Time and time again, my phone goes or an email drops onto my machine. Someone’s machine has just been hit by a virus – can we help? And every time I ask ‘Have you been practicing safe sex?’ I’m hit by the blank answer, ‘Eh, I think so’.

There really is no excuse for not protecting your computer – in the same sort of way you would do with any personal hygiene matter. Elsewhere, on this page we try and give out some sensible advice on keeping your computer running fresh and healthy. The more people who take sensible precautions, the less time I for one will have to waste chasing around to someone’s home or business to undertake what are often hours of work cleaning up after the flood.

At the start of a new school year, and while looking at making your computer safe, it seems a good time again to advise both parents and young people that, while the Internet is a fantastic place to roam, some of it is a jungle and there are some very nasty surprises lurking for the unwary. Although I mentioned the NCH website in the Christmas issue, I feel that any parent of children and young people who go on line should visit this site. It might just keep them from harm.

Normally, I dump pop-up windows as soon as I am aware of them kicking into life but one on the NCH website slipped through my net. It opens up with what looks like a chat room message coming through with a seemingly harmless message from a friend. The next mini page in black with white text simply states ‘This is how easy it is for a paedophile to get into your home’. The final frame states that one in five children who use chat rooms have been approached by a paedophile. The site takes a no-nonsense approach to supplying information. It has very useful advice set out in a simple clear language. So take some time out and pay it a visit. ( www.nch.org.uk )

Having put the boot into Hackney Council over their website in the last issue, I by chance had a chat with one of the new council web team as I was speaking to the Hackney Press Office on other matters. The feedback, was that, yes, they are well aware that a lot of the older parts of the website need serious attention. And that, as and when funding could be brought to bear, these areas would be brought up to date. Even he was amazed at the fact that it took over fifty standard MS Word pages to dump the text from a typical month’s ‘What’s On’ but he reassured me that this was one of the future priorities to be tackled.

He did remind me that the planning department site, of which I have often complained in the past, had in fact been the first local council planning web site in the country which allowed searches of current applications. The problem had been that it in many ways it was too successful for its own good. The site and the technology behind it had just not been strong enough or large enough to cope with either the number of hits or the amount that quickly built up. The good news is that matters are firmly in hand and that a new bigger, better site with real room to grow is now well on the way. ( www.hackney.gov.uk )

Protect your computer from viruses and worms by taking a few simple precautions:

by Zoran Jevtic

Never, ever open an email attachment, unless you are sure it came from a sender you can trust. If in doubt, just delete it. Youcan always mail back the person and askwhether they enclosed an attachment. The majority of viruses are trigged by attachments. If the virus happens to be a worm, it will mail itself to everyone in youraddress book, without any action on yourpart. If the recipients have no antivirus protection, they too will get hit as will everyone else in their address book and so on... This is how these things spread throughout the Internet so fast!

Install antivirus software.
Once on your system, it will help prevent the spread of viruses. If you don’t want to spend money on big brands , decent antivirus programs can be downloaded for free. Check www.grisoft.com product download section or www.pandasoftware.com/activescan    for example. It is important to keep your virusupdates current because, as each new virusis identified, it is added to the virus database. When a virus tries to enter your machine, the antivirus program checks it against the listof all known variants. If your virus list is outdated, the antivirus program won’t be able to tell whether it is a new virus and it will allow it through to infect your computer.

Beware of hackers and programs that spy into your computer.
This happens when a program, game or file-sharing silently installs components that monitor your activity onthe web, sending information such as your passwords or even credit card numbers, backto the originator. Install only programs you know you can trust or do some research first. Always download the latest critical updates for your operating system, as people who develop new viruses find andexploit weaknesses in system or application software. These updates are designed to thwart the hackers.

Finally, if you have a broadband, the best and most secure way to protect yourself is to get someone to set up a hardware firewall router for you. This not only enables you to cheaply run several computers on a single internet connection at the same time (no more arguments on who can go online!) but also makes you totally invisible to the hackers. With a router, all a hacker can find is a router box, with no system, disk drives or any data, rendering you unattractive – which on the net, is a good thing!