Anti-Virus Software

Anti virus software has a number of functions. It must detect viruses and be able to disinfect entire systems removing the virus. It is not always possible to put right any damage caused to files or the hardware, separate measures like backups are designed to minimise the problems caused by this damage. Once anti virus software is in place it may be set to prevent virus like activity, other forms of malware.

When a company has an extensive intranet a firewall is necessary. A firewall combines hardware and software products to control the flow of data onto a network. The firewall stops or allows traffic based on the security policy. The secure trusted network is said to be “inside” the firewall, the insecure untrusted network is said to be “outside” the firewall. Some operating systems offer built-in firewall functionality, such as Sun Solaris 8 operating environment.

Internet nanny programs may be used on home PCs and in schools to limit the access to the internet, these may include antivirus software, but it is not their primary function. Some ISPs (e.g. AOL) provide filtering mechanisms of this sort.

Hoaxes and Myths

There are 100s if not 1000s of virus hoaxes these some times make the national press as "real" viruses. I'm not going to spend ages talking about examples. But a typical hoax is an email forwarded to you by some one you know saying my computers is infected delete this file from yours - usually the file is a genuine one but the sender and receiver don't realise this and delete it thus damaging their own computer. The way round this is to check http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.htmland http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/and http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp.

There are lots of myths about what viruses can do and the damage they cause, with proper security they do very little real damage. Even so you must realise they are real and must be guarded against. For information on specific viruses and other malware try http://www.symantec.com

© LEV