Computer Virus

Is your Computer being stung by virus after virus?

With yet another round of computer viruses plaguing us with slow downs its time to crack down and fight back. Sam Scott shares his personal stings in past attacks and what he does to protect his computer today.

”My e-mail system was choked by a torrent of virus-generated messages. How could this happen to me? I practice safe computing and keep my anti-virus software up-to-date. It was a stark reminder that you can do everything right and still get stung.

Many of your most important business relationships are stored and managed from your personal computer and the Internet connects you to your customers and your paychecks. It is more crucial than ever that you take precautions to safeguard your computer and valuable data from a catastrophe.

It is as true today as it was for your granny that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and a stitch in time will save nine. In terms of protecting your livelihood, there are some simple things that you should do:

Keep Your Anti-Virus Protection Current
You may have had a virus protection software package at some point, but it might not be working now. Remember it’s not the computer that you are protecting it is the information and business relationships stored on the computer that are most valuable. If you are a productive Realtor®, then you will have contracts, correspondences, mailing lists and data sets stored on your PC. If those are wiped out, you will be in a world of hurt. Think of the weeks of time and energy that those files represent. As valuable as the data is, you relationships are even more valuable. As you develop an e-mail address book that contains contact information for REALTORS® and your clients, you have special concerns. Many computer viruses spread by automatically sending themselves to all of your saved contacts. Your professional reputation could be devastated by an e-mail virus disaster.

Norton Anti-Virus from Symantec (http://www.symantec.com/nav) and McAfee’s VirusScan (www.mcafee.com) are both good products. But neither product will protect your system unless you buy it, install it and maintain it with routine updates. These programs can be setup to check for updates via the Internet every week and then perform a complete scan of the system. Depending on the type of service that you opt for, the annual cost of this protection can range from $20 to $50. You should subscribe to a virus update service because hackers are constantly writing and devising new destructive viruses.

Keep Software Up-to-Date
Keep your Microsoft Windows software up-to-date and upgrade your copy of Outlook, Outlook Express or Internet Explorer. Every time some hacker devises a new way to assault a computer system, the software vendor (i.e. Microsoft) tries to “fix” the security weakness that was exploited. In the case of REALTORS®, the most common point of vulnerability lies in their e-mail software and Internet browser.

Every couple of months there are “tweaked” versions of Windows, Outlook, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer available from Microsoft. To check to see if there are downloads logon to: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm. And follow the directions for your specific Microsoft products. Now there are just a few precautionary notes on this process. Only take the product upgrades that you need, there are many superfluous add-on programs that will only clutter your hard drive. This activity may require a very long download, depending upon the speed of your Internet connection, so plan accordingly. You may need one or more of the original Windows of Office CD ROMs to complete the upgrade process, so have those handy.

XP Operating System
Microsoft’s newest operating system has integrated the update feature so that it is much more automatic. But you still must take action to download and install updates when the system notifies you that updates are available.

Backup Your Files
If you have important files on your computer system, you should have a plan to make backup copies of these files. Newer CD-ROM drives can write and store information on a CD. This type of drive, called a CD-R, has become a low-cost and easy way to store about 600 megabytes of data. The blank CD-R disks are inexpensive as well. The cost for a blank CD-R has dropped to about 25¢ each. You also can create backups by storing copies of critical files on another computer. There also are more sophisticated and dedicated backup solutions that you should consider.

Consider a “Firewall”
If you are using a DSL connection or a cable-modem then your Internet connection is “always on” and slightly more vulnerable to a security problem. You may want to consider a NAT router. This device can solve several issues: it acts as a firewall, provides network ports for connecting several computers and allows you to manage Internet addresses for a small cluster of networked computers. There are software packages like “Norton Personal Firewall” that can alert you to suspicious activity. If that last part didn’t make much sense to you, then you should review the issue with your computer support person.

You can do everything right and still have a huge problem. However, if you take a few basic precautions and have copies of your most crucial files backed-up, then your worst-case scenario is not that bad. If a virus ravages your system, then a techie reformats your disk, reinstalls Windows from scratch and you load your important files from a recent backup. If your system is stolen or irreparably damaged, then you buy a new computer and restore your important files from a recent backup. Don’t panic, just be prepared.