Precautionary
measures can be taken through:
- Activity Monitoring Programs: They try to
prevent infection before it happens.
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- Scanners: They are the most convenient and
widely used anti-virus programs. But they are not totally reliable as many viruses can
bypass them.
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- Integrity Checkers or Modification Detectors:
They are not virus specific and so can detect new viruses without being constantly
updated. E.g. ASP Integrity Toolkit (commercial), and Integrity Master and VDS (shareware)
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Other anti-virus techniques are:
- Create a special MBR to make the hard disk inaccessible when
booting from a diskette
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- Encryption of files with decryption before execution
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- Use of the 3 Diskette fences. One prevents executables from
being accessed from floppy drives while another prohibits the use of unscanned files or
diskettes. And the third uses a non-standard diskette format so diskettes can only be used
on machines using the appropriate anti-virus software. E.g. D-Fence, Virus Fence, TbFence,
DiskNet
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One should also consider the following things:
- Make sure you have a clean boot disk, test with the latest
antivirus software.
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- Use reputable, up-to-date and properly installed anti-virus
software regularly.
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- Always run a memory-resident scanner to monitor disk access
and executable files before they're run.
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- Check all new systems and all floppy disks when they're
brought in with a good virus-scanning program.
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- Scan pre-formatted diskettes before use.
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- Make sure your data is backed up regularly.
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Ideally one should have a combination of the above
mentioned techniques. |
