Virus Protection Updates

Several new serious viruses and worms have been released into the wild during the last two weeks. Some of you reading this article may have been stricken already. The remainder of you may be wondering if you will be next.

More than ever, computer users face dangerous infection. In the good old days, most viruses displayed goofy messages or made political statements. No more. Today’s new viruses are designed to inflict damage indiscriminately.

In this article I will review basic steps you can take to minimize your risk of infection. Here are steps you can follow to protect your valuable computer systems and documents from damage caused by virus infections.

1. Install the latest antivirus software on ALL your PCs. If you currently run Norton antivirus 2000 or another brand of similar vintage, it is out of date. Get the version for 2002 and be sure the features, Automatic Update and Auto-Protect are turned on. If you need copies for several computers, you can save money by purchasing discount packs in increments of 5. Warning! Firewalls do not protect you from viruses. Only anti-virus software can do that.
2. Make sure you have a viable backup system. If you cannot backup your entire computer, make sure you can at least backup all your documents onto a single device such as a zip drive cartridge or writeable CD. By default, Microsoft Word, Excel and other Microsoft Office programs save files into the My Documents folder. Therefore, your backup process may be as simple as copying the contents of My Documents to a disc. A viable backup system requires you to backup your files regularly, which mean daily or weekly. Also, plan on rotating your backups between four separate discs, for example, Week 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then reuse them again starting with disk 1. Practice restoring a few files back onto your hard drive regularly. This step assures you that your backup media is in good condition plus you become proficient at restoring files. If you don’t practice restoring files routinely, then you don’t have a viable backup system.
3. Don’t lapse into a false sense of security just because you may not use Microsoft’s Outlook Express as your mail client. Although many viruses target Microsoft clients due to their popularity, emails and attachments can still infect your computer. One of my clients, who uses Netscape Communicator, suffered an infection from a so-called Outlook Express targeted virus.
4. If you do use Microsoft’s Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook, find the option that displays the Preview Window and switch it off. Some viruses can infect your computer by simply being displayed in this preview window. Look for the View selection on your menu bar near the top of your Outlook window and navigate around the options until you find this option.
5. Do you like passing around joke emails? Your risk of infection is greatly increased if you do. I recommend to all my clients to delete any email that has FW: or Forward in the beginning of the Subject line of the email. The only exception would be for an email you are expecting. The more instances of FW on a subject line, the greater the risk of infection. If you can’t resist opening these emails, the joke may be on you the next time.
6. Prepare a disaster recovery plan. Locate the recovery CD-ROM set that came with your computer. Most popular name brands today ship with this important tool. It will help restore your computer to original factory settings for the operating system and applications. This chore takes about one hour. You can then copy your valuable documents back onto the hard drive. For those of you interested in learning more about the different types of viruses and how they spread, I plan to cover that subject in a future article.

Herb Kolodny
Computer-Doc
herb.kolodny@computerdocs.biz
203-530-7986

Herb Kolodny, founder of Computer-Doc, provides PC, Server and network solutions for his clients. He has nearly 20 years experience delivering computer solutions to large and small businesses. Herb is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). Copyright May, 2002. All rights reserved.