4 Easy Steps To Keep your Windows Computer Protected
Against Virus and Worm Infections
by Greg Merrell
A number of you have asked what you can do to protect your computers at home from infection. Here is a short list of things that we do on our computers to help protect them from infection and that we highly recommend you do as well. Even by following these steps, it's possible that your system may still fall victim to an infection, but following them should greatly reduce your chances.
1) Purchase, install and keep current an Anti-virus package on your computer -
The standard package we use here is Norton Anti-Virus from Symantec but there are a number of other fine anti-virus products on the market that should work essentially as well.
ACTION ITEM: You should insure that your virus definitions are brought up-to-date at least once a week. For Norton, you should run LiveUpdate to get the latest virus definitions and protection updates. LiveUpdate may be found on your TaskBar or in your Control Panels, depending on your installation.
2) Download and install the latest Windows Update Patches -
Microsoft provides patches for currently supported versions of Windows on a very regular basis - as often as every few days, but usually once a week. You should download these free patches and apply them to your computer. Note that some of them are VERY large and can take quite a while to download - especially over a dial-up connection. Regardless, you really do need to add them to your system for its safety. Anti-virus software is essential, but not wholely adequate for keeping your system safe from infection.
ACTION ITEM: Go to Windows Update, http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and run the scan to determine which patches your system is missing. At a minimum, apply all of the critical patches. Feel free to select those of the others that you think would benefit your system. Do this at least once a week.
NOTE: If you are running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you can configure your system to automatically download the essential security patches behind the scenes for you to reduce the amount of time it will take to patch your system. Refer to the Automatic Update control panel or Windows Help for more detail.
BAD NEWS: Microsoft only provides support for 'current' operating systems. If your system is one of the older ones (e.g. Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT), they may not be providing patches any longer. In this case, your only choices are to get a newer Operating System (or computer) or live with the risks. A note on the bright side, however, is that some of the more recently released worms and virii only infect the newer systems.
3) Download and install the latest patches for all of your application software such as Microsoft Office -
Most vendors provide occasional updates to correct security holes in their products. It is important that you download these updates and apply them to your system to keep it safe. You can often subscribe to vendor mailing lists to keep you up to date on problems they find, or you can just go to their web site and look for fixes on a regular basis. If you have an infrequently used package, you might want to check for updates just before using it. For more commonly used ones (e.g. Word), you may want to set up a regular schedule to check for updates - at least once a month is highly recommended.
ACTION ITEM: Go to the vendor web site to check for security-related updates and patches. For Microsoft Office, go to the Office Update site at: http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/ and click on the link, "Check for Updates". Apply all that pertain to your software.
4) NEVER open email attachments that come from an unknown sender or that come from someone you know but aren't expecting -
Some virus software has the ability to send infecting attachments out under the name of those you may know but without their knowledge or participation. It's always safe (and a good idea) to send them a note asking if they meant tosend the attachment before you open it.