High-frequency viruses

Family computer users, get ready: Our anti-virus software is in for a challenge. "Instead of releasing Windows viruses intermittently, many creators of worms and trojans are pumping them out with increasing frequency," the BBC reports. "For a while new variants of one virus, called Mytob, were appearing every hour." The BBC cites computer-security experts as saying that if anti-virus companies could produce patches within three hours of a virus's first appearance, we'd be fine, but they typically take 10 hours to do so. What this means is that families can no longer unthinkingly rely on their anti-virus software and services. Ideally, whoever hears about a new virus circulating needs to tell the rest of the family, and make sure everybody remembers not to click on attachments in either email or instant messages. Meanwhile, ZDNET reports on another budding trend in online pests: recon, or vulnerability assessment, worms. They're sent out to "check computers for security flaws and relay the information back to the author." All we can do about these is follow the three cardinal rules of PC security: anti-virus software, firewall (e.g., Outpost or ZoneAlarm, both free), and keeping up-to-date with Microsoft's patches (there's a major one coming this week).