Tech Support: Memphis Annual Conference, The United Methodist Church

Virus Control
Page Maintained by Bill Lawson
Updated: 11/09/2004 09:04 AM

Free Anti-Virus Programs
Virus Prevention & Recovery

Current Virus Alert Status: Medium
As of 11/09/04 09:04:53

Info Library of recently Updated Viruses, Trojans & Worms, and Hoaxes

Virus Alert: One of the things the Klez virus family does is "spoof the From: field" so that an email appears to have been sent from someone randomly selected from the address book of the infected computer. (i.e., the person who the email appears to be from is not the person whose computer is infected). It also disables anti-virus software. Click here for more info on this virus, circulating now.

Don't delete jdbgmgr.exe -- It is not a virus.
Click here for info from McAfee about this hoax

Here are some Free Anti-virus programs:
- Vcatch
  To install, click download, save to your desktop, and after the download is complete, click to open. During installation, there are some check boxes you may want to unclick if you don't want to install the additional free programs that come with Vcatch. When the installation is complete, enter your email address on the configuration screen and click OK. The database definitions for this program are updated automatically whenever you are online. (Vcatch is free because it pops up ads during the daily update).
- Grisoft AVG
  To install, download and follow the instructions... there are a few more steps involved. There are no popup ads during updates, however a tag-line is added to the end of each outgoing message notifying the recipient that the message is certified virus-free. Database updates are free also.
- McAfee Stinger
  To install, download and run the file. This is a limited purpose anti-virus program, in that it only checks for and removes those viruses which are known to disable scanning software.

- You can download this free "Stinger" program from McAfee, which checks for and removes specific viruses, including Klez, that are known to disable scanning software. It has its own database and scanning engine, so it can remove a virus that may have disabled a normal anti-virus program and restore it to proper functioning. XP and ME users will need to disable system restore before running Stinger, then re-enable afterwards. This is a free program, and operates independently of any other scanning programs.
- This version of Stinger (updated 1/28/04) was released to combat very prevalent threats that are capable of disabling out of date security software. It includes detection for all known variants of W32/SQLSlammer, W32/Lirva, W32/Yaha, W32/Bugbear, W32/Elkern, and W32/Klez

Virus Prevention & Recovery

Access your email box via the web to filter, review, and delete unwanted or suspect messages before downloading them in your email program to your computer. If your email provider doesn't offer web access, use MailMan for free, fast, no-advertising access to your email.
Don't open any attachments you are not already expecting without confirming what they are first with the person you are receiving the message from.
Upgrade to IE 6 to fix the security problem that allows some attachments to be automatically opened
Update your virus scanning software database to the latest version. One free option is to install Vcatch, a free, easy to install virus scanning program that automatically updates its database of virus definitions. Another option is to subscribe to the McAfee Online Clinic and keep your virus database up-to-date. Norton's and other producer's have similar programs.
Click here for a list of freeware antivirus programs.
If you don't want to keep your virus database up-to-date, you can remove most viruses manually following the instructions McAfee furnishes for "manually removing the virus" in their detail page on each virus. However, this approach can lead to other problems, and still leaves your computer vulnerable to re-infection by any virus in circulation. Unless you're just flat broke, keep your database current.

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And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:17