In the previous edition of Around Town SBJ, I included a piece entitled Playing Russian Roulette With Your Company Data.  In that article I discussed the importance of having off site backups of your company’s computer data.  If you missed this article, get a copy of the magazine and read it!  Your Company’s future will depend on the backup procedure that you have in place.  Eventually the day will come when you must rely on recovering your company operations based off the information, hopefully, stored on some type of backup media.

     In that article, I listed the biggest threat as that of Hardware failure… because you are guaranteed to experience this one day.  There is nothing you can do or buy that is going to help.  Simply put, there is no way to avoid it.   Even if you proactively replace hardware components on your systems, there is no guarantee that those new items won’t fail right out of the box. 

     In this article I would like to discuss the second biggest threat that you are guaranteed to encounter, Viruses.  Fortunately, unlike hardware failure, this one is preventable if you take the right steps.

     We are all familiar with computer viruses.  There isn’t a single computer user out there who hasn’t come across one in some form or fashion and experienced the devastating effects that it can have.  Perhaps you even have one on your computer this very second and aren’t even aware of it.  You may reply to that last statement by thinking you don’t have to worry about that because you have an antivirus program running and that’s protecting you… right? Not necessarily.  Before I go any further let’s look at what they are.

Computer Viruses, at the most basic level is software code designed to replicate itself by infecting other files with the ultimate goal of spreading to other computers.  All of this is done autonomously and without your knowledge.  They can spread by means of email, through networks or on removable drives or other media.  Viruses should not be confused with Computer Worms, Trojans or Malware.  While these are all in the same category and preventable by the same means, it’s important to recognize the differences and use the terminology appropriately. 

Computer Worms are the next closest relative to the Computer Virus.  Worms are designed to self replicate and spread to as many computers as possible.  The difference is that these are a programs themselves and therefore don’t need to rely on attaching to existing files in order to be activated.

Trojan Horses are different in that they don’t propagate and don’t spread to other files.  Instead it’s a program that installs malicious software which in turn creates backdoors to allow unauthorized remote access to the victim’s computer or grant access to files or information… such as financial info.

Malware is used to describe a wide variety of hostile, intrusive and annoying software that typically result in pop up windows or redirected web site request.  These types of programs do not spread but share some similarities with a computer virus in that they are difficult to remove.  They are typically acquired while installing free software or games, usually distributed on the World Wide Web.

I’ll be using the term Virus but keep in mind that what is said will apply to most of these.

Your best defense against being infected by viruses includes awareness and more importantly having a strong antivirus program running in the background.  I’ll address each of these below.

Awareness - what this means is that you as a computer user need to be aware of what you are doing.  Eliminate practices that may open you up to being infected by a virus.  There are a number of items in particular to be aware of:

A.    If you use Microsoft Outlook, turn off the preview window.  This is the pane to the side or bottom that shows you the contents of an email message without having to open the message.  This is a great convenience; unfortunately it creates an opening for you to become infected by the newer viruses. 

B.   Related to Email… Don’t open email messages from people you don’t know or emails you aren’t expecting.   If you receive an email, even if it IS from someone you know, and it contains an attachment with one of the following file formats… Delete it immediately.  (.exe, .com, .vbs, .bat, .reg, .js, .xlm)  Even though this may appear to be coming from someone you know, it may be a virus that has sent the email, not the person.

D.   Don’t download files from an unknown or un-trusted location.

E.    Avoid installing or using programs that are “Free” for download or use.  As the saying goes, nothing in life is free and this most definitely applies to programs.

F.    Related to the above item, if you get a popup window that states your computer isn’t protected or that you need to click a link to update your antivirus protection, don’t do it!  Typically this installs some unknown program that isn’t an antivirus program at all but some form of Malware that tries to sell you more products.

Antivirus - Having a strong antivirus product is the most important step you can take towards protecting your computer.  However, it isn’t enough to just have such a program.  In my line of work, it amazes me how many people I come across who either don’t have an antivirus solution, have one but keep it turned off, or don’t keep it up to date with the latest virus definitions.  You need to be diligent in the following.

A.      Take time to research the different Antivirus products out there.  Don’t take one person’s word on it, not even mine.  Find multiple web sites and read up on the products.  A little time spent now can save you from spending even more time later, trying to clean up after being hit by a virus that slipped through when it didn’t do what it was suppose to. 

B.      Stay away from the “Free” antivirus solutions.  Although, if it comes down to a question of something or nothing, then most definitely use these products.  But before doing so, ask yourself “How much does your data mean to you?”  Are you willing to risk the integrity of your data by using an inferior antivirus solution just to save money?  My recommendation is to create a budget and spend the money to purchase a product that has proven it-self to be a reliable and trusted solution. 

C.      Keep your product up to date.  An out of date antivirus program is completely worthless and doing very little to protect you from current virus outbreaks.  New viruses are being created daily.  If your product hasn’t been updated to recognize these new threats, then it’s not going to be able to stop them from infecting your computer.  Think about it like oil in a car.  If you don’t change your oil for a year, it’s not protecting your engine.

In closing I have one recommendation.  Stay away from some of the traditionally better known name brand antivirus solutions.  These programs are computer resource hogs and will bog your system down, making it run slowly.      It was this problem that sent me researching for other solutions.  Eventually I came across a product which I feel surpasses any other on the market.  NOD32 by Eset.  According to a previous test, NOD32 performs scans two to five times faster than other competitors.  It’s been tested 47 times and passed 45, the highest rate of the tested antivirus products.  

To compare your antivirus solution and see how it stacks up against NOD32, please visit these sites:
Eset’s Home page - http://www.eset.com or an independent testing site http://www.av-comparatives.org.
Also check out Eset’s full page add on page 15 in the CRN Tech Magazine.