One of the first things you discover after installing a computer system is that it rarely does exactly what it says on the tin. Modern PCs promise to make your business run more smoothly and provide easy access to the internet.
Each new release of Windows promises yet more unimaginable benefits that almost allow your business to run itself.
The truth, of course, isn't like that. Computers crash, or break, or get hacked into, or run out of disk space. And worst of all, computers catch viruses. It's tempting to ignore the problem and to assume that viruses only affect hobbyist PC users who spend all night on dodgy websites, or mega-corporations with thousands of users accessing email all day. But sadly that's just not true. Small and medium-sized companies get viruses too, and because they typically don't have experts on hand to detect and remove them, it is these companies who suffer the most. Even if you catch a virus that does nothing more sinister than pop up a harmless joke on the screen, inadvertently infecting your customers with it is not exactly good for business.
Protecting your systems against viruses is one of the most important things you can do. And thankfully you don't need to be a techno wizard to do it. You don't even need a huge budget, as some of the most useful programs and utilities are free.
Viruses are simply computer programs, just like Microsoft Office or your favourite game. They're written by people who enjoy causing as much havoc as possible.
By definition a virus will attempt to copy itself to other computers, and this is why they are so dangerous. Programs that cause havoc by, say, deleting important files from your hard disk, but which don't attempt to copy themselves, are not viruses. They are known as Trojans, after the historical wooden horse that concealed a nasty surprise.
The earliest computer viruses would spread on floppy disks. Once a computer was infected, the virus code would continually monitor the floppy disk drive. Every time you loaded a diskette, the virus would copy itself to that disk. If you then gave the disk to someone else, the virus would go along for the ride.
The internet has made disk-based viruses almost redundant. Nowadays they spread by consulting your Microsoft Outlook address book and emailing themselves to all of your friends and colleages without your knowledge or permission. That means all your acquaintances receive messages which appear to come from you, containing attachments disguised as important documents or links to interesting websites. When they click on the attachment they start the virus running on their own PC, and so the virus can now spread itself to each of these people's address books too.
So how do you avoid viruses? In theory it's easy. To make a program do anything, you have to run it. So if you don't run the virus program, it won't start its cycle of damaging your PC and copying itself.
• Start by learning to recognise probable virus-like messages, and train your less technical staff to do the same. If anyone in the company receives an unexpected email, even from someone they know well, which says something like "click on this - you'll love it!", do nothing of the sort.
• Send a message back, asking if the sender really meant to send that message. Until you receive a satisfactory reply, don't click on the attachment.
• If in any doubt, delete it and forget about it. Deleting an infected email without clicking on its attachment will prevent any virus from taking hold.
On the web at www.officeupdate.com you'll find a free program from Microsoft that prevents any program from looking up the details of everyone in your Microsoft Outlook address book. Because the only programs that tend to do such a thing are viruses, this program will help prevent many of the most common viruses from spreading. This blocking facility is also part of Office 2000 Service Pack 2 (also available free from the same site) and is fitted as standard in the new Office XP.
Microsoft Word has a built-in programming language designed to allow people to write macros to automate common tasks. This language can also be used to write viruses which will automatically run when you open the document. If you don't use macros, disable them by going to the Tools/Macros menu. If anyone sends you a Word document file (one ending with .doc) attachment by email, don't open it. The sender's machine may be infected with a virus which has surreptitiously attached itself to all of the person's document files. Many people, myself included, have a policy of replying to the senders of attached document files and asking them to save the file in RTF format and resend it. RTF files don't support macros, so any virus which was in the .doc file will be removed by saving as .RTF format.
The best way to keep viruses away is to use a virus scanning program. If you don't have a virus scanner installed, buy one for every PC in the company. Scanners work by having a built-in database of all known viruses, and can detect and remove them automatically. However, new viruses are being discovered every day so it's crucial that you update the database of known viruses at least once a month. Most scanners come with at least one year of updates included in the price, and applying the latest update is often as simple as letting the program connect to the internet for a few minutes to update itself. But virus scanners are not infallible. Because they work by having a database of known viruses, they can't detect unknown viruses. That's why brand-new viruses such as Melissa, the Love Bug and the recent Homepage virus managed to infect so many computers so quickly.
It was only after the scanner companies updated their databases, and users installed those updates, that the virus could be stopped from spreading further. Modern scanners also use something called heuristics in addition to the standard virus database, which helps them look for virus-like behaviour in programs that they have never encountered before. This adds another layer of protection but is not 100% reliable so an up-to-date scanner database is still a necessity
help panel
Jargon-buster
Malware: Software written by "computer vandals" designed to cause damage when run. Viruses and Trojans are described as malware.
Attachment: A data file such as a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint presentation which is sent by email.
Office XP: The most recent version of Microsoft's office software suite for Windows. Includes additional protection against viruses spreading via email.
Virus scanner: A program that continually checks your PC and reports if a virus is detected. Scanners are also capable of removing most viruses.
Virus hoax: An email that warns you of a "dangerous new virus". The email urges you to forward the warning to everyone you know. Unless you are sure that the message is genuine, resist the temptation to forward it to anyone at all.
RTF: Rich Text Format. An alternative to the Word .doc format but which doesn't support macros and is thus immune to viruses.
