February 1999
Volume 2, Issue 2

Inside this Issue...

Social Science Computing Laboratory
Faculty of Social Science
Room 1228, Social Science Centre
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2

E-mail: ssts@uwo.ca
Web: www.ssc.uwo.ca
Phone: 519 661-2152
Managing Editor: Les Flodrowski

SSC Network Update

Anti-virus Software

Elizabeth Hill

Although they don't receive as much media attention today as they once did, computer viruses continue to be a plague to personal computers around the world. Currently there are over 16,000 known viruses with 300 to 350 new ones being reported each month. Some can be nothing more serious than a nuisance or a prank, causing a message to appear or make letters fall from the screen. Others are specifically designed to be destructive, overwriting selected data, deleting files or even wiping out an entire hard drive.

Viruses are actually small programs that replicate themselves. They work by attaching themselves to program files on a floppy or hard disk and spread to other programs whenever an infected file is used. Recently, a new type of macro virus that attacks Word and Excel document files has become a particular nuisance, especially to those who share files. The increased use of E-mail to exchange and distribute documents and programs increases the risk for encountering a virus.

The best defense against a virus attack is achieved by using anti-virus software and making sure that you always have the most recent version installed on your computer. SSCL provides the Dr. Solomon's Anti-virus Toolkit via the Network and loads the software on to all public workstations. Currently, the most recent version of Dr. Solomon's is 7.92. To install it or upgrade an older version, click on Start Þ SSC Network Þ Software Installs and Downloads Þ Add-Remove Programs Þ Dr. Solomon's Anti-virus Toolkit. The availability of new versions of Dr. Solomon's are announced regularly via a Network notice.

Note that Dr. Solomon's is the standard anti-virus software used at Western and is provided free to the university community via a site license obtained by Information Technology Service (ITS). As a user of the computing services of the Lab and the University, you can also install this software on your home computer by downloading it via the Internet. This is easily done by going to the Net Tools section of the SSCL home page and clicking on Software Downloads followed by Anti-virus Toolkit. The URL for Net Tools is www.ssc.uwo.ca/ssc/resources.html.