Protecting Your Computer Against Viruses

Protecting your computer and data against viruses is an ongoing process.  Unlike other applications and utilities, it is not sufficient to install an antivirus program and even to have it running in the background, scanning disks and attachments.  When you install an antivirus program, it includes a virus database (also known as a driver file, data file, definitions, or signature file) which contains specific information on tens of thousands of viruses.  This information enables the virus program to detect (and in most cases remove) these viruses.

However, each day a number of new computer viruses are discovered.  As antivirus software companies and research labs develop ways to detect and "clean" these viruses, they add the new information to the next update of their virus database. Without updating your virus database on a regular basis, your computer can not detect any virus that is in not in your current database.  A virus database update should not be confused with a program update.  Updates to the version of your antivirus software may be infrequent--often once every 6 months; however virus database updates are made available as often as once per week.

• Dr. Solomon releases new definitions for Virex each month.
• McAfee releases data files for Viruscan weekly.

In certain situations, when a new virus poses a particular threat, the software company may release an interim data file to offer protection until the next scheduled database update. Used only to provide temporary detection for the new virus, this "extra driver" or "extra data file" contains information about the specific virus.  This file should be deleted after the next database update.

The task of updating your computer can be time consuming and confusing.  LRDC Computing Services has developed an Antivirus Plan to make this process as easy as possible.