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Copyright © 1999 by Woody Liswood. All Rights Reserved
Norton AntiVirus 5.0
There are some programs that should be on your computer. Norton AntiVirus (Symantec-- 1-800-441-7234) is one of those programs. Now at version 5.0, this well proven and Internet upgradeable software does a superb job of finding, recognizing and getting rid of a vast variety of computer viruses.
I suspect that the vast majority of microcomputer users have never encountered a virus. If you only use store bought shrink-wrapped software, that may be the case, although there have been some virus infected software delivered by some major software houses. If you do not trade files with your friends, you may never encounter a virus. If you don't download games and other files from the Internet, your computer may be safe. BUT, if you have school age children in your house that share files with one another or if you frequently download from the Internet or trade files with your friends, then your chances of encountering a virus rise sharply.
Over the past 20 years, I have personally encountered 7 viruses in the wild. In all of these cases, the files were infected through a school system. In 3 of the cases, there was anti-virus software installed on the microcomputer but the anti-virus program had not recognized that a file was being installed that was infected. In every one of these cases, I used Norton AntiVirus to find and disinfect the file.
The most recent problem I encountered was when a student of mine from my research class at Sierra Nevada College told me he was told he had a virus in his Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. He did not discover the virus, but had uploaded a research file to someone who was participating in a research project and that person messaged him that there was a virus in the file. I had him copy the file to a floppy and let Norton AntiVirus have a look. Yep, he had the XMLaroux virus. This is a macro virus that infects Excel spreadsheets. I uninfected the file for him. I strongly encouraged him to get Norton's AntiVirus and install it immediately. Or, at least download a trial version from the Internet and disinfect everything.
With today's sophistication of anti-virus programs, in my opinion the most important features are the library of virus signatures that are available for the program and how often you can get these signature files updated. With Norton, you can log onto the Internet and receive the most recent upgrade with just a few mouse clicks. The second most important feature of an anti-virus program is that it monitors all files as they are copied to or download to your microcomputer. Then, when a virus is found, you can delete or disinfect the file as appropriate. Norton's AntiVirus does both well.
What Antivirus programs do is read the bit patterns of each file looking for specific unique patterns of bits as expressed in hexadecimal. Each virus, being a unique program, has a unique bit pattern that is called the virus signature. While AntiVirus reads each file it compares all bit sequences with a library of know signatures. When it finds a specific pattern the program next notifies you that it has found a known pattern and asks what you would like to do with the file.
Additionally, AntiVirus also monitors suspicious activity. If a program attempts to write over the Master Boot Record or other specific critical operating system files, on your hard drive, AntiVirus will notify you and ask if this is OK.
All in all, I would not start up a computer today unless I had AntiVirus monitoring everything and ready to do its thing.
You can get Norton AntiVirus as a standalone package or as part of Norton SystemWorks.