Anti-Virus Programs and Online Scanners
Viruses, worms and trojan horses still attack computers — they come in emails, they arrive completely unexpectedly in unpatched Windows hole, and they arrive via “drive-by downloads.” Anti-virus programs continue to battle viruses. They now attack worms, trojan horses and phishing attacks, too.
It is actually amazing in today’s world, but there are still people who don’t run an anti-virus program on their computer. I often run into people whose common complaint is that “the computer is running slowly.”
Most of the time, the computer has picked up some spyware or trojans that are causing the problems. However, sometimes, the problem is that the computer has multiple virus infections in addition to spyware, trojans and automatic downloaders.
Occasionally, the computer is up-to-date on its Windows Updates, Office Updates and Anti-Virus software. The virus might have gotten in before the anti-virus vendor got the signature in the updates. Other times, though, the computer isn’t running an anti-virus program.
I’ve also seen computers with old (e.g., 1998) versions of Norton Antivirus running all the time, but without current virus signatures — in other words, providing no real protection. Other times, the computer owner has the antivirus program, but it is not running.
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