Anti-Virus Overview Online Viruses are a fact of Internet Life

• Every computer in your house should have anti-virus software installed, and running, and up to date.
• AV software will occasionally scan every file on your machine for viruses
• AV software should automatically examine every incoming file (via, floppy disk, email attachment, web download,  peer-to peer download)
• The heart of most AV programs is a “dictionary” of pre-defined viruses which is compared to your files.  The dictionary may have over 60,000 definitions.
• AV programs will also monitor certain sensitive system resources for any changes – You may need to disable AV software when installing certain kinds of programs.

Important: The virus definition dictionary must to be updated frequently (Over 3,000 new viruses were discovered during the first half of 2002)

• Code Red Growth - Watch these animations to see how rapidly this virus infected the world.
• Code Red Scans - shows that Code Red is alive and well after one year.
• SQL Slammer - Analysis from CAIDA and also,  SQL Slammer graphs - graphs show the rapid increase in packet loss as the worm spread.
• SQL Slammer Traffic graph from sans.org.

Anti-Virus Software reviews.

• CNET's Software Section for Anti-Virus Programs - Click on  a product's name to read the "editors review" , but then be sure to also scan through the many comments under "view all User Opinions" - I personally find other user comments very useful, users are actually living with these purchased products.   CNET will also provide  price comparisons of many retailers for most products.
• PC Magazine's Recent Reviews of Anti Virus Products.
• ZDNet - has several resources: "Protect your PC From Viruses",  "Anti-Virus Guide 2002" which includes this comparison table.
• A nice list of Anti-virus Software reviews from firewallguide.com.

Useful Resources:

• How computer Viruses Work .
• antivirus.about.com - a good set of resources and a weekly newsletter .
• Symantec Security Response - library of documents on computer viruses including the top ten list of most common viruses and new viruses to be on the alert for, as well as general virus Q&A. (Symantec = Norton)
• F-Secure Virus Info Center - includes news, hoax warnings, screen shots, and update bulletins.
• Trend Micro Virus Information Center - provides news of new viruses, an encyclopedia, security alerts, weekly anti-virus supports, a place to submit suspicious files.
• anti-trojan - page from firewallguide.com
• Hackfix.org has descriptions on how to configure each anti-virus program.
• Internet Storm Center.
• Hoaxes - wath-out for hoax emails that warn you about viruses.  For example, this hoax tricked people into removing the sulfnbk file.