Softwords Blog

It's just a virus

The world seems to have been placed on a heightened alert with the events of September 11, 2001. The word ‘Security’ is now one of the most common words heard and seen on Radio, Television and the Internet. With this in mind, the precautions needed to protect your PC from computer viruses have become a prominent topic. The total cycle of a new virus coming on scene, a virus warning and protecting your computer from a malicious virus has become the norm. However, for those who still have not seen the importance of securing your own PC, the following information may just save you from a potential headache!

Computer viruses can be transferred to an unsuspecting PC through an assortment of formats. Avenues such as e-mail, infected software, diskettes, infected CD-R/RW, computer documents and even Internet web browsing can transport a computer virus to your PC without you even knowing. Sluggish and slow software or operating systems can often be attributed to a computer virus lurking through a computer workstation, unknowing to the person using the PC. New computer viruses are showing up on a weekly, now even a daily basis and they can cause many issues with a PC, to numerous to mention.

If you have anti-virus software remember that an Antivirus program is only as good as its last update. To get complete protection, you must regularly update the virus definition files and the scanning engine. Prevention is always better then hours of frustration and lost data. Some of the main ways to ensure your PC is protected from malicious computer viruses are as follows.

•Refrain from opening e-mail and e-mail attachments from individuals you do not know.

•Do not execute .EXE files directly from your e-mail.

•Look at purchasing an Antivirus software package and have it updated on at least a weekly basis.

•Have diskettes, CD’s scanned by virus-scanning software before inserted on your PC.

•Secure your Internet Web browsing.

•Make sure you have a regular backup, in case you need to restore data.

Due to the nature of computer viruses, in terms of protecting your PC, nothing can be guaranteed. The individuals who create viruses are people with lots of time on their hands that look for loopholes, in existing operating systems, software, hardware and the internet that can be exploited to cause grief on the unsuspecting target. The information provided above will, hopefully aid in protecting your PC from unwanted computer viruses that can harm hardware, software and productivity. The bottom line is that if you have a virus, you are no longer in control of your PC. If viruses destroy nothing else, they destroy your confidence in your PC, which is something that is quite valuable.

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Note: All issues from the year 2000 are provided in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). To view these files, you need to have Adobe Acrobat® Reader installed on your computer. You can download this free software from the Adobe Web site.