Computer viruses   Christine Orshesky  Reproduced with
permission from IBM Copyright (1999) by International Business
Machines Corporation.  As Dr Richard Ford pointed out in his
article "I'm protected, Right?" published in Antivirus Online in
December 1996, there appears to be an overwhelming misconception
of what viruses are, how viruses spread, and how to protect a
given computer from an infection. In addition, there is a
misconception that an anti-virus product will protect a given
computer from all viruses (known and unknown) once the product
is installed. These misconceptions extend well beyond the sales
person in the computer software department - they truly extend
to many others in the information age including technical
support, system administration, and, of course, computer users.
Having worked in several technical support and virus response
environments, I have come to the conclusion, that the adage 'an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' has gone
unrealized in many organizations when i