Virus writing is now the international sport of the Internet underground fraternity. The NZ Y2K Readiness Commission is urging every computer user to make sure they have anti-virus software installed. It was said in 1999 that there was a very high chance computer hackers and "virus freaks" would use the Millennium as a chance to wreak havoc on computer users around the world.
The commission had information that elements within the 'virus community' had launched a competition to see who could come up with the best Y2K virus.
The war still goes on!!
There is no earthly use in having a virus checker that is only equipped to look for viruses that existed last year. New ones that are designed to defeat your existing protection system (if you have one) are turning up at the rate of 100 a week. You must have a checker with an update facility which you need to use regularly.
There is a new generation of viruses that does not require an attachment to be opened in order to activate and infect your computer.
There are viruses which can be activated on specific dates. These can be benign (a pop-up graphic), but they can also be designed to do extreme damage, such as formatting your hard drive.
There are new viruses wrapped in unusual compression formats which are designed to sneak through your protection system without being recognised.
You may already have these in your computer waiting to pounce.
What can you do about it?
If you think you already have a virus checker, look for it on your Start/Programs list.
Highlighting it should cause it to split into separate functions e.g. Check, Help, Update, Uninstall. Clicking on the Update option will put you on the Internet to the supplier and update your Virus Signature Data files.
If there is no Update option and a check of the Help file doesn't reveal any other method of obtaining regular updates, then that virus checker is not worth your disk space. Uninstall it and go to the 'Downloads' page on this web site. There, you can download the free for personal use 'Computer Associates' InoculateIt virus program which provides updates at regular intervals. (usually once a week - with email reminders and advice).
Note: We have no affiliation with Computer Associates, we just consider it the easiest, most convenient, ubobtrusive and effective anti-virus system in the known universe!!
If you get reports of a new virus in your email
Ensure the threat is real before firing off warning emails; in this way, you avoid spreading any of the common virus hoaxes--- the sort of thing that says, "IBM and AOL today confirmed the existence of a terrible new virus---send this email to everyone you know!" Those kinds of emails are almost always false.
On the Homepage, you will see two links, one for hoax viruses and one for real viruses. There is an alphabetical list for each. It only takes a minute to check the virus out.
The virus/anti-virus war is now on in earnest. To ignore it is akin to knowing that your town is full of arsonists who are specifically targetting your house, yet you still procrastinate about your smoke alarms and fire insurance.
Somebody can be looking in while you are looking out. When you hook up to the Internet, your ISP gives you a temporary IP number as identification . This will look something like "203.96.93.171". There are scanners which can scan these IP addresses in the same way as your car radio scans the FM band to find stations. Once they scan past your number and find you open, they can have more control over your computer than you have yourself.There are good guys and bad guys out there on the Internet. Steve Gibson is one of the good guys. With his sophisticated software, he can probe your computer and tell you exactly how vunerable your computer is to the bad guys
The following is a GRC (Gibson Research Corporation) chart of an attempt to access the three networked computers at Wellington Community Mall.
I'm sure that Steve would agree that this is about as good as it can get without installing a firewall and this is what you should be aiming for at the very least.
Your computer faces two major security concerns on the Internet. 
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