Nowadays, having a computer without Anti-Virus is completely crazy, even if you do not go on the Internet. There are billions of viruses and millions are released every day. you hear about news and think it does not happen very often, but it happens every second of every day.
Viruses are not the only problem; there are bigger problems, Malware and Botnets. Malware is software that installs on your computer, with your knowledge and can do a number of things, but especially notes what you do. Some may be completely harmless, but some forms of malware may take down usernames and passwords and send them back to their manufacturers so they can do what they want. Imagine what they could do with all your banking information, do not frighten it and trust me, they are there.
Botnets are another problem roaming the internet right now. Again, Botnets is another program that installs on your computer knowingly, usually from a suspicious web site that you accessed by accident and where it is overloaded. What botnets do once on your computer, they sit around waiting for a certain day / time or a botnet master’s order and then do what they want, they now have total control of your computer. They can send e-mails to millions of people in silence, on behalf of your email account, without your knowledge. Make you a spammer. They can join forces with other infected computers and work as a team to eliminate Web servers, corporate systems, and anything the master zombie network demands from them. Scary is the word.
The good news is that most antivirus will fight these viruses, but you have to keep them up to date and I recommend you do it every day. The software will do it automatically for you if you are asked. Having anti-virus software installed but not updated is as useful as not having it installed.
Suppose now that you have a computer that is not on the Internet (it’s very rare nowadays) and you have to move some files there. You can do this in two different ways: copy them to a portable device (portable hard disk, DVD, CD, USB stick) and transfer them that way or use a cable in between. The problem with these two methods is that you have just opened the virus. They can be on your mobile device or on the computer to which you are connecting and as soon as they see a network connection connect, they jump on it. All the time. Large viruses are forced to look for active network connections so that they can infect (spread) as many people as possible.