dacs.doc electric

THE JULY GENERAL MEETING, presented by DACS' own Jeffrey Setaro, otherwise known as Mr. Most Outspoken Member on the subject of viruses, heightened our most basic fears and induced feelings of paranoia. Jeff described the differences between the many and various virus threats, including Trojan Horses, Worms, and the Hoaxes perpetrated by computer miscreants. These low-life creatures delight in raising havoc among the unwary. They can screw up your system in myriad ways with their distructive and intrusive viruses, causing you and your business anything from minor irritations to enormous losses in money and time searching for, eliminating, and recovering damaged data or replacing lost files.

Jeff explained that viruses are software programs that can be activated only when you run an infected program, boot from an infected floppy disk, or open one of the several Microsoft programs (Word, Excel, Access, or PowerPoint) that are vulnerable to infection. Running contaminated Visual Basic script, Microsoft Jscript, or other files embedded in Web pages or HTML formatted E-mail, or in newsgroup messages is another way you can inadvertently open your system to viruses.

Safe Hex

The first line of defense is what Jeff calls Safe Hex, meaning be wary. 1) Never, ever boot from a floppy disk that you haven't created and write protected, and be sure that you store the disk away from others in a secure place. 2) Never run floppy disks or attached e-mail files from unknown or questionable sources; even attachments from someone you know can be suspect, especially if they are unexpected or unsolicited. 3) Confirm that the sender actually meant to send them.

Back up your data

The second line of defense is to regularly back up your data, so you can recover your data if disaster strikes. A showing of hands in the audience indicated that many people never or seldom follow this precaution. There is no excuse for failing to back up your stuff regularly, no matter how large or small the amount of data you need to secure. Zip and Jaz drives are convenient, and all sorts of multigigabite tape cartridges are available that can handle even the largest of home or SOHO system hard drives. The backup process can take an hour or several hours, so consider running your backup program overnight. You sleep, it works the night shift.

Other precautions

Update your antivirus software frequently--every month, maybe every week, if necessary--because new viruses appear daily. Scan all e-mail attachments and downloaded files before opening or running them. And scan files from floppies you get from other people, just in case.

Lastly, in the event of a disaster don't panic. You can do more damage than the virus can with hasty, impulsive actions. Step away from your computer and give yourself (or in my case the person I call for advice) time to consider the corrections you need to take. Shut down your computer, cold boot from your startup diskette, Run your antivirus program from the floppy disk, reboot, and recover damaged or deleted files from your backup.

Of course, without the most basic of tools all of the above is meaningless. You must have a clean, write-protected startup disk, a DOS version of your antivirus software on a diskette, a current backup, a disaster recovery plan. One of the best--and also free--antivirus programs is F-Prot for DOS, which you can download from the company's Website at http://www.complex.is.

I'm not going into the various antivirus detection methods that Jeff described, since for most of us the method used is less important than how well they work. But do check out the table for a brief list of antivirus software that Jeff recommends.