| An
acquaintance consulted me on some problems he was having with his computer
and from the description, it sounded like a virus had invaded his system.
He swore up and down that this wasn’t possible because he only received
email from people he knew and never used his computer for anything else.
When I asked him what type of anti-virus software was installed, and if
the DAT files were current, he explained that seeing as how there was nothing
of any importance on his computer, he didn’t “see” the need for anti-virus
software. What he also failed to “see” was that he was endangering
the computers of every person he ever contacted through email. And
while his system may indeed have contained nothing of any significance
on its hard-drive, the computers of many with whom he corresponded, did.
And some of those recipients had their computers severely damaged through
this one person’s careless attitude.
The nature of the Internet
today is such that you cannot trust the source of anything - be it a file,
or an email message, or a web site - to be completely safe. And you
also can’t protect your computer, with 100% certainty, from these dangers.
But you definitely can, and should, put up as many barriers as possible.
With the proliferation of software at affordable prices for everything
from virus detectors to firewalls, there is no excuse for not at least
attempting to prevent the spread of malicious code.
There are numerous other
steps you can take to help minimize the possibility of becoming infected
with a virus or trojan. Unhide your file extensions so that you know
when you receive an attachment with a double extension. Or better
yet, never open an attachment. But if you absolutely must open one,
then first save it to a special folder - one you have created specifically
for this task - and scan that folder before opening the document.
Make sure that you update your virus definition files at the very least,
once a week. There are many new viruses being created daily and without
those updates, your anti-virus software is useless. It does no good
to install the software and then never update it. When visiting a
web site, make sure you read - REALLY read - and understand, any dialogue
boxes that appear. Be sure that you know what, if anything, is being
installed on your computer when you click “Yes” or “Accept”. If you’re
not sure, don’t do it. Ask someone with more experience whether or
not he or she thinks that whatever you’re about to do is a safe practice
And don’t, under any circumstances,
forward or act upon any messages that advise dire, “worst-computer-virus-ever”
warnings you receive through email from a friend. Invariably these
fake warnings cite some file that has to be removed from your computer
and that the warning has come from Microsoft or some other recognized and
trusted source. These are hoaxes and usually result in the user removing
a vital operating system file and then wondering why their computers won’t
boot up. Ask youself how your friend or co-worker would have access to
information of which the rest of the world is not aware. Always check
these kinds of messages through any one of the hoax information sites or
the anti-virus software vendor sites.
Rather than wait until you
have a serious problem to correct, please take the time now to at least
add the following anti-virus software and security information sites to
your Favourites or Bookmarks. It will save you a whole lot of trouble down
the road should ever find yourself in the untenable position of needing
their advice and solutions. |
