Do You REALLY Know Your AntiVirus Program?

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!

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