atw: Re: PC protection

But "Why Not" have that protection Stuart (B)

...especially when you can have AVG, AdAware and Sygate at home for free?

Only last night, a hacker on an overseas on a server was scanning my the
ports of my P of C, to try and crack in, when Sygate alerted me and saved
my PC for the umpteenth time this year ...and I'm only on a four hours at a
time dialup connection.  (Love Sygate's back trace function for finding out
where the rotters are hacking from!)

If the hackers get in, they will install what they want and, if you have
nothing to detect and remove any malicious and invasive programs, you
can get ready to kiss your PC and all your work on it goodbye.

Try existing in this society and in our profession without a connected and
functioning PC these days.  Not fun.

You folks, especially on high speed cable and ADSL connections are
vulnerable - really vulnerable - to attack without even realizing it.

The first time that you run AdAware on your systems, you are in for a huge
shock, especially if you are regularly using MSIE.  You will have up to
hundreds of spyware programs on your PC, stealing details and
bandwidth without you even knowing it.  Even the so called "safe" work
PCs behind hardware firewalls at everywhere I've been lately have had
heaps of spyware because they use MSIE, which is designed to help
Microsoft to spy on you, so others naturally take advantage of its
deliberate security holes.

It's not that hard to protect your PC, with little effort involved apart from
training your firewall carefully as you go.

I've seen what happens to people who don't bother.  My niece blows away
her PC every few months with viruses, then makes her poor downtrodden
boyfriend rebuild it for her every time.  The nuisance value of letting that
happen (no, not being a boyfriend of my niece, silly - wouldn't wish that on
anyone!) and the possibility of losing irreplaceable work, should not be
underestimated.

Charge yourself the rebuild and recovery times at your own hourly rate to
determine the opportunity cost of your lost time, for starters.

...and that said, do back up your mission critical files regularly and virus
check whatever you are going to restore.

Viruses undetected at back up time can lay dormant and be restored with
your files.

Oh, and the best protection for Visual BASIC Word viruses, is to run the
Word BASIC versions of Word (6 or 7) instead, with the Word 97
converter that Microsoft supplied off its Web site.

Why use a reader when you can have a now virus proof* full office tool kit.

* (Nobody bothers to write Word BASIC viruses any more.)

Don't know why I ever "upgraded", really.

BTW, viruses are being designed as we type that will launch in Outlook and
other software preview modes.

The next wave is under development.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Cheers,

Michael Granat
Write Ideas

At 16:07 23/9/2004, you wrote:
> > ... but that's no substitute for having your own
> > system installed and regularly updated at home.
>
>Cost to Stuart     Likely cost to Stuart of
>from viruses       recommended virus protection
>2000-2004          measures 2000-2004
>--------------     ------------------
>     $0.00          100s(?) of hours
>
>I still think I'm ahead... so far.
>
>Notes:
>- If I owned a bank I would certainly have virus
>   protection software and procedures
>- No-one in the family goes to University, which I
>   understand is a breeding-ground for long-haired
>   hippies, with their pernicious doctrines of free
>   love, pot smoking and Maoism
>- I use the virus-proof Word Viewer and Powerpoint
>   Viewer to look at MS Office e-mail attachments
>- If there's an attachment I really want to run, and
>   I'm not sure about it, I update F-Prot and scan it.
>   This only happens once in a blue moon though--I can
>   live without seeing yet another (or the same) Flash
>   Christmas card
>
>---
>Stuart Burnfield
>Information Developer
>Australian Programming Centre


Michael E. Granat
Qualified Good Tech Writer Dude
Fellowship Of The Ring Of Tech Writers, Yeah Baby!
T/as Write Ideas
E-mail: mailto:writeideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: <http://home.pacific.net.au/~megranat/>
Without Prejudice.
E&OE.


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