Creative Connections

From time to time you may get an email warning you that a "fatal" virus is about to attack your PC and to pass it on to all your colleagues. Treat this with suspicion - it is usually a scam. The best way to check it is to Google a chunk of the text or go to your Anti-Virus software web site and search for it. You will soon find out that the message is a well known scam, so just delete it.

Any PC accessing the Internet or connected to another device that is accessing the Internet is vulnerable to attack from viruses. These most commonly invade via e-mail, but can also come through files downloaded from the Internet or can be loaded on to the system from CD's or other portable media.

Any company with more than one PC should have an anti-virus policy. Most new PC's come now with the antivirus software already loaded on. The best known are Norton and McAfee but there are plenty of others that do the job. All of these provide a means to upgrade regularly (and for free) from the Internet, by downloading the latest versions of viruses. It is essential to update at least once a week, because new viruses are appearing all the time.

You must set up the software so that it automatically checks your hard disk at frequent intervals