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Safety first

In the old days, like 10 years ago, one of the only ways to catch a computer virus was to transport it from hard drive to hard drive via corrupted files on floppy disks, as the viruses were embedded in files and programs.

In the old days, like 10 years ago, one of the only ways to catch a computer virus was to transport it from hard drive to hard drive via corrupted files on floppy disks, as the viruses were embedded in files and programs.

These days everyone and everything is online, and virtually every 13-year-old kid with a mischievous streak and a computer in the den can start a global virus panic. Things will likely get worse before they get better as computers and the Internet become more and more synonymous.

A lot of people are already connected to the Internet around the clock, leaving themselves open to all kinds of unwanted visitations. You can pick up a virus by downloading and opening untested programs and files, through your e-mail system, or through almost any contact with the outside world. Hackers have found ways to break into your home computer, which leaves them free to plant viruses or, worse, to access your personal information.

There are more than 2,300 different viruses in circulation, most of which are just variations of a group of very basic viruses. Some are intended to annoy, and others to destroy.

There are dozens of antivirus applications on the market that can scan incoming information for viruses, but with new viruses surfacing every few weeks, you’re really only as safe as your last upgrade or patch. Fortunately these patches come down the pipe every few weeks as well.

The problem is that you can’t really protect your computer against viruses that don’t yet exist. You can adjust your security settings to alert you of potential problems, and many security programs can recognize the viruses that are similar to other viruses, but at the end of the day you’re going to want to stay on top of things. An ounce of prevention could save you a pound of cure. And a bundle of money.

www.webopedia.com/TERM/v/virus.html

To learn more about viruses, visit Webopedia, an online encyclopedia for the Internet. From here you can jump to a variety of virus-related Web sites. Here are just a few examples.

www.cert.org

The CERT Coordination Center is a division of the Software Engineering Institute, a federally-funded research and development organization operated by Carnegie Mellon University.

If there’s a new virus out there, or a security hole is discovered within software, this is the place to go to learn about it, and to find out how to protect yourself.

How real is the risk you ask? CERT began tracking security incidents back in 1988. There were six that first year. The following year there were 132.

In 2000 there were 21,756. In 2001 there were 52,658. In the first quarter of 2002, just three months, there were 26,829. And these are only the incidents that are reported.

"Incidents" could refer to hacks and information thefts, vulnerabilities within software, computer viruses – almost anything that compromises security.

www.avp.ch/avpve/

Know thy enemy. This is the site of the Kaspersky AntiViral Toolkit Pro, one of the many anti-virus applications on the market. According to a ZDNet review of antivirus software, it’s not the best on the market but it does find viruses in compressed files, provide users with daily updates, and allow higher level programmers to tweak their security settings in a very specific way.

Not only does the Kasperksy site post information on active viruses, it also collects and catalogs virus information. Here you can read up on the different kinds of viruses that are out there – worms, trojan horses, you name it – and learn how you can detect and remove them from your computer.

Kaspersky AntiVirus Personal Pro 4.0 is the latest anti-virus software from this company.

www.esecurityplanets.com

This site is more for IT managers than home users, but it’s an interesting visit nonetheless. After all, the information posted on this site is the same information used by the Web companies you download information from and trust your credit card and personal information to. It’s scary stuff sometimes, but overall this site is reassuring.

www.symantec.com

Symantec is the company behind Norton Antivirus 2002 software, which also happens to be the current ZDNet Editor’s Choice. For year’s Norton’s has been one of the most trusted security utilities on the market, and it keeps on getting better.

www.mcafee.com

McAfee is another well-trusted antivirus service. Their latest offering, VirusScan 6.0, was not as highly rated as Norton’s by ZDNet, but there’s no denying that it’s a good tool. One service they offer is VirusScanOnline, an online subscription service that provides you with around the clock virus protection. There’s a small download at the beginning, but after that it upgrades and patches security holes automatically. In other words, you don’t have to visit a Web site every two weeks to download new patches to protect yourself against the latest virus.

www.pandasoftware.com

Panda antivirus software, Sweden’s latest addition to the high-tech market, is quickly gaining recognition as an effective – and affordable – solution to the virus epidemic. While it didn’t rank as highly as the Norton product did at ZDNet, it has received a lot of praise for being easy to install and configure, and for making it easy for users to update and upgrade.

www.zdnet.com

Check ZDNet this week for the second part of their review of antivirus software. Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec and Panda are just four companies of the dozens in the antivirus game. The second part will focus on the smaller companies, and the specialized virus protection services they offer.