It is essential to protect your computer against viruses and similar malicious software.
Some protective software bundles antivirus and antiparasite functionality; some does not.

Scores of thousands of viruses, trojans and worms exist, and more are created every day. They can be transmitted via email, over the Web, on networks, and on portable media such as flash drives and CDs. There is a huge range in the effects caused by malicious software.

Email-borne viruses are often disguised so as to appear to be sent from people you know.

Although you can avoid many viruses by practicing "safe computing", increasing numbers of Websites are compromised without their owners' knowledge. To protect yourself, run antivirus software.

Antivirus software is available from many vendors. You can purchase a disk in a store, or download it from the Web. Some vendors offer free trials; AVG and Avast offer a free version.

Windows users should download Microsoft's free Security Essentials.

No matter what product you use, remember:

• Antivirus software uses system resources (disk space, memory, processing power). Check system requirements of a product before buying to make sure your machine can handle it.
• Make sure the product you buy will run on your operating system (e.g. your version of Windows)
• Update regularly via the Internet. Virus writers are busy around the clock. Although antivirus vendors can predict some possible future virus code and protect against it, they can't predict everything. Most vendors provide a year of updates.
• Don't count on any product to be 100% effective - continue practicing "safe computing".
• All software, including antivirus products, can have unforeseen side-effects, such as slowing your system, problems in downloading mail, or conflicts with other software or peripheral devices.
• The BEC runs anti-virus software on its mailserver to protect you against infected email messages. But you also MUST run antivirus software on your own computer.
  
  There are many Internet resources for further information:
  
• An overview of computer viruses and antivirus software
• Antivirus.com
• National Institute of Standards and Technology, Computer Security Division
• US DOE Computer Incident Advisory Capability
• Hoaxbusters (they're not all real)
• Independent tests of antivirus software

• Antivir
• Avast
• AVG

• download.com
• Tucows (search for antivirus)