Abacus Computer Services Customer Support -- Tech Note #1
Technical Note:
Protect Yourself from New Viruses!
Last updated: Saturday January 07, 2006.
SUMMARY
Back in 2001 we used to advise clients to protect themselves from computer viruses with such tips as 'Delete email messages with attachments when the Subject section of the email begins Fw: Fw:, or when there is no personalization found in the Message section of the email.' Today, this sort of advice no longer offers sufficient protection! Today you can get a computer virus by simply viewing an infected webpage while surfing the Internet.
Anti-virus software is a MUST for today's computer users. The anti-virus program must be running in the background all the time, and users must perform virus-definition updates at least WEEKLY. You may not know when your computer has been invaded by a virus. But with current, updated anti-virus software running in the background, when the trigger event occurs to activate the virus, your anti-virus program should notify you that it's found an infected file. Background protection examines files as you use them, but you should also run a Scheduled Scan at least weekly. If a virus infects an operating system file, it may not be detected by the background anti-virus program examination, but a Scheduled Scan checks all files on the computer and should detect this type of virus.
PROCEDURE
In order for automatic updates to occur, you need to surf the Web or get your email at least once a week, and leave the computer connected long enough for the virus definitions to be updated.
If your anti-virus program does not do automated updates, then you will need to perform a virus definition update manually.
America Online users may have to open a website (connect to the actual Internet) after connecting to AOL, in order for the anti-virus software to find its updates.
To insure that the virus definitions are being updated, users should regularly open the anti-virus program and make sure that the date of the virus definitions is not more than one week old.
If you don't buy a retail package, but instead download your anti-virus program, make sure that you copy the downloaded file onto CD in case you have to reinstall the software after a hard drive failure.
