Tips & Tricks-September 2003

I hope you have all survived the last two weeks worth of worms and viruses. We managed to come through unscathed on our home computers. Even though this may be closing the barn door after the horse ran away, I decided to collect a list of resources to assist with handling future virus and worm problems rather than re-hash instructions you have seen everywhere else.

This list is by no means comprehensive as there are scores of antivirus software and services available. These are in no particular order nor do I recommend any one over another. Some of the sites offer a free on-line virus check, free tools and, in some cases, free anti-virus software.

Microsoft

Even though they do not sell an anti-virus product, they do maintain lists of current threats and provide an email alert bulletin. The virus alert page is at www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/virus/alerts/Default.asp. Microsoft also offers an email subscription service: www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/notify.asp

That service is the reason I had updated most of the Windows XP systems at work before Blaster hit.

McAfee

McAfee (www.mcafee.com) offers a number of products and services, including on-line checking for viruses. In addition, you can download some free tools targeting specific viruses or worms. For virus alert newsletters by email: http://dispatch.mcafee.com/us/default.asp. To review virus information on line: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp

You can also get information at http://www.nai.com (Network Associates is the parent company).

Symantec

Symantec is the home of the Norton Anti-Virus products (www.symantec.com/). They also offer some free downloads aimed at specific viruses or worms. I couldn’t find a virus alert subscription service, at least not a free one. They do have one for businesses at $299.00 per year. You can view lists and other information about threats at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/.

TrendMicro

Their anti-virus product is PC-Cillin. The page for home users is at http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/personal.htm. The site has an advisory page at http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/. You can subscribe to a weekly newsletter at http://www.trendmicro.com/en/security/report/overview.htm.

Panda

Panda (http://www.pandasfotware.com) offers both immediate and daily bulletins. You can find links to the subscription pages on the main page in the lower right corner. (It’s impossibly long).

They also have some free utilities targeted at specific threats. Look for a cute(?) animation that shows how So-Big works.

F-Secure

Their products include both anti-virus protection for desktops and Pocket PCs. Go to http://www.f-secure.com/products/radar/ to subscribe to alerts. As with all the sites, other information is available on the site.

F-Prot

One of their main claims to fame is that the Windows version of the product will even work on Windows 95. This one is liked by technical support people. They also have a free DOS anti-virus checker.

They offer an alert bulletin subscription at http://alerts.f-prot.com/cgi-bin/mf?lang=en.

AVG

They offer a free version of their software for “single home and non-commercial users” at http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php . The main site is at http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php, but I could not find any type of subscription service for alerts.

Microsoft List of Anti-Virus Software Vendors

Microsoft maintains a list of providers of anti-virus software at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q49/5/00.ASP&NoWebContent=1

If you don’t want to type in this long URL, search the Knowledge Base for article 49500.

How to set up automatic updates to Windows

One of the lessons that Blaster taught me is that it is important to install the security updates offered by Microsoft. (I had three XP systems at work that I had not yet updated that were hit by Blaster.) It took an hour per system to repair them, mostly because the Microsoft update site was inundated on Tuesday night when the intrusions peaked.

It is relatively easy either to visit the Microsoft update site periodically at http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp or to set up your system to do the updates automatically.

The automatic updates can be set up by going to System Properties. You can access it a number of ways, but the easiest is to right-click on the My Computer icon and select properties from the list. Select the Automatic Updates tab.

There you can select the options that best suit how you like to work. I like to use the first or second choices so I can set a System Restore point before I do the installation, but it’s really not necessary. If you install an update that trashes your system, you can usually go into Safe mode when you boot up and remove the offending fixes. They do show in the Add/Remove programs dialog box.

Then when there is an update, you will receive an alert. This makes doing the updates a little less painful. Of course, it would be even better if we didn’t have to do these updates so often. After Blaster, I believe there have been at least two additional updates.

For Windows 98 users, go to the Microsoft site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/ to get information on updating Windows 98.