In the 21st century, personal computing is with us wherever we go. This is all thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. These devices allow us to take work home with us. And, with bring your own device (BYOD) strategy, businesses have never been so productive.

So your computer just crashed. Our condolences. When your PC displays a blue screen and spontaneously restarts your computer, this is called the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). These errors are usually caused by internal failures in your hardware or, sometimes, your software.

As companies go to the Internet to conduct their business, their IT security becomes more vulnerable to many hackers and viruses. That’s why it’s even more important to recognize whether or not your systems are under threat from malicious software to swiftly fend off the infection.

The smartphone. It may seem like the last safe haven from online security threats. As it rests snugly in your pocket, you may never even think a virus, trojan or other malware could ever touch it. And even if it did, how much damage could it really cause? Well, for Android users, we’ve got some bad news.

If you wanted a classic example of how malware evolves, the new scareware discovered on Mac in the past few weeks is a perfect example. The way it attempts to fool users is unlike almost any of its predecessors. In other words, it’s very convincing.

Think you’ve got enough security measures in place within your company? How do you know what the next malware release will bring? Do you trust your employees implicitly? Of course you do - you hired them and they’re a good bunch of people! But even the nicest guy may inadvertently visit a website that’s been infested with viruses or fall victim to a cunning phishing scam.

The threat of being infected by malicious software is part and parcel of spending time on the internet, and no sooner have the antivirus and security software programs released an update or new patch than cyber criminals are scrambling for ways to circumvent them.