ANTI VIRUS

Computer viruses have received a lot of attention over the past year or so.  They don't differentiate between the PC in your home or a multinational corporation - if they get in they will wreak havoc just the same.  There is no excuse for not having a virus scanner, but do you keep it up to date?  Do you have a firewall to keep out unwanted visitors to your PC when on the internet?  Don't think that just because you have a modem dial up you are safe and you are not a well known corporate, it is likely you will at least experience a simple probe test for vulnerabilities within 10 to 20 minutes of being online!  Can you afford the time to reformat your hard disk and reinstall your software? you could lose a day per PC even if you have all your software and service packs to hand!

If you would like to see how vulnerable you are at the moment do a browser check.  If you see you are significantly exposed then an excellent quick fix is to download and install ZoneAlarm.  It is free for personal use and an excellent firewall.

Think you have a virus?  Here are some links to help you find and remove the little blighters!

McAfee stand alone removal tools

Symantec individual removal tools

F-Secure online scanner

Trend Micro online scanner

Grisoft AVG free scanner (registration required for unlock key)

Computer Associates eTrust EZ Antivirus 2005 (free with 12 months updates included - see below)

Microsoft partner Computer Associates can also help you as they provide their eTrust EZ Antivirus 2005  scanner free with 12 months of updates.  You can get it as part of the Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows.  Download and run the update first (500k).  Depending on how up to date you are with Windows Update optional/recommended downloads this could take a while as eTrust EZ Antivirus needs Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installed.

ANTI SPYWARE

Adware and Spyware is starting to be a huge privacy threat, with many sites automatically installing background monitoring code, key loggers, dialers, etc.  These are often first shown as annoying pop up windows offering (sometimes dubious) wares to tempt you(!)  Clicking some of these is just as bad as opening an infected email as they are then taking your browser legitimately to a site of your choosing, so your virus scanner and firewall won't necessarily see this as a threat.  Fortunately, virus scanners and firewalls, as well as XP SP2 and the likes of the Google toolbar, block pop ups and are starting to incorporate more anti-Adware/Spyware features as well.  There are also some good freeware/inexpensive tools that you can use and we've added links to some of the tools we have found work pretty well.  Please remember though, that there is no 100% solution and some will find things that others won't and some are dedicated to removing or preventing certain types of Spyware.

Here is some pretty useful information from Microsoft on the subject to get you up to speed.  Another very useful site for anti-spyware comparisons is Spyware Warrior.  Check here to see whether the freebie you have just downloaded is going to help get rid of pests or is a pest!

Microsoft Windows Defender (free -  removes pests, restores IE settings back and works proactively but only works on XP sp2)

SpyBot search & destroy (freeware - well rated)

Spyware Blaster (freeware ActiveX blocker)

Spyware Nuker (freeware - manual removal without subscription)

Spy Hunter (freeware - manual removal without subscription)

Lavasoft Ad-Aware (well rated for adware)

No Adware (well rated for adware)

If you don't have a pop up blocker like the Google Toolbar, the Yahoo! Toolbar (now has an antispyware scanner) or by installing XP SP2,

DO NOT SHUTDOWN UNWANTED POPUP WINDOWS BY CLICKING THEM WITH YOUR MOUSE

Did I say that loudly enough??  Good!  Use your keyboard - press the Alt key and whilst holding it down, press the F4 key.  If it's not the front or active window, press the Alt key and whilst holding it down press the Tab key (the one above Caps Lock with the left/right arrows if it doesn't say Tab) until it is then Alt+F4.

Why do this?  What you are being offered might look like a normal window visually but may not be constructed as one.  Clicking on it might just be clicking a link to say, "yes please, I want to download your key logging program that runs in the background and sends my credit card/bank details to you" or "please install a hidden toolbar which hi-jack's my browser settings so that you can redirect all my browsing to go via your site first so you can offer me even more tempting goods".

Get the picture?

If you have ever suffered a plague of pop-up windows that appear quicker than you can click them down with your mouse, just use the Alt+F4 sequence and hold them both down until they are all gone.  It works quicker than a new window can be opened up and prevents links that are used to request even more of them being displayed.

BACKUP

Your data is critical to your business survival - would you be able to get up and running again after a fire, flood or burglary - what about a simple "delete" mistake, mains power spikes and surges or even a hard disk failure?

If you are already backing up your data, do you also have copies off site and are you confident data can be recovered?  What about your program installation disks, service updates and drivers?  Around 80% of companies do not have a strategy to survive a data disaster situation.  The costs of implementing an effective strategy for even the smallest company are insignificant compared to going out of business.  Your insurance may be adequate to replace damaged or missing equipment, but not your destroyed paperwork and data!

If you use a computer for your business, you MUST implement a backup strategy.

Simple rules to safeguard your critical data:

1. centralize your data and keep multiple copies backed up (on and off site).
2. regularly check that you can restore the data you painstakingly backed up.
3. backup on different media, such as a second hard drive or another computer, tape, ZIP disk, CDR/RW, DVD-R/RW/RAM, USB memory drive or even floppy disks as a last resort.
4. consider using RAID technology to safeguard against hard disk failure such as mirroring and parity striping.
5. implement a virus scanner and keep it up to date, turn on dynamic virus scanning, regularly check your disk for viruses and correct them before they become a major problem.
6. keep unwanted external visitors out of your network with a firewall.
7. place permissions and restrictions on access to data for users on your network.
8. set automatic alerts for failed logon attempts and unauthorized access to restricted data.
9. set policies to prevent users installing unauthorized software and changing system settings.
10. keep servers away from unauthorized user access.

Simple preventative measures to help prevent data corruption:

1. use a surge arresting and spike filtering adapter to connect your computer to the mains power.
2. use an uninterruptible power source (UPS) for computers that are servers or workstations which contain critical data that is available to users on your network.
3. don't plug in high inductive load motorized devices such as vacuum cleaners into an adjacent socket to your computer.
4. never unplug or switch off a computer unless you have shut down correctly first.
5. regularly check your disk for errors and correct them before they become a major problem.

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Copyright © 2005 Business Computer Connexions
Last modified: May 12, 2006