Revised with new information as of September 13, 2005
Is Your Computer Sending Out Viruses
Without Your Knowing It?
Use Virus Software and Keep It Up To Date!
Did you know that your computer can send out viruses
without your knowing it? There are evil computer programs
created only to plant themselves on your computer and send
themselves as e-mails to everyone in your email address
book, to people you have received e-mails from recently,
or people you have written recently. Sometimes the
programs just merely replicate and cause no real harm;
often, however, they secretly destroy data on your
computer!
If you are a nonprofit organization, your credibility can
be adversely affected if users can trace a virus they have
received back to you, or if you lose valuable donor or
volunteer information, accounting data, etc. because of a
virus attack.
You have the means to make sure your computers are not
spreading viruses and aren't susceptible to attacks! It's
easy:
- if you already have virus software, look up the web
site for the manufacturer of this software regularly and
download the appropriate updated virus definitions,
upgrades and patches. If you feel that you don't have the
technical know how to do this, recruit a volunteer to
help!
- visit the TechSoup web site and type "virus" into the search
engine; you will have access to a myriad of resources
regarding preventing and countering computer viruses,
provided in easy-to-understand language.
- if you do not have virus protection software, INVEST IN IT NOW. Have a staff member or volunteer prepare a budget for two or three software options, and present this to your board of directors; one of them may be willing to sponsor the purchase of this software. And make sure that maintenance of this software is included in all future budgets for your organization.
And in case you haven't guessed: this newsletter topic was
prompted by my receiving 12 attempted attacks in one day,
including one that originated from the computer of a
friend of my mom's (who had no idea what her computer was
up to without her...).
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The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2012
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to another web site).
