Many of us who are using personal computers are at the risk of getting compromised by a hacker sooner or later. That’s no surprise with the number of kids learning how to hack these days. If you are already hit by a spyware or hacker attack, don’t worry there are ways of getting rid of malware planted by hackers.

Get an Antivirus

The first and foremost thing that you have to do is get an antivirus or antispyware to keep your computer protected from unauthorized access.

Keep your Firewall ON

Check whether your computer’s firewall is in ON state. You can go to “Control Panel” via the “Start” button found in bottom left of your computer screen. After you are there in Control Panel, go for “Windows Firewall” option. Go to the “Windows Firewall Setting” and select the “On” option on the “General” tab.

Get a full-computer Scan done

If you have an antivirus/antispyware program already installed on your computer, you can use it to run a full system scan. Once the scan is over you should remove any flagged files that are detected. Some of you may not be having an antivirus or anti hacker software yet on your computer. If so, see that you order or download one at the earliest. Some of the top antivirus/antispyware programs available include the ones like Kaspersky, McAfee and Norton. If you don’t want to spend any money on antivirus and computer security programs, you can go for free software of AVG or Avast antivirus.

Toughen your Passwords

Your passwords should be very strong and tough to detect. If you use any weak passwords, see that you replace all of them with new passwords. The new ones should be more than eight characters; use a combination of both uppercase letters and lowercase letters with some numbers as well. Even if you go for a tough password, you can’t assume that it is always secure. So people who are more vulnerable to password hacker attacks should make sure they change the password every month or even more.

Toughen your Security Question Too

Apart from going for tough passwords, you should also choose a security question that will be tough to guess. Some people make the mistake of choosing answers to security questions that can be easily looked up. For example, if your security question is about the name of your mom or school, people are easily going to find that out by simply browsing the web. So see that you go for a hint that is totally unconnected to the real password — something only you can comprehend.

If all these tips do not help you in getting rid of a computer hacker, there is one more option available. You can just reinstall the OS and thereby bring back everything to the initial settings.