Do You REALLY Know Your AntiVirus Program?
By Theresa Cahill
This morning talking with a fellow publisher, the topic of antivirus
programs came up. Seems someone somewhere is always talking
about them.
Why? Because without a good system in place not only do you run
the risk of a potential, complete computer shutdown, but you put
your friends and associates at risk each time you contact them.
Let's face it, the world is full of brilliant people who's only apparent
source of satisfaction is to make the rest of us using the internet
completely miserable.
Unfortunately, they do a good job of it. However, you can, and
must, do everything to protect yourself and others.
A quick little story might help illustrate my point...
My son's school is a public, charter affair. He "home schools," and
the curriculum is on the internet. There are numerous families in
Odyssey Charter, each emailing the teacher, and sometimes each
other, with important information.
Last year, one of the mothers called me. She was desperate. Her
child could not access the computer. She recalled getting a suspect
email a few months earlier (few MONTHS?!) and since then nothing
had been working right for them. Now it was a total disaster, the
computer refusing to do anything.
After spending several hours a day at their house for several days,
I did locate the problem - yes, a virus. A truly sneaky one at that.
Unfortunately, there was no saving anything nor any way to
eliminate this threat. Yes, her hard drive had to be completely
wiped. They lost everything - no backups, of course - but that's
another story.
The thing is this tragedy could have been avoided. Why DID it
happen in the first place?
The reason? Oh, they had an antivirus program, Norton, a good
one, but guess what...? They never updated it! However, the
truly sad (and comical!) part of all of this was Norton had expired
THREE YEARS earlier!!
True! They thought once it was on the computer, it magically
did everything itself, with no assistance from them. They were
"protected!" Nary one live update, nor renewal of their subscription!
Norton AntiVirus does have an automatic Live Update feature.
However, you must TELL IT to update by opening your software
and setting the settings TO update (and more!).
Symantec, producers of Norton products, also have another program
for those truly at risk. It's called the Intelligent Updater, and is located
in their download area.
The Live Update virus definitions are released every Wednesday,
more often if they deem it necessary. Manually downloading and
installing (daily) through the Intelligent Updater link, your
machine is always current - right then and there!
If you receive tons of email, and send lots of email in return,
you'd do well to take a trip to Symantec's website each day and
keep your own antivirus program current, manually.
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/defs.download.html
Remember, those out there causing the grief are smart, if
misguided. You must be smarter! Make sure you know your
own antivirus program inside and out - and keep it current!
To your success!
© Theresa Cahill - All Rights Reserved. Feel free to distribute this article. Please keep it intact and with the resource box included below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of http://www.mywizardads.com and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at http://www.mywizardads.com/sitemap.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theresa_Cahill
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