Keeping Your Computers Healthy

There has been an escalating number of computer viruses in the last few months. ENTECH has the following recommendations to help your organization maintain a clean technology bill of health.

1. Maintain regularly updated virus protection software. Virus protection software that is not updated really doesn't protect your computer. In fact, if its old enough, it will do nothing but slow your computer down looking for the most malicious viruses of the 1990's. New viruses are being written every day. If you don't have virus protection software on your computer, you can either use the free antivirus software from Grisoft, or you can purchase Norton Antivirus from TechSoup.
2. Be skeptical. On the Internet, or while viewing email, there's an unspoken rule that ENTECH likes to yell out loud: " Never reach for what you're given, especially if you didn't ask for it. " This applies to email attachments, "free downloads", desktop "weather monitors" and other sorts of "computer enhancements". These programs are generally referred to as spyware. They can be removed periodically by programs such as Ad-Aware or Spy-Bot.
3. Update Microsoft Windows. At least once a month, visit windowsupdate.microsoft.com to get the latest patches & fixes for your computer. This may take some time if you haven't done it in a while, but it is well worth the extra protection and stability it will add to your computing environment.
4. Know the dangers of email attachments. Do names like MyDoom, Klez, and NoVar strike fear into your heart? Well, these are viruses that have been floating around the Internet for months now. They are propagated by computers that do not have updated virus protection software, most often unbeknownst to the computer owner. These viruses change the "from" and "to" addresses make them appear to originate from someone found in the infected user's address book. So, you never really know where the virus came from. The short story here is to only open email attachments you are expecting. If you're unsure, call (yes, on the phone) the sender and ask if they really sent it. Again, updated antivirus software will protect you from most infected email attachments.
5. Be protected while surfing. Firewall software such as the free ZoneAlarm can protect your computer from intruders on the Internet. If you don't think anyone would target your computer, you're wrong. If you plug a computer into the Internet these days you will be scanned and flagged as "easily hackable" or "not worth the time" in a matter of minutes, or even seconds. There are thousands of computers all over the world that do nothing but look for other computers without firewalls. Most of these scanning computers are looking to make your computer do their bidding. Did you know that infected computers are often used to send unsolicited email (spam)?
6. Beware the home office. ENTECH has seen many nonprofits that adhere closely to practical protection policies and procedures (that was a mouthful) only to be subverted by a well-meaning employee taking data home and continuing work. The problem here is that the sons & daughters of your faithful employee have installed myriad "free software" programs (see the Be Skeptical bullet above). Upon returning to work that possibly infected document slips past firewalls via a floppy disk in someone's back pocket. The lesson here is to inform your employees that organizational technology policies and procedures follow the organizations data, wherever it may be used. For examples of easy-to-use technology policies, create your own technology policies.

Hopefully these tips have given you a few places to start protecting your computers and keeping the focus on the mission, not the technology. If you have comments for us, please feel free to contact ENTECH.

This article is part of the Knowledge Guide to Nonprofit Technology.