Anti Virus Programs
Install the latest available patches to ensure your anti virus programs are up to date.
You must be sure your subscription is also up to date, entitling you to receive these updates.
There are a number of methods to update anti-virus programs.
Manual
You should check the anti-virus programs vendor's website daily to see if there have been new patches or updates released. Download and install the patch as quickly as possible.
Automated
You may be able to configure the software to check for new updates whenever you are logged onto the internet. Most software can now notify you or automatically install when they detect a new update.
More information about almost all computer viruses is available on the following sites, which are run by companies that make anti-virus programs:
http://vil.mcafee.com/ (McAfee/NAI)
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/ (F-Secure)
http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/ (Trend Micro)
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/ (Sophos)
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/ (Sophos)
http://www.virusdb.com/ (Kaspersky)
http://www.quickheal.com/alerts.htm (Cat Computer Services)
http://www3.ca.com/virus/ (Computer Associates)
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html (Symantec/Norton)
http://www.virusdb.com/ (Kaspersky)
http://www.quickheal.com/alerts.htm (Cat Computer Services)
http://www3.ca.com/virus/ (Computer Associates)
Virus prevention:
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/whitepapers/prevention.html
Information about viruses, virus hoaxes, anti-virus tools:
http://www.virusall.com/
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/
http://www.virusbtn.com/
http://www.nipc.gov/ (FBI)
http://www.stiller.com/
http://www.nsclean.com/
http://www.guninski.com/
Simplest Defense:
Most common viruses these days travel by email.
Use a Yahoo or Hotmail account for your email. Yahoo, Hotmail and some other free web-based email services have anti-virus programs integrated into on their server software.
Don't open suspicious-looking emails for a day or so, so the service provider can scan and delete them.
This is most suitable for Internet newbies.
More Tips:
1. Use Windows Start > Search to find files recently added to your
PC. Search for *.* (that means any file with any extension) and 'When was it modified?' (e.g from the day before when you noticed something was wrong with your PC, to today).
If any look out of place or oddly named, that could be a clue. In a spyware example I had on my laptop recently, with was .dll files with odd names like gyhjoob.dll. 2. Download the following utilities. They're free at the time of writing: - Spycatcher Express (It stops spyware operating.
It also caused my version of CounterStrike to stop working! It 'grabs' and 'holds' a suspect software.) - HiJackThis (Version 1.99.1 only. Later versions are owned by Trend Micro, and came up positive for a 'bug' when I scanned one with other software! This software looks for dodgy files on your PC, and let you choose to delete them.) - AVG Anti-Virus Free
The best of the very few truly free anti-virus programs around. - Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal - Spybot Search and Destroy. Will find spyware Ad-Aware doesn't. Between them they'll give a good clue as to where the nasties are, and what they're called, and will remove many. For a more persistent bug: 3. Search on its name in Google. There may be a special utility designed just for it, or instructions on how to remove it manually. 4. Boot your PC with your Windows XP installation disk. It has an option on boot-up called a 'Recovery Console'. This will let you use a limited set of DOS commands to delete files you're certain are bogus. Some Spyware or Virii run constantly, to defeat attempts to remove them; as they're running, Windows won't allow you to delete them. They can't be removed even in Windows 'Safe' mode; they start on each boot-up. You have to get into a DOS session to get at it. In my case I had to: - Boot into Safe mode (press F8 as your PC is booting up),
- Log on as Administrator
- Change the permissions on the suspect files by hand, (right click on them, 'Properties')
- Then boot up again to the Recovery Console to delete them. This may have been going over the top, but by that time I was very annoyed with the particular bug I was after, so I went the whole hog. | 
