Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cimshop!davidm From: cimshop!davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga Viruses Message-ID: Date: 14 Oct 90 06:03:54 GMT References: <2177.2715c978@cc.nu.oz.au> Sender: news@cimshop.UUCP Distribution: comp Organization: Consilium Inc., Mountain View, California. Lines: 38 In-reply-to: abair@turbinia.sps.mot.com's message of 13 Oct 90 01:01:03 GMT In article abair@turbinia.sps.mot.com (Alan Bair) writes: With all the recent talk about viruses and the fact that I have a new 3000 that I am acquiring software for, I would like to ask a few questions about virus protection. 1. I have VirusX, but it only seems to check floppies, not my hard drive. Is this common with other virus detection programs or am I doing something wrong? VirusX is a good program that not only checks floppy boot blocks, but also scans memory for any telltale signs of a virus in memory (active or dormant). This seems to be as good a method as possible for stamping out viruses without being overly protective. The only thing is that VirusX must keep up with all the viruses and how they look in memory. A virus could get by this by being newer than VirusX is prepared for and not being a bootblock virus (VirusX automatically identifies altered bootblocks, even if it doesn't know why). 4. Finally, I already mentioned VirusX, what other virus detection/removal programs should I have? I think VirusX includes another program in its distribution that can help find viruses that VirusX can't catch. It makes the assumption that at the point where you first use the program, you don't have any viruses. It then analyzes and remembers the sizes of all executables on your disks. After that, it compares the sizes of the executables with what it remembers and alerts you to differences. The idea is that VirusX will handle the bootblock viruses (which booting from might start a virus in memory), so this program catches any altered programs that might result in a virus being started. This doesn't catch any new programs you put on the disk that has a virus that tricks VirusX. -- ==================================================================== David Masterson Consilium, Inc. uunet!cimshop!davidm Mtn. View, CA 94043 ==================================================================== "If someone thinks they know what I said, then I didn't say it!"