Information Technology (IT) Services: Virus Information

The following information describes computer viruses taken from the National Institute of Standards and Technology:

"Viruses are the colds and flus of computer security: ubiquitous, at times impossible to avoid despite the best efforts, and often very costly to an organization's productivity.

NIST recommends using a two-tiered approach for detecting and preventing viruses from spreading:

• On personal computers, install and use anti-virus software capable of scanning disks, attachments to email, files downloaded from the web, and documents generated by word processing and spreadsheet programs.
• Use anti-virus software at Internet gateways or firewalls to scan email attachments and other downloaded files.

Anti-virus software should be installed when the personal computer is initially configured. The software should be updated weekly with new virus definitions, and your vendor may provide an automated update feature." (http://csrc.nist.gov/virus/)

Several well known packages available are:

1. Norton - http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/index.jsp
2. McAfee - http://www.mcafee.com/us/
3. AVG Free Antivirus edition - http://www.mcafee.com/us/

**Please note Blue Ridge Community and Technical does not recommend any specific package - the sites mentioned are intended for informational purposes only.