Hopefully by now, all of my readers will have installed a good antivirus program, firewall, and spyware detector. I have written about the threats that we all face on a daily basis, and have done my best to inform you of them, and how to protect yourselves from those risks. Despite our best efforts, it is still possible that some virus or other form of malware might penetrate our defenses, and create a threat to our safe computing.

Antivirus software, regardless of brand, is generally reactive, rather than proactive, in that the publisher must receive a copy of the virus before it can analyze it, and come up with an effective defense against it. According to published studies this may take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for the antivirus publisher to add the new virus signature to their updates. Another way to look at this is to think of your morning daily newspaper; when you read it today, it was really yesterday’s news, not today’s news. That is somewhat how antivirus updates work; today’s update may be mostly viruses discovered yesterday (or before), leaving you unprotected against any of today’s new viruses or other threats. Even if your antivirus software offers updates as needed, sometimes several times a day, these updates are still generally viruses found earlier, with a significant time lag from discovery to update. Those computer users who update their antivirus software less frequently than daily are at an even greater risk of having their computers infected by the new virus of the day.

Several of the antivirus publishers are now releasing updates hourly, or as frequently as necessary, in order to reduce the gap between discovery and protection. My antivirus is set to check hourly for updates while I am online, and while there is often not an hourly update, I do see frequent updates with one or two new virus signatures added to the database. On a daily basis, it is not unusual for 50 to 70 new viruses to be detected, rendering those users or antivirus programs that update less frequently extremely vulnerable to infection, or worse. It bears repeating here, as mentioned in a previous column, that many of the new viruses contain a payload which will deactivate and effectively kill most major brands of antivirus software, leaving the system totally unprotected. If one of these new viruses should attack a system before the protection against it is installed, then the antivirus protection on the infected computer is useless. The user will not likely know that his computer and security has been compromised, as the antivirus icon will still appear near the clock, and automatic updates will still run, apparently successfully, but these new viruses destroy the heart of the protective antivirus software, leaving the computer unprotected and open to additional attacks.

Fortunately, for those who may be a little lacking in the security department by not having their antivirus software updated frequently enough, or those that would just like a little peace of mind that their computer is reasonably clean of viruses, Trend Micro offers "Housecall", a free, online scan for viruses, Trojans, security problems, and other forms of malware. Trend is not alone in offering free online scans, as several other companies, such as Panda, NOD32, McAfee, and Symantec also offer free scans, but in my opinion the Housecall is the best of the group. Trend keeps Housecall updated on a continuous basis, making it as current as possible.

Housecall can be found at housecall.antivirus.com (there is no WWW), and requires that Internet Explorer be used as the browser. Upon going to the website, the user has two choices, the original antivirus only scan, and the new Housecall version 6.0 "beta". I would recommend that everyone tries the new version by clicking on the appropriate icon. You may be presented with a choice of a virus only scan, or a full security scan; select the complete scan option. Another page will open asking the user to select the country that they are connecting from; this is the only personal information that is gathered and I for one am proud to select "United States". The reason for selecting a country is for the purpose of maintaining a real-time virus infection map, also available on the left edge of the webpage. The next step is to download a small file from Trend (if your computer presents a security warning, it is OK to download). Once downloaded and self-installed, a drive map will appear. I recommend that you select all of the hard drives on your computer by checking the appropriate boxes.

After the scan is completed, Housecall will present a list of any infections or other threats found. By clicking on the name of the threat, a browser window will be opened providing comprehensive information, if desired. Housecall can delete, remove, or quarantine almost all identified threats, including viruses, spyware, and other forms of malware. If a virus is found that destroys the antivirus software which is installed, it will be necessary to first remove the virus, and then reinstall and update the antivirus software. Scans such as this should be done on a frequent basis in order to insure the virus security of a system.

It must be noted that while online antivirus scans are very effective at detecting and removing any infections on the computer, they offer no continuing protection. An online scan should never be used as a substitute for good antivirus software, installed and configured properly, and updated very frequently.

For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here

Tulsa Computer Society 5/01/2005