When I ask someone what they use their computer for, they usually say they only browse Web sites and read email. What I find interesting is how they will say this as if accessing Web sites on the internet is a simple act involving little or no risk. Few users realize how complex internet access, email, and WEB browsing is. Any computer connected to a network, in the background, is constantly accessing sites and services. Anti-Virus software is not perfect, nor is it intelligent; it is only software, doing what it was told to do.
Installing anti-virus software only protects your computer from known virus threats; not new viruses. Also, internet worm protection is usually the job of a firewall and not Anti-Virus software. Many spy ware attacks are not detected by your Anti-Virus or firewall. Even when Anti-Virus software is installed, a computer connected directly to the internet through a cable modem without a Firewall will become infected with a worm virus within a few minutes of connecting to the World Wide Web network. It is no wonder users are confused when there are so many ambiguous terms describing a network.
Some Things to Consider
Network: 2 or more computers connected
Internet: 2 or more computers connected
LAN: 2 or more computers connected
WEB: 2 or more computers connected
NET: 2 or more computers connected.
WAN: 2 or more computers connected.
Are you getting the picture yet? Yes, the list of definitions above is absurdly over simplified; but they are accurate to a degree. When I ask a user if they are connected to a network, and they say, “no, I just use the internet.”, well you start to see the problem; the internet is a network, in fact it is an International Network. LAN, WAN, NET, Network, Internet, Extranet, WEB, are all words describing various forms a network can take.
Many Cable and DSL Modems DO NOT contain a basic built-in firewall; and even if they do, a firewall is configurable, and out of the box they are usually configured to a relaxed security policy or just turned off. Also, a properly configured firewall can be circumvented when a user downloads software from the internet or receives email with file attachments.
Sophos P-L-C is a computer company in Britain that makes software for protecting computers against viruses and worms. Sophos is the fourth largest anti-virus company. Sophos says about 80,000 computer viruses are now known to exist. The experts say about 600 new computer viruses are released into the Internet each month.
Considering that Symantec or Sophos can only release updated signature files after a new virus is discovered, it becomes obvious that regardless of how current your virus signature files are, anyone can be infected by being the first computer exposed to a new virus strain.
The only real protection from computer system failure and data loss is a good working backup. The only way to test your backup procedure is to rename a file and then restore it from backup. If you only backed up the C:\My Documents\ directory, then here is a short list of just some items you’ve lost:
v All Internet Shortcuts
v Anything in MS Outlook
v Anything in Outlook Express
v QuickBooks data & local backups
v All Word (Office) Templates
It’s the Year 2007, do you know where your 2006 files are? Yes? How about putting that to the test. If lightening strikes your computer dead and everything is lost; how will you restore you lost files?