What is a Virus?

Traditionally a virus is a small program that is designed to "infect" computer systems by duplicating itself and copying itself onto other computers. In the old days before the internet and local networks were mainstream, most viruses spread via floppy disks. If you put a floppy into an infected machine, the virus would detect the floppy in the drive and copy itself onto it. When the floppy was transferred to another computer, the virus would "spring" from the floppy and infect the other computer. Modern viruses operate in a similar manner, though the risk of infection from a floppy disk, or other removable media device is far less than the risk of being infected from the internet, or via email.

What Else is a Virus?

There are many types of "malware" that are sometimes (incorrectly) described as viruses. Trojans, Worms, Rootkits etc... But what is important is not so much the terminology, but the fact that threats to your computer systems must be guarded against and avoided.

For the scope of this guide we will take all malware threats to be viruses - even if in real life they differ from the definitions above.

How Do I Get a Virus?

There are various ways that a virus can get onto your system:

• From an infected USB pen drive
• From an infected floppy disk, CD-ROM, DVD or other removable media
• Via an email attachment
• Directly via connection to the internet (Worms)
• Inadvertently by installing a 3rd party program (Trojans)
• By visiting a website of low moral content
• Using an out of date or old web browser
• Not having the latest critical updates and security patches on your computer

We do not recommend that you go out of your way to "try out" a virus. Please don't be tempted to "fire one up" to see what it does.

How Do I Protect My Computer?

Most people are aware of the value of a good anti-virus package these days. No computer should ever be connected to the internet without one. When your computer system was installed by Aquila an integrated anti-virus system will have been installed both on your computer and on the servers on your network.

The value of good quality cannot be overstated, there are many free anti-virus packages around that will offer *some* protection. But always opt for a known reliable anti-virus package that is widely regarded as being up to the job.

A good anti-virus package will sit in the background as you use your computer, silently monitoring every file that you open, and every file that enters your computer to make sure it is virus free. Some of the lesser packages can slow your system down considerably with this monitoring so again, make sure the package you are using is "lightweight" in so much as it doesn't slow down your system. The anti-virus systems that Aquila recommend have already been selected on the criteria of least impact on performance.

Occasionally it pays to run a full virus scan of your system. Certainly if you fear you may have been infected it will provide peace of mind to carry out a full scan, however full virus scans are not required as long as your anti-virus package supports good quality real time monitoring.

You Can Help Too...

Whilst your anti-virus package will protect you from most digital menaces, there is much you can do yourself to bolster your protection. Here are a few tips:

• Never open an email attachment that you are unsure of.
• Never click on links in an email that you are unsure of.
• If your computer ever pops up a warning, read it and understand it. Do not just close the message and hope for the best, it may be your anti-virus software asking you what to do about a threat.
• Be on your guard when surfing the web, not every message you see on the screen is genuine. If in doubt close your web browser.
• Do not visit web sites of low moral fibre. Websites that offer dodgy software downloads and other seedy things are almost always full of nasties waiting to trap you with one wrong click.
• Never install programs on your computer without consent from your Aquila support contact, or your manager. Many seemingly fun "free" programs are full of nastiness under the surface.
• Make sure your computers are well maintained.

For all the above, if in doubt contact your Aquila support representative, or ask your manager.

How Your System is Protected Behind the Scenes

Aquila business systems are designed to be resilient and robust, featuring many safety and protection features that help to guard against malware threats.

Protection against internet based threats such as worms is provided by means of carefully configured corporate grade firewalls on the perimeter of your network. You can think of this as a doorman that stands between you and the internet, that only allows traffic to pass in and out if it is safe to do so.

Email servers such as Exchange 2000, 2003 & 2007 are fully protected with integrated virus scanning systems so that even if the anti-virus software on your computer were to fail, an infected email hitting your internal email server would be cleansed before you even saw it. For mail servers running Exchange 2003 SP2 or later advanced spam blocking is also implemented to reduce the risk of being exposed to questionable email threats.

Good security policies also help protect against viruses, by reducing the privileges of user accounts and preventing users from running as "administrators" the surface area of a virus threat is greatly reduced. In other words, if a virus did manage to run under a user account, the virus would have limited access to things like shared folders on the network. If a virus ran under an administrator account, then it could easily spread to any shared folder that was reachable from its current location.

System updates must be regularly applied. Since virus threats can change on a daily basis, an Aquila network is configured to allow for daily virus definition updates. This means that within hours of a new virus emerging, your systems will be automatically updated with information on how to recognise and block the threat.  In addition, it is critical that all operating system updates are applied regularly, clients that take advantage of Aquila maintenance packages rest assured that their workstations and servers are professionally updated so as to keep the latest emerging threats at bay.