There is far more to antivirus software than just opening
the box, inserting the CD and installing software. To be
properly protected you may actually want to do a little more
than that.
You see, a good antivirus program does a lot more than you
might think. In this article we will be discussing features of
Norton Antivirus 2002, one of the best and most full featured
programs available. Similar functions exist in the other major
scanners.
The first thing you must do in this day and age is purchase
and install antivirus software. If you don't have this
installed you are literally living on borrowed time.
Some of the common features are described below.
Auto Protect
Perhaps the most important feature of all is auto protect.
This feature allows the antivirus system to perform it's tasks
without manual intervention. This is critical as then you can
relax and do what you need to do, without constantly worrying
about checking for viruses. Keep this turned on without fail.
Checking for email viruses
This is one of the most critical features of a modern
antivirus program is the ability to scan email messages as
they arrive or are sent. Scanning of this nature is relatively
new and long overdue.
DO NOT TURN THIS FEATURE OFF.
It's very important to remember that the most destructive
viruses arriveas attachments in email messages. I know, I
know, you would never, ever open anything that even remotely
looked like a virus, would you? But how would you know? Do you
want to take the chance on destroying your system?
Scanning disks for viruses
Most virus scanners will occasionally scan your disks for
anything that looks like a virus. In Norton Antivirus, you can
schedule this scan for as often as you like - in fact, many
people turn it off entirely. After all, while the scan is
running your system will be slower than normal. It can be
quite annoying.
Turning off the automatic disks scans is, however, a big
mistake. These check your disks for any viruses which may have
gotten through the front line defenses. How does this happen?
You could copy a virus to your hard drive from a CD ROM, a
floppy or perhaps across the network. It will be just sitting
there, waiting to explode in your face. Scanning the disks
finds these little time bombs and eliminates them.
But wait, if you have your antivirus program running won't
it catch and stop any viruses that you happen to open? Yes it
will, but you could still copy it to someone else, or another
person could grab it over the network (if you are in a
company, for example). Or perhaps for some reason you turn off
your antivirus program, then you could accidentally open it up
and destroy your system.
Scanning for viruses in scripts on web pages
Believe it or not, you can catch a virus from a web page.
All you have to do is view the page and bang, you are
infected. There are not many of these yet, but you can bet
there will be in the near future. These are particularly nasty
because, well, you don't have a choice about executing the
virus.
These are not like the email viruses, which require you to
actually open an attachment. They are not like other viruses,
which require you to execute a file. These simply require you
to view them. Pretty scary, if you ask me.
Thus, as you can see, it's very important to keep this
feature enabled at all times. That way you will catch and
destroy these things before you get hurt.
Regular updates
Be sure to subscribe to and use the regular virus updates.
You see, new viruses are found all of the time, and if you
don't update your definitions you will be vulnerable. In fact,
after a few months of no updates your antivirus software
becomes virtually worthless.
Conclusions
The features of your antivirus software are put there for a
reason. My advice is to enable everything. Turn it all on.
These days you cannot be too careful - or, if you prefer, you
can disable something and perhaps lose your data. It's your
choice.
