Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tuesday Tip - How to Arrest a Virus

You may think that this has nothing to do with police work, but actually it does. With technical advances in almost every aspect of Law Enforcement, the days of filing paper reports, writing in pencil, completing a 3"x5" index card, or hand writing a dispatch card are long gone. Dispatch systems, records management systems, video and audio recording are just a few examples of where computers and the Internet come into play in the Law Enforcement world. Granted, running a department-wide computer system is far more complex than your home computer network, but they actually mirror each other in many ways. One aspect is preventing a virus or other issue from infecting your computer.

There are great resources on the web that provide explanations of what a virus is, how they infect your computer and how to prevent them. Using your firewall appropriately and scanning your system with a competent virus program are simple steps to make sure that your computer does not fall prey to a virus or worm. Here are just a few such resources;

Some viruses can have the appearance of legitimate programs such as Windows Security but continue to "pop-up" and then lead you to a site that offers a "fix" for a fee. Be aware of such scams and use your anti-virus programs to root them out. You too may someday have to "arrest a virus".

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