Best Practices to Help Safeguard Your Computer from Viruses

• Install and configure an anti virus program like Network Associates Virus Scan or Symantec’s Norton Anti Virus programs to help protect your system. If your computer was issued through Information Technology, this has already been done.
• New viruses are discovered almost every day. Configure your anti virus program to or manually do or daily checks for anti virus updates. If your computer was issued through Information Technology, this has already been done.
• Using your anti virus program, scan your computer (all files) to check for viruses on a regular basis. I recommend a daily check, minimally do a weekly scan. You can configure your anti virus program to automatically perform these scans for you. If your computer was issued through Information Technology, this has already been done.
• Avoid direct disk sharing with read/write access unless there is absolutely a business requirement to do so.
• Always scan a floppy diskette from an unknown source for viruses before using it.    
• Back-up critical data and system configurations on a regular basis and store the data in a safe place.