Questions About Viruses

How can I protect myself against viruses?
The first things you should do are 1) Buy or download a free antivirus program. Update that antivirus program, then run a full scan of your system. 2) Do not open Email attachments--even if you know who they're from. Some Email worms will send mail from a friend or loved-one's computer, so the send might appear to be from someone you know, but might actually contain a virus. 3) Stay away from shady sites.

What is a good free antivirus?
There are many great free antivirus programs. AVG Antivirus and Avast! are a couple of good ones. You can also do online scans from Housecall. While Housecall will not give you real-time protection, it will scan your drives and help remove viruses already on your computer.

Will my firewall protect me from viruses?
No. While some firewalls may save you from worms scanning the Internet for open ports, a firewall will not save you from Human error virus infection, such as opening email attachments or partaking in file sharing.

Can viruses affect my hardware?
No. While in theory a virus can erase the BIOS of a PC and some even manage to erase all the data on hard drives, this type of damage is not permanent.

What are Trojans?
A Trojan is a program you might willingly put on your computer that turns out to actually be a virus.