ACS_JAN@uwrf.bitnet (John Nierengarten) (12/20/90)
I am rather new to this list and have been scanning the digests for useful information. My main motivation for joining is to get up to speed on virus detection and prevention on PC/MS DOS machines, as we have many located in offices and student accessible labs. We haven't had a serious problem with viruses as yet, but there are signs that our charmed existence may be about over with. We are interested in virus prevention on other platforms as well, as we have an increasing number of Macintoshes in labs and offices, a VMS VAX and a small net of Sun workstations. However on those machines we've either already addressed the problems or it doesn't represent as serious a threat to our operations. My question is, can anyone recommend some good basic information to start with such as a magazine article, book or archive message that explains the fundamentals of virus detection and prevention for the PC/MS DOS world. I would like to know (only in general terms) a bit more about how there are created and propagated, the various types and the dangers they present and best method of dealing with them. I would also like recommendations on anti-virus software for MS-DOS systems. What are the top two or three virus detection/prevention programs, shareware or commercial? A response to this query would be appreciated and I'm sure would help any other readers in the same boat. John Nierengarten, Director, Academic Computing Center University of Wisconsin - River Falls.