GOOD HABITS WILL KEEP YOUR COMPUTER VIRUS-FREE

Even the newest computer users have heard about viruses. Even the most experienced computer users have unwittingly infected their system. There are literally thousands of programs that fall into the category of virus. Their writers are looking for attention, or maybe they're mad at the world. Whatever, you have to guard against them.

Here's how it works: Let's say there's a guy named Joe. Someone sends Joe an e-mail. It has an attachment that says "Interesting Program." Curious, Joe clicks on the attachment to open it. Whatever he sees doesn't interest him, so he deletes the e-mail.

Unbeknownst to Joe, the real payload in the attachment was a virus. When he clicked on the attachment, the virus was activated. It installed itself on his hard drive and began its dirty work. It also went to Joe's address book, where it found your e-mail address. So it sent itself to you, and used the return address of Tom, who is also in Joe's address book. When you received the e-mail, you saw the return address was Tom's, so you opened the attachment. Now you're infected, and everybody in your address book will get a virus message.

Rule No. 1: Don't open attachments you weren't expecting! Call the sender to be sure he or she sent it.

Rule No. 2: Buy and install anti-virus software. Set it up so it is always running in the background. Also, tell it to update itself automatically. This is very important. New viruses come out regularly. The anti-virus programs must be updated regularly so they recognize and kill the viruses. Anti-virus programs can go to the manufacturer's site automatically when you are on the Internet, and update themselves.

By Kim Komando