
Well, we’re offering three simple things you can do to help those you care about with the often baffling problems of online security.
1. Check desktops and laptops for viruses and malware.
If your family and friends are coming to you with computer problems – maybe they are getting lots of spam, their computer is super slow, or they are seeing annoying pop-ups – chances are high that they have a malware infection.
You can check Windows computers for malware and viruses and clean up any infection you might find using our Free Virus Removal Tool. Just download the tool, run it, and remove malware with the click of a button. Simple!
2. Use Sophos’s free firewall to protect your family and yourself.
If you live in a shared house, try the Sophos UTM Home Edition. It’s a free firewall offering the same benefits as our award-winning product for businesses – email scanning, web filtering, a VPN, web application security, and everything you need to keep up to 50 devices on your home network secure.
Better yet, you get 12 free licenses for Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows that you can install and manage throughout your household, right from the UTM web console.
You can cover more than just Windows computers – our other free tools include Sophos Antivirus for Mac, Sophos Antivirus for Linux, and Sophos Free Antivirus and Security for Android.
3. Give them this easy guide to computer and data security.
It’s hard to explain security without using a bunch of technical jargon. Have you ever tried to explain phishing to your grandmother? We’ve got just the thing to help you – a computer and data security guide that provides simple definitions to everything from Android malware to Zbot. Download the free Threatsaurus security guide to get definitions of tons of computer security terms, loads of security tips, and more.
Do this for yourself – watch a funny video!
Finally, after you’ve given your parents, spouse, friends – anyone! – the gift of security, here’s something just for you. It’ll make you smile and probably want to call your mom.
Enter our Mother’s Day contest
In celebration of Mother’s Day in the US, we’re giving away goody bags to three lucky “IT Moms.” If you’re a mom yourself, enter our prize drawing before May 11th. From all of us at Sophos – thanks for all you do, moms!
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