Anti-virus

A common cold or flu virus could easily be spread to dozens of people on a crowded train, the underground or a bus. Similarly, a computer virus can be spread from one computer on the Internet to many others. Like a cold or flu virus a computer virus can be extremely unpleasant and, like the viruses we can catch there are many types of viruses around, that can affect your PC in a number of ways.

What is a virus?

• in its least unpleasant form the virus may be a simple prank that pops up a message on screen out of the blue
• more often than not it can cause your PC to crash or be a potential threat to personal information you may hold or input to your PC
• there are a number of ways your PC could get infected
• viruses are usually hidden, sometimes behind images or music you may download, sometimes embedded in Internet sites and sometimes as attachments to e-mails sent to you
• because there are so many ways you could get infected, you need up to date anti-virus software so similarly to firewall software it would be wise to check the manufacturer's site for any updates they may have and this should be done at least once a week

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How does anti-virus software work?

• anti-virus software protects you in two ways,
  • firstly it identifies malicious programs when they try to infect your PC
  • secondly it will periodically search your PC for these programs (e.g. when you turn your PC on or when you request a search)
• when a malicious program is found it isolates it and then deletes it before it can do any harm

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Where to get anti-virus software

There are many anti-virus software vendors in the market, many of them will provide you with a free check, some with free versions. Whatever make of anti-virus software you choose it is vital that you do two things:

• keep your software up to date. New viruses come out on a daily basis and you need to ensure your anti-virus software is able to identify & deal with them. Updates are usually provided online direct from the vendor. You should check your vendor site at least weekly & preferably more often
• scan your PC regularly. You should be able to schedule a regular scan of your PC e.g. 5pm in the evening or each time you switch your PC on. Your vendor will provide you with information on the options available to you and how to set it up (it's normally fairly straightforward)

it would be wise to note that nothing is 100% foolproof and there are a few things you should do in addition to acquiring anti-virus software.

• firstly, check out the what to do if… section on this site for useful hints
• secondly, make sure you have contact/support numbers for your anti-virus supplier
• thirdly, keep back-ups of important files and documents on floppy disc/CD/DVD, but scan your PC before you do this to prevent infected files from being saved

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