"I love you".. three little words
that mean so much to many people who opened their mail in
early 2001 and found that their pc was not functioning correctly. the
"I love you" virus was just the tip of the iceberg
with hundreds of new viruses being recorded in 2003
and many more existing ones being tweaked and re released.
Terms like Dcom RPC, Nimbda have made into new broadcasts as government
departments and businesses alike are stuck down.
 so
just what is a computer virus after all I've never seen my machine with a
hanky and lemsip! put simply a virus is machine code that is operating on
your machine without your knowledge. contrary to common belief the most
viruses are not malicious, indeed many of them are system tools written by
Microsoft or other large companies. they can however be very dangerous if
manipulated to carry a "payload" or a nasty piece of code, we all rely on
our pc's to such an extent that being without them would be a disaster.
ok so let's say your thinking it could never happen to me? that's what I
thought until February last year. my machine purchased new from dell came
with Norton antivirus pre installed, great I thought but I don't really need
it.
then one morning I switched on my machine to get a rather stark message that
Norton had detected a bloodhound virus, Norton
took me through step by step in simple language to rid my pc of this little
blighter.
After this episode being the addicted techie that
I am, I spent several weeks researching viruses and how programmers such as
Norton work, the more I learnt the more I realised that I had some of the
best antivirus protection already installed on my system.
Norton's virus detection works in two main areas email scanning and system
scanning, let's start with email. the most likely source of an email borne
virus is an attachment, now you keep hearing people say don't open an
attachment if the sender is unknown to you. well that's wise advice but it
wouldn’t have stopped the "I love you" virus which spread by emailing itself
using your contacts database, so chances are it would have arrived from
someone you knew.
Most email scanning systems get round this by checking mail before it shows
up in your inbox, it does this by first placing your mail in a proxy a bit
like an decontamination chamber, where it can be checked for known viruses
before entering the main part of your system.
Norton does exactly this and uses it's vast database of virus definitions
currently standing at "64571" which compares very
well with the leading antivirus products in magazine tests.
The second function performed by the package is file or system scanning,
this thoroughly scans all files on your hard drive for known viruses, it can
be scheduled to happen automatically by using the event scheduling tool
provided. Also all files are automatically scanned when you open them which
provides another level of protection, this function is also integrated
within windows so a right click enables you to scan any file on demand.
Now don't be fooled by the blurb virus protection is not an exact science
and you are only protected against KNOWN viruses. Norton however goes one
step further with it's so called "Bloodhound" Technology, this clever code
looks for virus like behavior within your system.
 So what is virus like behavior? Do they congregate in a dodgy corner of your
system and sup on Bacardi Breezers or shuffle around wearing a Mac with a
honk if you think I'm a virus badge? No it's not that simple but most
viruses work by making subtle changes to your systems registry or INI files
(that's the real heart of your PC) and Norton watches these changes and
looks out for any new files that might be trying to do this.
So great it spots a virus and tells me but what good is that the damage is
done? Well if your lucky Norton can move the file into a quarantine area
before it gets the chance to make too many changes and even if it does
finish it's sabotage you can send the file to Norton for analysis.
When my system was infected it was by an unknown virus that Norton detected
as a "Bloodhound" and locked up in quarantine, it then gave me step by step
instructions to send it off. So how long did I have to wait....Only 4 Hours!
By return mail came a set of instructions and a small executable to remove
the nasty from my system, now that's what I call service.
Any virus system is only effective if you keep it up-to-date, this is my
weakness, I get a new product or piece of kit and follow the instructions
for a few weeks, then as time passes I move onto the next thing and all
those good intentions go to pot. In virus scanning this means my definitions
are not being updated and I am therefore vulnerable to any new nasties
recently created, luckily for people like me Norton includes live update.
This section of the product can be set to dial up either at set times or
whenever your machine is connected to the web and
check if a later version of definitions is available, if there is it
downloads them and installs them on your machine. This is all done in the
background so you can be busily working away in word while it does it, you
will however notice it if you are trying to access the web while it is
updating as it uses all the available bandwidth to download.
Live Update also checks for new versions or bug fixes of the programme
itself as well as checking for updates of any other Norton products you may
have like Norton Internet security.
Now all of this is great but what are Norton like if their software causes
unexpected problems with your machine?
I have had to use Norton's customer support twice and have found it to be
excellent, the best method is to use their bulletin boards, questions posted
are normally answered within 24hrs and are always very detailed with full
instructions on anything they ask you to change.
I've been using Antivirus 2003 and now 2004
for over a year and overall they have been excellent, providing protection
against the malicious side of the web. They are great value for money at
sub £40with the first
years updates included in the price (subsequent years are £2.99).
Performance wise 2004 is superb and like so many
good products most of the time you don't even know it's there.
Would I recommend Norton to you? Yes without doubt, but even if you should
decide Norton is not the right tool please make sure you have some form of
Antivirus.
And in the words of Shaun Taylor "Keep em Peeled"
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