I remember calling into a radio computer talk show and saying I believed the Anti-Virus software companies seem to cause the panic and hype over viruses. This was many years ago and the host agreed with me.
Then about 5-6 years ago I got my first virus. It was a boot com virus, just made some weird things happen to my drives. Downloaded a free software package and got rid of it. Since then I have had maybe 9-10 viruses in total. And I download a pile of files and programs, freeware, shareware, etc...
I run anti-virus software after my first virus experiance, and out of last 9 viruses, only one or two were bad ones, but the software took care of them. (Norton Antivirus)
I am not paranoid about viruses, just paranoid about backing up. Because no matter how much experience you have with computers, you will lose data one day because of software / hardware failure, or just accidentally messing things up all by yourself. Backup is at the top of the list when it comes to protecting your data.
Making a backup routine and STICKING with it is hard, but will pay off one day, believe me.
MM, I think your last comments about safe computing are 100% correct. |
