Back in the early days of personal computers viruses began to appear as users shared diskettes with each other. Very few programs had copy protection and it was common for a friend to give you a copy of a game or utility on a diskette for you to use on your computer. Some misguided hacker thought it would be "cool" if he added computer code on one of these diskettes so that when someone put it in their computer and ran it, it would do something unintended. It some cases it would be a benign joke message and in other cases it would go as far as deleting files on your computer. Viruses became such a major problem that companies started selling Antivirus software utilities to protect your computer. The battle of Virus writers versus Antivirus utilities went on for years. By the mid 90s, the good guys had all but won the war. It became very rare to see a computer infected with a virus.

Life was good for a short time. With the advent of Email and the Internet, a whole new crop of viral infections started to spring up. In 1999, as the IT Director for a Fortune 500 company, my team protected our company from the infamous Melissa email virus. This virus was credited for infecting and temporally shutting down email for 20% of all business computers worldwide. To this day; saving my company from this virus is one of my proudest professional achievements. Email viruses continue to be an ongoing threat today.

Today's biggest threat is Spyware. Spyware is different because its main purpose is not to damage your computer but to use your computer. In most cases, once infected, your computer redirects your Internet browsing to a website full of ads. The hope is that you'll click on one of these ads which can make money for the Spyware creators. Spyware can also take control of your computer and use it as a Zombie. For more information click on the links below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_computer

http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160200005

The good news is that I believe if you follow the next steps, you should be able to avoid most if not all computer infections.

1.      If you have Windows Vista, you already have Windows Defender.  Windows Defender is Microsoft's free Antispyware utility. This utility does a good job of protecting you from Spyware infections. The best part is that this utility runs in the background and is being updated and upgraded all the time by Microsoft.  If you have Windows XP, you should install Windows Defender ASAP.  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=435BFCE7-DA2B-4A6A-AFA4-F7F14E605A0D&displaylang=en&mg_id=10134

2.     Although viruses have become very rare, all Windows users should have an Antivirus program installed. I don't recommend you use one of the big security suites: Norton Antivirus, McAfee or Trend Micro. These utilities do the job but at a high price in capability and performance. Many of my clients have had very serious program conflicts caused by these utilities. These programs just don't play well with others. They can also slow your computer down to a snail's pace. I've been using AVG Antivirus for almost 10 years and it is by far the least intrusive on your computer system while still giving you the protection you need. http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=pop.software

3.     Install the latest Windows updates. It's most important that you make sure you've upgraded to Internet Explorer 7.  Internet Explorer 6 had some serious security holes that can compromise a computer while surfing the web.

4.     Make sure not to open email attachments from unknown senders. When in doubt, don't open them. Don't click on ads while surfing the Internet.