May 5th - 2006

Don’t let a virus get you down

Computer viruses are an unfortunate reality in today’s technological world. These nasty bugs that commonly show up in e-mail attachments are capable of eating all of your files including your business data.

Computer viruses are an unfortunate reality in today’s technological world. These nasty bugs that commonly show up in e-mail attachments are capable of eating all of your files including your business data.

What’s worse is they don’t only affect your computer. Most e-mail viruses automatically send themselves to everyone in your address book and you have to warn each of them that you inadvertently sent it to them. The best way to avoid this trouble is to protect your computer with anti-virus software.

There are many different types of anti-virus software available, and two popular choices are Norton and McAfee. Both are available to purchase and download from the Internet or you can buy these and other brands at most computer or office supply stores. Unfortunately, the inventors of computer viruses are constantly coming up with new ways to wreak havoc on us so even if you have anti-virus software installed, you will need to update your virus protection regularly – at least once a week. It’s best to activate the auto-update function so your protection always stays current.

Beware of attachments
Many of the newer viruses are actually “worms” which means they spread themselves without the need of human assistance. Most commonly, they use the e-mail address book on an infected machine to e-mail copies of themselves automatically and without the actual user's knowledge.

It used to be you could simply not execute attachments unless you knew the sender. But with these latest viruses, you will know the sender! The best advice is don’t run or read any attachments unless you've scanned your disk with a good, and frequently updated, anti-virus program.

Now, virus writers have become even sneakier and are commonly naming their damaging files with fake or misleading file extensions. Be sure to carefully read the entire name of any attachments you receive to make absolutely sure that any text files (TXT), photos (JPG) or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file attachments– which are all generally safe– are what you think they are. Remember, what the file name ends with is what it actually is. So, if it ends with a .vbs, .exe, .xls, or .doc, then it is capable of spreading viruses and needs to be scanned with anti-virus software.

Sadly, there will continue to be sinister hackers out there who would love nothing more than to mess up your computer. It seems to get more complicated by the day to protect yourself from these demons. In fact, there are now viruses that can spread themselves without relying on you to run an attachment at all!

But, this type can only launch itself if your Outlook Express is vulnerable and you can go to Microsoft’s Web site to download the latest security patch to prevent this from happening. For more information on viruses or anti-virus software visit any of the following sites: http://vil.mcafee.com/, http://www.symantec.com/, http://www.microsoft.com/.

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Ontario Real Estate Association

Jean-Adrien Delicano

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JeanAdrienD@orea.com

416-445-9910 ext. 246

Ontario Real Estate Association
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