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last modification: 13/06/2000 : Performed a spell check (sorry about that, couldn't do it sooner)
Preface
Computer viruses have always been a weird part of the computer security game. It is the aspect of computer security that gets the most press coverage, while it is probably the less dangerous to deal with (compared to trojans or intrusion). To many security experts, viruses are not such a big threat because you don't get infected if you practice safe computing practices. While this may have been the truth for a while, but it isn't the case anymore. For the past five years, the Internet have grown up quite a bit, now having millions of people with poor computer literacy online, from their houses or from businesses. While UNIX used to be a big part of the Internet (and still is), the fact remains that there are a lot of Microsoft networks connected to it at this time. A virus launched from the Internet can cripple down a business if appropriate measures are not taken. I think small and medium enterprises here, but also big corporations. The last breeds of Macro.Viruses are just a hint of what may soon happen. Most of these viruses only slowed down servers to a halt, but what will happen when they start to really get nasty?
The goal of this paper is to present some strategies that can (and should) be implemented in corporate or non-corporate networked sites using Microsoft products as operating systems in order to maximize overall virus protection of said sites. I state here sites using Microsoft products only because it is the most widely virus-attacked platform, but the strategies described here could be applied in other platforms subject to virus infections. Also note that the strategies that I am about to describe have been applied on the most part with McAfee antivirus software, ranging versions 2.X to 4.X, which was the product used at my workplace at the time I was there. This is mostly a recollection of the experiences and results that I had made at the time and, and I present here the results I had achieved from such a setting. This document should be in *no way* a starting ground as to if McAfee or Norton (or any other virus scanning software) is the better virus scanner, nor is it to be ground to Microsoft bashing. Commercial products mentioned here are so only because these are the products that were used at the time, and in no way should be considered as my preferences over other products.
This document is presented to anyone who has interests in computer security, network administration, virus prevention and computing in general.