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Free Virus Information & Tools

		ARTICLES Removing Viruses, Trojans and Nasty Programs - Free Tools It is becomingly increasingly difficult to protect a home PC from malicious programs let alone keep privacy secure. The growth of the internet and innovations like cable and satellite connections serve to both delight us with their speed and frustrate us with the often harmful side effects when an unknown program slips through. Although its very easy to point fingers at the creator of the latest threat, often the fault lies no farther then the end of our own nose. When was the last time you updated the security patches for your operating system? It is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when we choose an operating system from a widely respected corporation but as a company grows in size, the desirability of using it as a target grows too. Allowing yourself to believe that nothing can happen will suit just find until one day your PC doesn't work anymore and to that end educating yourself is the best place to begin. If you aren't familiar with what exactly a virus is here are some terrific definitions provided by McAfee: What is a Virus? A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "Me, nude." What is a Worm? Computer Worms are viruses that reside in the active memory of a computer and duplicate themselves. They may send copies of themselves to other computers, such as through email or Internet Relay Chat (IRC). What is a Trojan Horse? A Trojan horse program is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application; a Trojan horse program purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but Trojan horse programs can be just as destructive. Many people use the term to refer only to non-replicating malicious programs, thus making a distinction between Trojans and viruses. Once you know what it is, the next step is removing it! Most major corporations today provide a variety of free tools and services to help get your PC back into top shape: McAfee Security McAfee FreeScan - Free Virus Scan McAfee Free Virus News Trend MicroSystems Housecall - Free Virus Scan Knowledgebase - Virus information Symantec Security Check - Test for Viruses, Test exposure to online threats Microsoft Security Microsoft Security Bulletins Windows Update Office Update