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Protect Your PC Against Computer Viruses
Most businesses have
reasonable levels of virus protection in their computer systems at the
office. Anti-virus software and a firewall are becoming a basic standard
these days and provided these defenses are kept updated they work pretty
well.
This protection may scan emails for viruses and other inappropriate
content, but it has its limitations and can result in legitimate mail
and attachments being rejected or deleted. It also can’t prevent
infection while viewing websites.
No system is foolproof. You just have to accept that there will always
be hazardous websites and emails with attachments containing dangerous
content.
Because few executives can avoid taking work home with them it’s often
there where the trouble with workplace viruses begins.
Protection of your home PC
should be on a par with the office if problems are to be prevented.
This is often how a virus from a home PC gets to the office. Copying
your weekend homework onto a floppy disk to take to work Monday morning
can start the whole process from the inside.
What is a computer virus? It’s simply a program that spreads by
infecting program files or the operating system areas of hard and floppy
disks, and then makes copies of itself. It won’t do any physical damage
but the information losses suffered by a business can be catastrophic.
Viruses are not designed by errant geniuses. They are the products of
people with some computer programming abilities and very twisted minds
who should be boiled in oil then locked up for the rest of their natural
lives. (If you don’t feel that way now, you will if you ever lose
several weeks of work and have to reformat a hard drive and reload all
your programs after a virus infection.)
Sooner or later everyone with a PC connected to the internet is likely
to encounter a virus. Commonly the source of infection is a part of or
is tacked onto a legitimate document or program, and it activates when
the document or program is downloaded and opened.
Viruses can infect a much greater range of files than commonly thought.
It’s not only the “program” files that function as vectors. Virus codes
have to be activated to take effect and this can happen by opening a
spreadsheet or word processing document that contains infected macros.
Once an infected program or other file is opened the virus attempts to
spread itself to other parts of the computer or other computers on a
network.
When you start a program that's infected by a virus, the virus code will
execute (run) and try and infect other programs. This can infect the
same computer or other computers connected to it on a network. The newly
infected programs will try to infect more programs and computers.
Emails are a particular area of concern. Fortunately your PC can't get a
virus when you read a plain-text email message. The danger comes from
encoded messages or attachments that contains embedded executable code.
If you receive an email with an attached file from an unknown source,
delete it or at the very least copy it to a floppy disk and scan it with
up-to-date anti-virus software before opening it. Once you open an
attachment to an email message you can execute a virus code that will
quickly infect your computer.
Check your email settings. If your email or news program has the ability
to automatically execute JavaScript, Word macros, or other executable
code contained in or attached to a message, you should disable this
feature. (Users of Outlook Express should be especially careful.)
Here are some tips to help you avoid computer virus infections on your
PC at home:
Install anti-virus software from a well-known company (Symantec and
McAfee are worth considering) and update it regularly. Some antivirus
programs scan all incoming emails which saves you the trouble of copying
and checking them as a separate activity.
Install a Firewall. This is a barrier between your computer and the
Internet and it adds to the level of protection against virus attacks.
Update your browser and email software. Major software developers like
Microsoft regularly publish security updates for their products, but you
have to download and install the security patches for them to work.
Scan any new programs or other files that may contain executable code
before you run or open them. This applies even if you think you know
where they come from. Be doubly careful about opening Word or Excel
documents from unknown sources.
Finally, always back up your entire system on a regular basis. If this
isn't practical you should at least backup files that you can't afford
to lose.
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