knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts) (12/12/90)
I was recently warned by someone that the computer viri are everywhere, and that if I didn't get an anti-viral program soon, I would likely lose all of my data. Who was this person? You guessed it: a sales person. How likely is it that I could be infected? I have some low-cost share- ware, and use Prodigy. I suppose to be on the safe side, I should get the viral program. Can someone recommend a good one. Do these programs really work? Thanks, tom
matth@progress.COM (Matthew J. Harper) (12/12/90)
knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts) writes: >I was recently warned by someone that the computer viri are everywhere, and >that if I didn't get an anti-viral program soon, I would likely lose all >of my data. Who was this person? You guessed it: a sales person. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ My personal experience with sales people in the computer realm is that on the AVERAGE they cannot answer any of my real questions. I put little faith in sales people until they prove to me they can understand some of the technical *stuff* behind my questions. I have met some very competent ones though. Viruses are real. However, if you are careful, you will not get bitten by the bug. If you take software from anyone, legal or not (that's another issue, lets keep it that way :-), make sure you know where it came from. Shareware is a wonderful thing, and many places will provide guarantees for the disks they sell. This is not to say that it will not contain a virus, but It's better than just buying from some fly-by-night company (or from the trunk of some guys car...). I have an anti-viral program. I have never needed it for myself. I helped a friend fix his machine. He went on and on about this virus he had that kept killing his machine, but the viral detection software he bought did not work. It turned out he had a corrupted .EXE that was doing it (a real wonder why the software did not find anthing...) Sooooo, I now have the software. Just be careful, do regular backups, and you will be fine. Always know who has access to the machine(s) in question too. Many places of work are destined for getting a virus because anyone can do anything on the machines. I do not know anyone AT ALL who has suffered from a hit. How many people? A couple of hundred that I can be sure of. Judge for yourself. Matth -- Matthew J. Harper UUCP: mit-eddie!progress!matth Progress Software Corp. Internet: matth@progress.com 5 Oak Park Disclaimer: My words & ideas, That's all. Bedford, MA 01730
knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts) (12/13/90)
After all of the warnings I got in email, I have decided to protect myself. I bought the program Pro-scan. Does anyone know if this is any good? I bought it before I got the shareware recommendations. Oh well. By the way, how do these programs work? How is the virus detected? It seems that new virii must appear often, always one step ahead of the newest virus detector. I guess that I should get upgrades quite often. thanks to all who responded, tom
mahrk@ccicpg.UUCP (MHR {who?}) (12/15/90)
Just for the record (and not as any kind of flame, insult or other offense), the plural of "virus" is "viruses". Virus is not a latin word, hence using the standard latinized plural form "viri" is not correct, and "virii" is an interesting new word for which I am sure there is no current valid definition. Okay? Good. Maybe this should be in the FAQ (although it seems that no-one ever reads them... )-: -- Mark A. Hull-Richter Witty comment (identified for those who lack wit): ICL North America ^^^^^^^^^^^^^-----------vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv 9801 Muirlands Blvd UUCP: ccicpg!mahrk Go ahead, flame me. I have Irvine, CA 92713 (714)458-7282x4539 a /dev/null on my machine.
Tony_Prisk@f110.n771.z3.fidonet.org (Tony Prisk) (12/16/90)
FSC-Control: EID:e577 15905c60 TK> I was recently warned by someone that the computer viri are TK> everywhere, and that if I didn't get an anti-viral program TK> soon, I would likely lose all of my data. Who was this person? TK> You guessed it: a sales person. TK> How likely is it that I could be infected? I have some low-cost TK> share- ware, and use Prodigy. I suppose to be on the safe side, TK> I should get the viral program. Can someone recommend a good TK> one. The infection of Computers by Viruses in this Country is now commonplace and I Know of several people who have had their computers infected. The UK Magazine PC Today which is available in this country has had viruses on its August and November Disks. The Stoned virus is probably the most common and is the easiest to remove. The best virus program available is Scan. It is a Shareware program and should be available on most BBS. It is updated monthly and currently checks for almost 200 known viruses. The firm that has released Scan also has a program called Clean which gets rid of the viruses once detected by Scan. Cheers, Tony Prisk. --- via Silver Xpress V2.27 [NR] * Origin: Genesis - The Home of Magnum - Christchurch *NZ* (3:770/110) SEEN-BY: 770/101 110 115 605 771/110 150 170 180 772/20 50 140 774/501 FSC-Control: PATH: 770/110 101 772/20 771/110
silver@xrtll.uucp (Hi Ho Silver) (12/23/90)
In article <9012182011.AA18197@f170.n771.z3.fidonet.org> Tony_Prisk@f110.n770.z3.fidonet.org (Tony Prisk) writes:
$The infection of Computers by Viruses in this Country is now commonplace
$and I Know of several people who have had their computers infected. The
$UK Magazine PC Today which is available in this country has had viruses on
$its August and November Disks.
I've been working with computers since before the IBM PC came along, and
hadn't met a virus until this summer. But they are becoming more and more
common, and the number of viruses in the world is rising exponentially
(it is expected that the number of new viruses discovered this year will
exceed the total discovered in all years prior to this year - for the PC,
anyway). I'd never met a virus until late October of this year. I've
now met two, and I'll be very surprised if I don't meet several more
in 1991.
Infection is becoming more and more common for several reasons, including:
- widespread use of PCs
- "It'll never happen to me, I don't use BBSs" and similar thinking
- LANs (I've had to disinfect a LAN that was spreading a virus like
crazy, due to poor security)
- the fact that you can be infected for weeks or months with some viruses
before you notice; during this time, you may spread the infection to
many other people
$The Stoned virus is probably the most common and is the easiest to remove.
It depends on what tools you have. McAfee's Clean, though it is an
excellent program, will not always be able to remove Stoned from your
partition table. If you don't have a program that can rebuild it, and
don't know how yourself (very, very few people do), you may have to
reformat (low-level) your drive to get rid of it.
$The best virus program available is Scan. It is a Shareware program and
$should be available on most BBS. It is updated monthly and currently checks
$for almost 200 known viruses. The firm that has released Scan also has a
$program called Clean which gets rid of the viruses once detected by Scan.
Version 67, which was the most recent until about a month ago, will
recognize 144 viruses and 223 sub-strains. Most of these are rare, however;
there are 10 viruses which account for over 95% of all infections.
You can contact McAfee Associates at (408) 988-3832 to register your
copy of SCAN/CLEAN/etc. Their BBS numbers are (408) 988-4004 (2400 bps)
and (408) 988-5138 ("HST 9600 baud", they say). They also have a program
which loads as a TSR (memory-resident) and will actively protect you from
viruses, rather than relying on you to scan your files. I'm sure they'd
be happy to tell you all about their products.
DISCLAIMER: I have no connection to McAfee Associates except as a
satisfied customer.
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