The Melissa virus and the Chernobyl (CIH) virus which struck on April 26 made lot of headlines recently, sending a big scare throughout the computer world. Both these viruses spread rapidly throughout the world and the Internet was the most potent carrier of these viruses. Virus hoaxes have always been an integral part of the Internet with atleast one such e-mail hitting my mailbox every week. More often than not these are forwarded by naive Internet users whose intentions are noble but they end up creating heaps of junk mail, clogging up the Internet. So the next time you get such a mail do not in any case forward the mail unless you are certain that the warning is legitimate. Be a responsible citizen of cyberspace, stop spreading virus hoaxes.To stay well informed about any new viruses threatening destruction, subscribe to the mailing list at Virus Central http://www.drsolomon.com/vircen/index.cfm managed by Dr. Solomon's, the leading anti-virus developers. Symantec the makers of the ever popular Norton anti-virus have an anti-virus research center at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html . CNET.com has a great section dedicated to viruses at http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reports/Special/Virus. This section deals with everything, from which software is the best to which virus is the deadliest. The reports at CNET as always are top-class. IBM has its anti-virus section at http://www.av.ibm.com.
New viruses are constantly emerging so don't just lie back and think you are safe if you have got anti-virus software installed. You have to keep updating the virus definitions for these software, especially if you use the net and often download stuff. All the top anti-virus manufacturers have their websites and most are frequently updated.
Like in the case of the CIH virus, notices about the virus striking on April 26 were all over the net weeks in advance. Only if users had been more careful, lot of expense and loss of data could have been prevented. Do visit the Netizen's Voice site at http://members.tripod.com/iecolumn. Find me at harshad@workmail.com.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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