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RE VIE W Got a Virus? Take An Aspirin or Call A Vet! Most people know the importance of check­ ing incoming discs for viruses but what about email? It is rife with viruses, so look out. If you access the Internet, you need up-to-date anti-Virus software. By ROSS TESTER Every now and then, something happens to make you think you’ve actually beaten Murphy at his own game. This doesn’t happen very often, mind you, but when it does, the feeling is sweet. Such was the case one recent Monday morning, the start of the working week. One of the computer work16  Silicon Chip stations on our network reported a Word macro virus – WM/Goldfish. In the overall scheme of things, Goldfish is not regarded as a particularly nasty virus but it’s a virus just the same. It had not yet manifested itself on screen but if left, this particular virus periodically flashes a message that the goldfish is hungry. If you ignore the message after a while it starts feeding itself on the contents of your hard disc drive. That’s not good. Maybe the same “brain” that conceived this virus also thought of those infernal electronic pets which die if you don’t feed them. But we digress. Why were we caught? Perhaps an explanation of the SILICON CHIP computer network is in order. Most of the workstations run under Windows NT, mainly for its almost near-bullet-proof opera­tion. As a matter of course, we run a virus check over these computers very regularly (which of course was how the virus was found and, more importantly, cleaned off). We also scan each and every floppy disc that goes into those machines. A new computer, though, had been Fig.1: scanning is easy – you just select the drive(s), folder or files you wish to scan and click the Go button. A scan summary appears in the righthand pane. supplied with Windows 95. And as luck (bad!) would have it, this machine was used to read a virus-infected floppy disc from a contributor. (When we rang to warn him, we were told “Oh yeah. I saw that message about the Goldfish being hungry but didn’t know what it meant . . .”) To make matters worse, we didn’t have any current virus checking software to suit Windows 95. So this machine was sitting there with a known virus on it waiting to re-infect the network. What to do? The first step was to remove that machine from the network before turning it on. The second step was to quickly go out and buy anti-virus software to suit Windows 95. As luck would have it, our local “lolly shop” was itself out of stock, so we came back empty-handed. And then it happened: the morning mail arrived and in it was a copy of Cybec ‘s “Vet Net Surfer” Anti-Virus Software for review. Talk about timing! Normally, products for review take some time to be slotted in, to find someone with enough time to do the research, examine the product in detail, arrange photographs and write the article. Vet Anti Virus Software shot to the front of the queue faster than anything in history! About viruses Some viruses are pretty harmless while others are much more sinister and malevolent, capable of wreaking havoc to your com­puter or an entire network. But who is to know which is harmless and which is harmful? So all viruses need to be treated the same way – eliminated as quickly as possible. Vet claims to detect and eradicate all of them. However, as we should all know by now, the maniacs who write and promulgate viruses are at it all the time, so any virus software worth its salt needs to be constantly upgradable. Vet does this by making the latest upgrades available on the internet or by mail but more of that later. Most people who use a computer would know about viruses but they are changing all the time. For example, the type of virus which hit our system, a macro virus, didn’t appear until mid 1995. Yet in just one year, they had become the largest cause of virus outbreaks worldwide! What’s a macro virus? It’s a form of virus which hides within Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. Macros are little routines you can create to streamline tasks within programs and so they are typically incorporated into documents. They’re a great idea but in 1995 some deviant realised they were also great for creating viruses. When you open an infected file the macro virus is activated and can then automatically infect other Word or Excel files as they are opened. If you share files on disc or receive them via email, the macro virus is shared as well. While the latest ver­sions of Word and Excel can warn you of macro viruses and give you the option of opening a file without any macros, they cannot destroy them. Apparently many shareware and freebie virus protec­tion packages, especially older ones, cannot detect macro viruses either. About Vet Vet Anti-Virus Software is Australian-designed and produced and sold around the world. That is a good reason to support it. It was first written back in 1989 by lecturer Roger Riordan to enable students to remove viruses by themselves, rather than tying up University staff. Continually updated, Vet now has around half a million users in more than thirty countries. Vet has a variety of anti-virus software available to suit the needs of individual PC users, business users with standalone or networked PCs and also for network servers. The program we were supplied, Vet Net Surfer, is just one of a number in the range. It’s a full-featured virus protection package which can automatically detect and destroy viruses from virtually any source – infected discs, email attachments, and files down­ loaded from the Internet and bulletin boards; they’re all prime sources of viruses. Vet Net Surfer has a recommended retail price of $99.00 and is available from most computer stores. As its name implies, the Vet Net Surfer package assumes you have access to the Internet. Therefore all April 1998  17 Fig.2 (left): the Vet Properties dialog box lets you configure Vet just the way you want it and set various scanning options. Fig.3 (above) is accessed through the Startup tab of Fig.2 and lets you set the number of files to be scanned each time the machine is booted. upgrades to the pack­ages are downloaded from the ‘net. Once registered with Vet, you qualify for this service free of charge for a year. After that, an additional fee is payable – $40 per annum. Incidentally, also included in the box were versions of Vet to suit DOS and Windows 3.x, along with Windows NT. Vet Premium is directed more towards small business. It contains the same anti-virus software as VET Net Surfer but in this slightly higher-priced offering ($129) the upgrades are mailed to you each quarter so you don’t forget to keep your software right up to date (you can also get them from the ‘net if you wish). Again, this service lasts a year and renewal costs $70 per annum. As well as ‘net access, registered users can also obtain unlimited phone and email support. There are also Vet programs for larger organisations. Vet users include some very large businesses and government bodies, with many thousands of computers being protected. Installation Installation follows pretty much the standard routine these days – go to Start, Run, type in A:setup (our program was sup­plied on floppies but it’s also available on CD-ROM) and let the setup Wizard guide you through the installation. Again, as per most software, you can install a “typical” or a “custom” version. Not having used the software before, we went with the “typical” version. Installation from the two floppies took only a few minutes. Various options are given during the installation process which allow you to choose such things as just how Vet will alert you to the fact that it has found a virus, how it will scan your discs and so on. Another switch tells Vet to scan all files, or only those files which are considered to be “runable”, such as those with bin, com, dll, doc, dot, drv, exe, ovl, xls, xlt and sys extensions. You can add to this list if you wish. In fact, we were most impressed by the amount of user con­trol possible – see Fig.2. You can fully customise the installation to suit your needs, or you can simply allow Vet’s default settings for a typical computer user. You are also given the opportunity to make a “reference disc”, which can be used to reboot your computer complete with anti-virus settings should the worst happen and a nasty virus take over or destroy your hard disc drive’s boot sector. Operation There’s a Vet Anti-Virus package to suit all types of users and organisations and you can download virus update files from the Vet website. 18  Silicon Chip The final part of the installation process is a complete scan of all local disc drives to ensure that they are clear of viruses. To us, this was the Fig.4: Vet Anti-Virus had no trouble identifying and removing the “Goldfish.A” WordMacro virus from an infected floppy disc that had been sent to us. acid test. We knew we had a virus; we even knew which hard disc drive it was on. Would Vet find it? No problems at all. It found it and killed it. Or more correctly, it killed them – at least a dozen different infesta­ tions in various Word files opened the previous Friday and infec­ ted from the same source! After re-booting the computer (part of the in­stallation process), we went back to the floppy disc which we knew was the original source of the virus. The “screen grab” of Fig.4 shows that Vet successfully located and neutralised the virus in all four Word documents on that disc. Just to make sure, we re-ran Vet and it gave the floppy a clean bill of health. Scanning techniques Vet has two main ways to detect viruses: on demand scanning and resident scanning. As the name suggests, demand scanning occurs when you want it to – you must manually select the disc, folder or file to be scanned (for example, when you receive an e-mail attachment or insert an unknown floppy disc). Performing the actual scan is devilishly difficult: you just click the “Go” button and sit back while Vet does everything for you. It takes only a few seconds to check a typical floppy disc and somewhat longer, of course, for a hard disc or CD-ROM. Resident scanning, on the other hand, is automatic and almost transparent to the user. Every time you boot your comput­er, you can have Vet automatically scan a preset number of files (eg, 100) on each of your disc drives for viruses. This scanning function is progressive, so that eventually your entire hard disc is automatically scanned. If you subsequently reboot your comput­er during the day, you can have Vet perform a smaller or even no scan to save time. You can also have Vet automatically eradicate any viruses it finds or warn you that viruses may be present. This is also pretty quick – about 20 seconds in our case – so you won’t have to sit and watch the paint fade on the wall while waiting. Conclusion We had a lucky escape, although the person concerned should have known better. No harm was done in this case; we were able to get rid of the virus before it had a chance to do any damage. But this little episode shows just how easy it is to pick up a virus. If you ever accept a floppy disc from anyone else, download a file from a bulletin board or the ‘net or even receive email, you should have anti-virus software installed. Readers with children using their computers should be especially careful – games copying and swapping, albeit illegal, is rife in schools and is a renowned method of virus transfer. (Most schools and colleges have very firm rules about bringing floppies from home; some have even gone to the trouble of removing floppy drives. But it still happens). And finally, you might think that CD-ROM discs are safe from viruses. They are safer but not safe. There have been some very embarrassed software distributors who have sent out CD-ROMs in the past complete with viruses. And these days, with CD-ROM writers becoming so inexpensive, non-commercial CD-ROMs have to be viewed with just as much suspicion as floppy discs. We are particularly happy with the way Vet installs and operates and can give no better recommendation than to say that we will continue to use it here at SILICON CHIP. Vet Anti-Virus Software is distributed by Cybec Pty Ltd, 1601 Malvern Road, Glen Iris, Vic 3146. Phone (03) 9825 5600; fax (03) 9886 0844. It is also available from Vet Anti-Virus SC Soft­ware, Auckland NZ. April 1998  19