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Ancestry Daily News
4/2/2003 - Archive
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RootsWorks: Anti-Virus Software |
RootsWorks: Anti-Virus Software
If someone you didn't know wanted to come into your home and throw
gooey red paint all over your living room furniture, it would clearly be a criminal
act of vandalism. Yet every day some goofball with a computer sends out a software
virus to do something with roughly the same effect. Actually, the labs at Symantec
discover 10 to 15 viruses each day. To protect yourself, you need to fully use
an anti-virus software.
What is It?
The University of Vermont [1], like many college and government organizations,
provides anti-virus software for its network users. Their instructions say:
"Anti-virus software is a software utility which monitors all disk and
network activity on your computer for known virus behaviors. When virus activity
is detected, the anti-virus software halts the activity and removes or cleans
the virus.
"Due to the rapidly-changing nature of computer viruses, an anti-virus
product is only as good as its virus definition set. This is a file which contains
information on all currently known viruses, worms, and Internet Trojans. Anti-virus
software must be updated to obtain the latest definition sets frequently."
As you might imagine, if your software's virus definition set is not current,
you might as well not have it.
Who's figuring this stuff out? According to PCMag.com, "ICSA Labs [2],
in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the only laboratory that certifies personal
anti-virus software for virus detection and removal. Software companies pay
ICSA to verify that their anti-virus programs will detect 100 percent of the
viruses on the current WildList [3], a catalog of all viruses currently on the
loose. ICSA updates its certifications once a month, after running tests under
every major operating system."
Lab tests of the most popular products show that they are all effective against
the thirty most commonly found viruses, as defined by the Wildlist.
Name Two of Them
The market leader is Norton Anti-virus, from Symantec. Many people and enterprises
are loyal to McAfee. There are many anti-virus vendors, and if you would like
to learn more about the different ones, please feel free to follow the links
found at the RootsWorks website (listed below).
Here's where part of the confusion comes in. Choosing an anti-virus vendor is
like choosing an auto mechanic—it's hard to tell a good one from a bad one
until it's too late. I can't tell you whether to do business with Norman's Car
Repair or to use Norman's Anti-virus Software. For example, I consider myself
fairly familiar with this topic, but I have only heard of one of the five programs
listed at About.com's anti-virus page.
I generally tell people that they should purchase something they are comfortable
with. The choice between products is often no different from the choice between
chocolate and vanilla ice cream. With anti-virus software, I'm glad to break
that tradition and tell you to buy the best one that you can afford. You won't
save much money buying the cheapest ones, if you factor in the cost of getting
a virus that forces you to reformat your computer's hard drive, reinstall all
your software, and restore your data from your backups.
Another important step to take is to be sure that you have the current updates
for your operating system software, whether it's Windows or Mac OS.
The third type of software is the online virus scan. This is a program that
works over the Web, as opposed to one that you install on your hard drive. McAfee
charges $30 for a year of online virus scans.
What's the Down Side?
First of all, the messages. "Norton Anti-virus has determined that your
computer is infected with a virus." That sounds serious. But NAV is only
telling me that it caught one, before it infected my computer. Guys, can you
re-word those messages so that I don't have to wonder if the program I bought
from you is reporting a failure or a success?
Second, the programs themselves. They take up computer resources, and they require
updates. Norton software comes with twelve months of update subscriptions, but
after that it's $9.95 per year. Per computer. McAfee charges $14.95 for a similar
service.
Third, it never ends. John C. Dvorak, in his article "The Two Step Virus
Attack [4]," lists a number of bad things that viruses could do, but for
some reason, don't. His key point is that the Klez virus goes after your anti-virus
software, and without that, you are wide open to other attacks.
What's the Genealogy Connection?
This isn't strictly a genealogy problem. However, it seems that each day the
number of people who use a computer for genealogy grows, and most of us are
not professional anti-virus programmers. I, for one, don't have any interest
in learning about viruses. I'm still more worried that I may die of old age
before I finish researching my family history. I don't have any time for such
foolishness as computer vandalism.
Link Me Up (more stars is better)
February 2002 article by Juliana Smith "To Forward or Not To Forward, That
is the Question" ****
A good introduction for genealogists
Practicing Safe Genealogy: Protecting Yourself from E-mail Viruses **
Another set of tips for e-mail protection
The RootsWorks Website ****
Contains more information that expands on this article.
What Else?
Some anti-virus programs claim that they use "heuristics" to identify
unknown viruses by monitoring for virus-like activity. In lab test, this great
idea has proven that it's not ready for prime time; it doesn't work yet. As
a result, it becomes more important to keep your virus definitions up to date.
Also, even if your anti-virus software is monitoring your e-mail for viruses,
you should still run a weekly scan of your entire system.
In addition to anti-virus software, you don't find much privacy online unless
you protect yourself from pop-ups, spam, and other attacks. Firewall hardware
and software are required.
NOTES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for
generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you. Whether you have something
to add or something to ask, please point your browser to www.rootsworks.com/forums
and discuss this or any topic related to the use of technology in family history.
Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer problems.
Visit the RootsWorks website for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture
schedule.
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