Common questions users ask about virus infection and protection

Q. Is it possible to get a virus from an installation program which came on a CD from a legitimate software producer? 

A. Yes, sadly, computers have been unintentionally infected, even by commercial and shareware installers from reputable software manufacturers. Occasionally, no matter how good the quality checks and certification process at the source, a virus will escape detection during the creation of the original installation CD(s) or disks. That’s why a good anti-virus program will constantly scan your systems during any installation process to ensure that known viruses don’t get through to your PC or Mac from any source.

Q. My anti virus software is set up to do scans weekly and updates once a month. Should it be done more frequently than that?

A. Daily updates are best, weekly updates would be the next best practice. Often known viruses were identified months before they showed up in normal circles. But with most of today’s viruses spreading quickly via email, it can be a matter of days, sometimes hours, from the time a virus is identified until it spreads into the mainstream. As for virus scans, weekly should be sufficient, but since this process runs in the background and doesn’t interfere with your system, you can run in more often. Just schedule it for off-hours when no one is using your computer.