A vast number of computer users feel they are safe from Viruses, Worms and Trojans - for several popular reasons:

1. The computer came with virus protection when they bought it.
2. They never open email from someone they don't know.
3. Viruses happen to 'other people.'
4. They keep their virus software subscription up-to-date and periodically check to make sure their virus protection is being updated properly.

Let's evaluate the possible answers:

1. The computer came with virus protection when you bought it. That may be fine if you bought the computer within the last ninety days, but not satisfactory if your computer is older than that. Why? Because when a computer comes from the factory (providing it came with anti-virus software installed) the software subscription was good for a finite amount of time - usually 90 days. After this 90 days, your protection is out-of-date unless you go to the software vendor (usually McAfee or Norton) and re-subscribe. If you do not re-subscribe, your anti-virus software will only be able to protect you from viruses released prior to the time your subscription service expired.
2. You never open mail from people you don't know. That's certainly a good policy, but it simply won't give you foolproof protection. With the current crop of email-distributed viruses, you are more likely to contract a virus from someone you know that a complete stranger. Additionally, there are a number of viruses that are distributed via infected websites. All you need to do is visit an infected website and your computer is infected as well.
   
   But wait… there's more. For those of you using Internet Relay Chat (IRC) there are extremely high risks. MIRC, a popular client for Internet Relay Chat leaves your system highly vulnerable to attack by other MIRC users. Several nasty Trojans and Worms are distributed via IRC and are very hard to remove once they've made a home in your computer. If you must use MIRC, a firewall (hardware or software) is mandatory to prevent infection. Anti-Virus software alone may not protect you.
3. Viruses happen to 'other people.' Everyone thinks that and some of them are right. Where does that leave you?
4. The only correct reason is number 4. Being protected against Viruses, Worms and Trojans requires a certain measure of personal responsibility. If you don't protect yourself, no one else will do it for you (without a fee).

The reality is that new viruses are written every single day. Somewhere right now, some pimply-faced miscreant is writing a virus for no other reason than he can - and preparing to turn it loose in the wild. When I mention this to people, the invariable reply is something to the effect: "If they would only harness this creative energy for some positive purpose they could (fill in the blanks)." While it may seem that writing viruses requires a fair amount of technical acumen, this is not always true. Of the more than 50,000 (that's right, fifty thousand) viruses in the wild, many of them are simply variants of an earlier virus that was slightly modified and released to wreak some new variety of havoc on your computer. There are websites dedicated to writing viruses and any sentient biped with access to the Internet can author his (most virus authors are male) very own virus in record time.

Email and websites are not the only methods for transmitting viruses. With the advent of music download programs (Napster, Morpheus, WinMX, etc.) viruses have found a new method of delivery. You may think you're downloading the newest Back Street Boys single, when you're actually downloading a virus disguised as an MP3 file. This is becoming an enormous problem, as the majority of people 'sharing' music are teenagers - and teenagers characteristically think they are invulnerable (I know I did) and, as a result, frequently operate without adequate virus protection. Therefore, the odds of downloading a virus from music-sharing networks have dramatically increased in recent months.

Removing a virus is much more difficult than preventing infection in the first place. It's much like going to your dentist for routine cleaning. The bi-annual cleaning is much less expensive and painful than filling or replacing a tooth, right? It's the same with viruses. The cost of keeping your annual subscriptions up-to-date is typically less than twenty dollars a year. Removing one (or more) of these nasty little critters can be very costly in not only hard dollars, but in lost productivity - or lost data. While it is almost always possible to 'remove' a virus, undoing the resulting damage can be very expensive - and you may lose some important data in the process.

For example: The Love Letter virus of a few years ago replaced all your music and image files with itself. All replaced files were lost forever and an Operating System reinstall was necessary for full recovery. The Opaserv virus destroys all data on your hard drive and renders your computer unbootable - everything is lost. Magistr will overwrite your hard drive, erase your CMOS and flash the BIOS - once again, everything is lost.

Most people believe even if they contract a virus they can simply go down to their local computer superstore, pick up any old anti-virus product and undo the mess. Not true. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. The current batch of viruses (for the last few years) have evolved clever methods to protect themselves. Their first order of business (if your virus protection is insufficient) is to cripple your virus protection software. They then email themselves to everyone in your address book - followed by releasing their payload. The damage can be minor (performance problems) or major (delete every file on your hard drive.) Regardless of the final objective, most modern viruses will prevent you from installing anti-virus software as a matter of basic design. If you wait until after you have a virus to protect yourself, it will likely be an expensive educational process.

What's involved in making sure you're protected? First, make sure you have a fairly recent copy of a mainstream brand of anti-virus protection. The older versions required too much manual configuration to be foolproof.

You NEED current virus definitions on a regular basis. The anti-virus program vendors update their virus definitions whenever a new virus is found (almost daily) and make these definitions available to current subscribers. If your subscription is current, your anti-virus program will be able to retrieve updated definitions on its own. When your anti-virus program informs you of subscription expiration, you need to follow the instructions to renew immediately. Failure to comply can be very expensive.

A firewall (either hardware or software) should be considered mandatory if you have a broadband connection. We recommend utilizing the firewall in Windows XP (with Service Pack 2), as it is free and incredibly easy to use.

Make sure your anti-virus program is properly configured. Open up the control panel for your favorite brand of virus protection and verify that the following settings are configured properly:

1. Protect all files. The default setting on all but the newest versions was to protect Program Files Only. This is not adequate.
2. Automatic Repair / Quarantine. Set the functions to automatically repair and then quarantine if the repair fails. You don't want your virus protection asking you what to do when it finds a virus - especially when you may not know the correct answer.
3. Email protection. Make sure email protection is turned on and that all email accounts are selected if this is an option.
4. Weekly System Scan. Schedule weekly scans of the entire computer - and don't defeat this when it starts scanning.
5. Auto Update. Turn auto-update on and set it so that your anti-virus software checks for updates automatically and applies them without asking you for verification.
6. Virus Definitions. Periodically launch your anti-virus program and check the virus definition date to be sure it's current (within the last 3 days or so). Any time you find it is not up-to-date, take it upon yourself to run the update function and download new virus definitions.

Remember, it is your responsibility to protect your computer. There is no simple set-it-and-forget-it mechanism for protecting yourself from viral infection, as there are too many points of failure. Practice Safe Computing and you can save yourself a great deal of stress and expense.

Warren Harris owns and operates The Computer Wizard in Plano