Shooting the Breeze: Mydoom: Another virus warning
Another new virus has emerged to plague users of Windows computers - but if you take some precautions you can just treat it as an inconvenience.
The definitive way to protect your Windows computer is to ensure that your computer has some protection when you go online.
a. Buy anti-virus software which will help you identify and stop viruses from invading your computer before they can cause damage. I recommend Norton Anti-Virus - the latest 2004 edition is available now. It's good to have anti-virus software but it's even more important to keep it up to date as new viruses are created all the time and. Most anti-virus software comes with a free 12-month subscription facility allowing you to download the latest virus definitions direct from the manufacturer. Once these expire, you should purchase a new 12 month subscription for a nominal amount to keep yourself up to date. People will anti-virus software which is not up to date may find themselves allowing the latest viruses to get through simply because their anti-virus software is incapable of spotting the newest viruses.
b. Anti-virus software may protect your computer from viruses that make it onto your computer but you should also purchase a Firewall. A Firewall should stop attempts by hackers to use your internet connection against you in order to take control of your computer by monitoring (and blocking certain) internet signals coming into and out of your computer. You can get firewalls built into certain hardware internet routers (which you use to access broadband internet) but you can also purchase a software firewall, such as Norton Firewall which does the same job.
c. Take regular backups of your system from time to time. Use Norton Ghost to take a snapshot of your system or at the very least ensure that you have copies of your important files in the event of an incident which renders your data unretreivable from your hard disk.
d. Make sure that you regularly use Windows Update (in the Start menu) to ensure that Microsoft's regular system patches are applied to your system. Make backups (as mentioned earlier) prior to each system update just in case your Windows installation subsequently becomes unstable or worse.
e. Non-Windows computers generally avoid all these virus problems. While it's probably not a good idea for people new to computing to try rare systems, such as Linux, people who haven't purchased a computer yet may want to consider purchasing an Apple Macintosh - it's immune to every Windows virus.
