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TL11.1_v5 28 Ontario School Library Association When you log on daily, do you take a few minutes to check for updates and install them? Our IT department makes this a requirement of everyone who brings a laptop into our network environment. If you plan to plug in, you have to stop by the Helpdesk and prove that you're up to date! ANTIVIRUS UTILITIES We are proactive about our health. Our chil- dren follow regular inoculation schedules for diseases they hopefully will never encounter. We get our annual flu shot for the same rea- son: it's called preventative medicine. Taking care of your computer's health is similar. Preventative steps need to be taken. Every computer sold these days comes with an antivirus software package installed. Symantec's Norton and McAfee's Virex are just a couple of the popular antivirus packages available. All antivirus programs act in a similar manner - they scan your hard drive for known virus codes and code snip- pets, isolating these bits and flagging them for your attention. You then have a choice: allow the utility to fix the suspect code or just completely delete the file. Some of the antivirus packages also offer to scan incoming e-mail, particularly the attachments, for suspicious coding. All the programs also give you a drop spot where you can drop and auto-scan any new file you've received on disk, CD or e-mail before you open it. Sounds good, eh? Ensure your computer is scanned and certified as clean, then keep it that way. But again, there's one uncontrol- lable factor in this equation: you! Are you the weakest link? Do you keep a current subscrip- tion to one of the reliable antivirus services? No, it's not a one shot deal. Just like your regu- lar OS updates, your antivirus utility needs a daily updating as well. New definitions are posted for every virus that comes along, often within hours of the first attack. Download this update to your antivirus utility and it learns to scan for and recognize the newest threats. Do you automatically scan all e-mail attach- ments before you open them? Do you scan all files people give to you? It only takes a few seconds and can prevent hours and hours of tedious clean-up after you've been infected. Colleagues have told me that they faithfully scan files from unknown senders but don't bother if it's from someone they know. That's an interesting but misguided concept. I can unsuspectingly pass on a computer virus to you even faster that I can pass on the com- mon cold! PERSONAL FIREWALLS At your school or office you use broadband network connectivity without concern. You trust your IT department to manage the net- work and to keep it secure and virus free. They run firewall servers that scan incoming data packets and filter out or isolate any potential problems. You share files and infor- mation freely within this network, confident that it is a safe operating environment. Then you go home. Your home computing environ- ment is also connected, through cable or DSL, to a nice, fast broadband network. Your e-mail and internet connections run great. You may even use a router (wireless or ethernet) to enable several home computers and your office laptop to share the internet connection and a printer. But when this home network was set up, did you stop to consider the need for securi- ty? Do you run a firewall? A surprising number of home broadband users don't, much to the joy of hackers and thrill seekers. With a broadband connec- tion and an energy-saving sleep cycle on the computer, many home users simply leave the home computer turned INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYTL