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Preventing Viruses

100% of computer viruses are preventable. My current computer has never had a virus. My previous computer never had a virus. The computer before that had one virus which taught me never to let my girlfriend use it.

I have not been lucky, I have been intelligent. There are some very simple rules that you need to follow to guarantee that you never succumb to computer viruses.

What are Computer Viruses

Computer viruses are malicious pieces of software written by people who want to harm other people's computers. The viruses generally perform some piece of damage, from corrupting some of your files or deleting your files, to corrupting your operating system so that you need to re-install everything or some viruses can actually damage your hardware so that you need to buy new hardware components. Some viruses stay on your system to perform damage over and over again whilst others just run once and never run again. All viruses have some method for sending themselves to other computers. Nowadays they usually email themselves to other computers. They go through your address book or list of sent and received emails to find all the people that you email, then send a copy of themselves to those people, pretending to be you. Other viruses take advantage of poor network security settings or software bugs (these are mistakes in software) to infect other computers directly.

Use a Virus Checker

This should go without saying but it always amazes me that so many people either do not have a virus checker at all, or if they have one, they don't keep it up to date. All reputable virus checkers should give free updates on a regular basis (at least once per month) so that you can be sure of having the latest virus protection. There are many new viruses that come out all the time so it's best to keep your virus checker up to date.

Virus checkers cannot automatically stop you from getting viruses, they are not the end of the story. If you have a good virus checker installed, you should be able to select any file, right click it and select something like "Scan for Viruses" or "Scan with <My Virus Checker>". This is the most valuable tool for preventing viruses. before you open a file for the first time, you should always scan if for viruses. This is especially true for software program files. You should never open and new documents of software programs without running it through your virus checker with the latest updates. Otherwise you are just asking for trouble.

Your virus checker will also be able to scan your entire computer for viruses, you should do one fo these about once a month just to make sure that something hasn't got through your net. This may take some time but you can usually carry on working while it's scanning your system.

Read the Virus Checkers article for details or just download Grisoft AVG* for free (for personal, non-commercial use).

Emails

Emails are the number one method for getting infected by viruses. Every single attachment that you receive, regardless of who sent it to you, and even if they say they have already scanned it, you should scan it yourself using your virus checker. You should detach the file, the go into your filesystem, locate the file then right click it, and select "Scan for Viruses", or whatever, to ensure that it doesn't contain any viruses.

World Wide Web

Another place that viruses are often obtained is the World Wide Web. Every file that you download should again be run through your virus checker before opening or running.

Use a Firewall

Another way that viruses can infect your computer is directly via your internet connection or network connection, without you doing anything. A piece of software called a firewall will protect you from this. A firewall will only allow programs to access the internet if you have given them specific permission to access the internet, and things on the internet can only get through to your computer if you give them specific permission to access your computer. Obviously, the sort of things that you would want to give permission to would be your web browser, your email software and your instant messaging software such as MSN Messenger. If you receive a warning that something on your computer is trying to access the internet and you weren't expecting it, or something on the internet is trying to access your computer and you weren't expecting it, you should deny permission to it. If something stops working then you can just give it permision next time it asks and it should start working again.

You can use the Zonelabs* firewall for free and it is my recommended firewall, thanks to its great features and for the absence of cost. For a more in-depth discussion, read the Firewalls article.

Always Install Security Fixes

If you are using Windows XP, you should get the occasional notification in the bottom right hand corner that some updates are ready for you to download and install. These are frequently security updates and fixes for your Windows operating system. Security bugs can allow viruses to infect your computer without your knowledge and without you being able to prevent them. The security fixes will stop any viruses being able to exploit these security holes, so make sure that you download and install these fixes as soon as possible to keep your computer safe.

If you are using Windows XP but not receiving these update notifications, then it may not be switched on. Simply go to Start -> (Settings ->) Control Panel -> Security Center -> Automatic Updates, then set it to Automatic.

If you are using Windows 2000 but not receiving these update notifications, then you might not be using Service Pack 3. Download it here and install it. Once installed, go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates and set it to download and install automatically.

Other software on your computer may also have security holes in them so you should visit the manufacturers websites regular to see if there are security fixes for you to download and install.

If you get a virus, it is your own fault. Just treat it as a learning experience, get over it, and make sure you don't get one again. You can lose a hell of a lot of data if you get a virus, so it is in your best interests to take this article very seriously. Make sure you take regular backups of your computer just in case you do lose some data, you'll be able to get most of it back.