Personal Growth / Mind / Computers

Virus/Antivirus


Is the World-Wide Web the friend or foe of computer viruses? The unregulated nature of the Internet and the ease with which anyone can create a home page arguably make it easy for viruses to spread. Yet the Web is rapidly becoming your best defense against viruses. The immediacy of the Web is being exploited by antivirus forces, which post information about new and existing viruses daily. These forces include top-tier antivirus software vendors, governmental bodies, and researchers. At the following sites you'll glean late-breaking information, searchable virus databases, information about antivirus products, and in some cases even fully functional, downloadable, antivirus tools.

The Best

If you could make only one stop on the Web for all of your antivirus needs, you'd have a difficult time doing better than the home page of Stiller Research, developer of the Integrity Master antivirus and data integrity utility. You'll find a tutorial about how viruses and antivirus products work, a discussion of common myths about viruses, descriptions of viruses currently in the wild, and late-breaking virus-related news. You'll also learn about Integrity Master and can download a fully functional, 60-day trial copy. This site can serve as your one-stop solution.

Not to be outdone, Data Fellows provides diverse FAQs, bulletins, and fact sheets, including extensive extracts from the VIRUS-L mailing list. But the site's strongest suit is its searchable database of virus descriptions. You can browse it alphabetically or search with a form that returns information about not only the specified virus but also related viruses. A quick list of the most-accessed virus descriptions is also available for browsing. Not surprisingly, you can read all about Data Fellows' antivirus product, F-PROT, and order a free test copy. Together with these features, some great links to related Web sites make Data Fellows an excellent place to begin your on-line antivirus pursuit.

IBM maintains a couple of separate virus-related home pages, but you'll want to begin at IBM Antivirus Products and Services. You'll find not only ample general information and white papers, but also specific help when you're confronted with virus emergencies and need information pronto. Lastly, IBM details its antivirus products and service, though you must order these by phone.

Telstra Corporation's Computer and Network Security Reference Indexis in essence a central source of information about virus issues. You'll find information about security products and services from a variety of vendors, FAQs, relevant ftp sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, and virus advisories. A beginner's guide to building an Internet firewall is under construction. Though the site's resources, which focus principally upon the needs of commercial, networked environments, are extensive and shouldn't be missed.

The Rest

Don't bypass a refreshing site we found in Slovenia that provides a hot list of newly discovered viruses and links to many of the better sites reviewed in this story. But the site's uniqueness lies in a list of not-so-real, tongue-firmly-in-cheek fake viruses. Did you know, for example, that the Paul Revere Virus is a revolutionary virus that warns you about an impending hard disk attack: one if by LAN, two if by C:>? And have you heard about the Imelda Marcos Virus, which "subtracts money from your Quicken account and spends it all on expensive shoes it purchases through Prodigy"? The Webmaster reminds us that we need to keep things in perspective through humor, even when dealing with otherwise serious subjects such as viruses.

The Italian Computer Antivirus Research Organization is home to scattered international facilities that test antivirus products. Here you'll find the results of their testing as well as texts related to antivirus research. If you want the news behind the news of antivirus research, check out this site.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Research Clearinghouse also offers reviews of antivirus products as well as archives of the VIRUS-L mailing list and miscellaneous interesting files you can download. The government is joining the antivirus party. Here's an opportunity to meet its representatives.

Rosenthal Engineering dances to the beat of a different drummer by providing free virus-simulation software you can use to test antivirus products on your own system.

Four more publishers of antivirus products maintain Web pages, though more are under construction. McAfee Associates provides information about its popular antivirus and other software, free copies of many utilities and antivirus programs, a corporate history, and press releases. Safetynet offers similar information supplemented by free evaluation copies of its products and FAQs to provide customer support. Sophos, manufacturer of antivirus and data security products, currently offers mostly product information, but plans to offer articles detailing the 20 most common viruses and how to remove them, discussions about viruses and Windows 95, computer viruses, Trojan horses, and worms. MIS Europe's page is home to the company's EMD Armor Plus and other antivirus products, which you can buy on-line. Remember to use caution when sending credit-card numbers across the Web. Laudably, MIS Europe offers an ordering option that requires only that you transmit your phone number. Beyond general virus-related information including a group of articles from the comp.virus newsgroup and product descriptions, this site also offers you an intriguing challenge: If you're the first person to introduce a virus successfully onto a PC on which EMD Armor Plus is properly installed, you win a high-powered, loaded Pentium PC.
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by JW (Jerry) Olson

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Copyright (c) 1995 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. Internet Life and the Internet Life logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.

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Internet Life Vol.1 No.1 Winter 1995