The Conficker Virus: Protecting Your Computer

If you read the newspapers or watch the news, you are aware of the CONFICKER COMPUTER WORM. It is a virus that threatens computers throughout the world. News like this puts fear into the hearts of most of us. Am I vulnerable? What can I do to protect myself? Knowledge is power, so here are a few simple answers.

1. Who is vulnerable? According to my research, any computer running a Windows operating system is vulnerable.

2. What can I do to protect my computer? In today's environment, all computers MUST be protected by a good SECURITY SUITE and a FIREWALL. If you purchased a suite from McAffee, Norton or other security software company, you probably have both. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) include a firewall with their service, and, more and more, ISPs also offer free security suites. Having a security suite and firewall is not enough, however. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU KEEP YOUR SYSTEMS UPDATED. Be sure you have the latest Windows security updates and the latest updates to your security suites. If you haven't recently done so, go to your computer's Windows Update prompt and run it. Then open your security suite and run its update to ensure your security software and virus definintions are updated to the latest versions.

3. What else can I do? Lastly, NEVER OPEN AN E-MAIL ATTACHMENT FROM SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW AND TRUST. Opening e-mail attachments and unknown programs is the most common method of computer virus propagation. But, understand, just because you know and trust the sender of an e-mail attachment does not make it safe. That person's computer could be infected with a virus that sends e-mails with malicious attachments without the owner's knowledge, and that is why you need to complete the actions listed above.

According to my research, if your computer has the LATEST WINDOWS UPDATES and CURRENT VERSIONS of a SECURITY SOFTWARE and FIREWALL, you should be safe. For more information, read the Microsoft article about the Conficker virus at the website, below.

Protect Yourself from the Conficker Computer Worm